WotC New D&D survey from WotC as part of the 50th anniversary year.

[Parmandur]

My theory is they realized they pissed off their customers with the OGL thing, and they want to track whether their Apology Tour efforts are working to rebuild their reputation. This survey sets the baseline results and then a while into the future they do a similar survey to see whether things are improving.

If future survey results show improvement then they'll know their efforts to play nice were worth it. If there is no improvement but the books are still selling then they'll know they can drop the pretenses because (some) people will always hate them but (most) people will buy the products anyways.

If WotC was collectively that Machiavellianly clever, the OGL drama wouldn't have ever happened.

 

[mamba]

My theory is they realized they pissed off their customers with the OGL thing, and they want to track whether their Apology Tour efforts are working to rebuild their reputation. This survey sets the baseline results and then a while into the future they do a similar survey to see whether things are improving.

If future survey results show improvement then they'll know their efforts to play nice were worth it.

the problem is that the apology tour is way in the past by now, so what improvement do you expect it to still deliver at this point…

The CC SRD and apology tour made me not abandon 5e, but you have not earned back the trust yet, let’s see the 3e SRD in CC and a new, ideally expanded, 2024 SRD.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

If WotC was collectively that Machiavellianly clever, the OGL drama wouldn't have ever happened.

You don't have to be that clever, this is standard corporate stuff. Collect data on your consumers, find out which things impact your bottom line, cut out any expenses that don't drive profits, etc. I'm not giving WotC any great compliments by thinking they're clever enough to do basic corporate data collection

 

[MoonSong]

I have absolutely no such expectations of any company I do business with, beyond avoiding entanglements with formal or direct cooperation with evil. That way lies madness, and living in a community off the grid.

Sending armed goons to someone's home in order to intimidate them into submission is in my definition of evil. Literal criminals do that in my country and it is not pretty. (No seriously, not laughing matter)

 

[Parmandur]

Sending armed goons to someone's home in order to intimidate them into submission is in my definition of evil. Literal criminals do that in my country and it is not pretty. (No seriously, not laughing matter)

Even if I grant that for argumentssake, if I decide to purchase a WotC product t that looks interesting, I am neither formally or directly cooperating in their action here.

I don't believe it is possible to avoid material or remote cooperation with evil (short of living on a fully self-sistained farm in the woods) so I'm not going to dwell on it, even for toy and hobby companies.

I give far more money per annum to Nintendo than I do to WotC, but Nintendo as noted above will destroy someone's life if they commit software piracy, which I'm it a fan of them doing.

 

[Parmandur]

Sending armed goons to someone's home in order to intimidate them into submission is in my definition of evil. Literal criminals do that in my country and it is not pretty. (No seriously, not laughing matter)

And it is really worth noting thst nobody was remotely threatened with physical harm jere: the only threat the Pinkerton made was when the YouTuber said he qas goijg to call the cops, the Pinkerton said the have the Sherriff on speed dial, let's get him down here and make sure we confiscate alm the evidence (cards) for the legal proximity you want robust go that way. No physical harm was implied.

 

[MoonSong]

Even if I grant that for argumentssake, if I decide to purchase a WotC product t that looks interesting, I am neither formally or directly cooperating in their action here.

I don't believe it is possible to avoid material or remote cooperation with evil (short of living on a fully self-sistained farm in the woods) so I'm not going to dwell on it, even for toy and hobby companies.

I give far more money per annum to Nintendo than I do to WotC, but Nintendo as noted above will destroy someone's life if they commit software piracy, which I'm it a fan of them doing.

Look, I'm aware that one cannot avoid everything evil/bad whatever. But I live in the country with seven of the ten most dangerous cities where people who did nothing wrong getting harassed by armed goons is a common and tragic occurrence. To me, this is way too close home for comfort. I understand that we cannot be an island and only get stuff from "ethical" companies, but this is something I really have a hard time following along. It isn't even about morality, it is just distressing.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

It's valid to you, but to me it is triggering. I want my hobbies to be made by companies that feel welcoming and wholesome. Them sending armed goons to a fan's home over what is essentially a toy is too much. There's too much gun violence around me to overlook it.

No guns were involved.

 

[Parmandur]

Look, I'm aware that one cannot avoid everything evil/bad whatever. But I live in the country with seven of the ten most dangerous cities where people who did nothing wrong getting harassed by armed goons is a common and tragic occurrence. To me, this is way too close home for comfort. I understand that we cannot be an island and only get stuff from "ethical" companies, but this is something I really have a hard time following along. It isn't even about morality, it is just distressing.

But...that's not what this situation was, at all.

 

[Parmandur]

No guns were involved.

The Pinkerton was armed, I believe, but there wasn't any threat of usage or any other sort of physical violence. The only violence was the implication of getting legal action going, which is a real violence. But that violence was avoided by WotC giving the YouTuber free stuff. The result being "the YouTuber was gifted free stuff" is the main reason I have trouble getting indignant about this: if he answered WotC initial communications, he could have gotten free stuff without a visit from a private eye