D&D (2024) D&D Pre-orders; this is sad

[Argyle King]

Question:

For those viewing WoTC's business model as unethical, what have you done in the past 1 year, past 5 years, or past 10 years to financially support companies who are (in your view) ethical?

Note: I'm passing no judgment on WoTC either way. I only want to know what steps consumers of ttrpgs have taken to support other companies and other products.

 

[billd91]

There should be government backed incentives to make companies invest in people and the nation. I wish their were tax breaks for investing in local workers, improving the business etc.

Oh, there are. One of the biggest tax breaks is that investment in the company itself typically deducts from taxable profits. But once the SEC stops looking at stock buybacks as stock price manipulation, it becomes SO ATTRACTIVE to buy back stock as 1) an investment in the company and 2) a way to keep C-suite stock portfolios richer and fatter so they can light even more cigars with $100 bills and buy RVs for SCOTUS justices.

 

[ECMO3]

I was away for a full week for vacations. I'm catching up on the news, I saw this, and I felt really sad.

View attachment 370496
I'll be transparent. I grew tired of 5E about three years ago and haven't touched it since. Solely for these reasons. But the whole OGL debacle and all the other red flags that I saw pop in the last week made it very clear that, interest or not in the rules, I ought to stay away from the game and the company owning it.

However, the game still has a massive influence on the industry and community of TTRPG so I take interest in the news. And seeing this preorder page is exactly what I feared would happen many months ago.

For context, I work in the video games industry. It's an industry that's incredibly creative and remarkable in many ways. But it's also an industry that has been strangled for almost a decade by rapacious capitalism and greed. Games get more and more pricier to develop and the marketing budgets are exploding, all in the goal of projecting value and convincing customers that your game is the one to buy. These high cost lead companies to hire rapacious CEOs that take away tens of millions of dollars in salaries, while cutting away employees in wave and cribbling games with questionable monetary practices. So many design decisions are taken not being it'll make a better game and give you more fun, but because it'll make you feel bad and get you to spend. It's a big disgusting.

And for those that don't know, there's been records massive layoff in the industry. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs in the past 18 months.

The image above? It's exactly the first step into the same model. I don't know how the TTRPG industry will react, the composition and balance of its ecosystem is quite different than video games; however, it cannot be positive. Less than a decade ago, a video game offering a DLC too soon after launch was questionable; did the devs cut some content from the game to make you spend more? Now, every release has such practices. Early accesses, different tiers, fear of missing out, exclusives.

You used to be able to buy one product. You buy the book, you have the book, you play the game. You want more book? There's more books. It won't be the same. And, rightfully so, many will say "but you can still just buy the book and ignore all of that!". The thing, is that if my experience proves me right, the kind of practices detailed above will be embraced and accepted by enough people that it will prove the executives right. "That's where the money is." And it will continue to drift in that direction. With video games, you cannot just "buy the game" and ignore the naughty word. Your product is already cut in pieces. You pay the full price, get a part of it. And the design of your products is affected by it. They do not design the best product possible, they design the product they can monetize the most.

I guarantee that in a set number of years, it will all be subscription based and you will own nothing and be happy.

I will anxiously be looking at the general reception of all of this. I wasn't planning to, but I now know 100% that I will not buy any more Wizards of the Coast products. I cannot participate in telling them that this path is the best one for us, because it's not.I

I will look even more anxiously to the rest of the ecosystem, the OSR, the indie games, the other systems like Call of Cthulu, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, etc. Will they follow suit? Will it affect it? How?

I can't be the only one shaken by this.

IMO the problem is not Capitalism, the basic problem is the concept of "intellectual property".

IF we lived in a world where someone could legally copy and sell another's ideas or code or art or publications then we would not have the problem we have today with gouging and monetizing products. Companies would be prevented from doing this because other companies would undercut them on their own product.

I realize this position is unpopular but for the life of me I can't understand how it benefits society to say that only WOTC is allowed to publish a D&D Players Handbook or how it helps society that I can't copy someone's artwork and sell it myself. IMO the only people this helps are the people who own that "intellectual property".

WOTC could not send Pinkerton thugs to someone's house if they did not own exclusive rights to the content to start with.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For those viewing WoTC's business model as unethical, what have you done in the past 1 year, past 5 years, or past 10 years to financially support companies who are (in your view) ethical?

Note: I'm passing no judgment on WoTC either way. I only want to know what steps consumers of ttrpgs have taken to support other companies and other products.

I'm not sure WotC is less ethical than a lot of other companies -- many of which, like Nestle, I avoid supporting at all costs -- but I purchase digital goods from itch.io and Bandcamp when possible, as they pass along much more of their proceeds to the creators than their competitors do. (Bandcamp also still periodically runs Bandcamp Fridays, where all of the proceeds from their sales go straight to the artists, which is great.)

But it's not realistically possible to do that 100% of the time, even if one were inclined to. As always, there is no (100%) ethical consumption under capitalism.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I realize this position is unpopular but for the life of me I can't understand how it benefits society to say that only WOTC is allowed to publish a D&D Players Handbook or how it helps society that I can't copy someone's artwork and sell it myself. IMO the only people this helps are the people who own that "intellectual property".

Wow.

So, in this scenario, what's the incentive to create anything, when Disney or some other big corporation can swoop in, take it for themselves and sell it with much better production values and distribution than you could ever manage?

 

[Belen]

I'm sorry you got piled on at the start of the thread.

I just have a clear vision of how it could go (and how I think it will) because of my own experiences.

But I'm open to knowing why some people are not worried and think it will be fine.

The dramatic tone of my original post aside, I'm seeking discussion.

I just do not see it happening in the TTRPG space. First, WOTC has a track record of backing down on just about anything. Second, they have experience (4e) with people walking away and going to a competitor with business practices they prefer.

I am sure they would prefer to go down the "I am a bleep" route but gamers will just walk. There are too many TTRPG companies happy to fill the void versus the video game companies that ALL adopted the same models.

Finally, 99% of GMs think of themselves as mini-designers. People can make TTRPG rules. Most people cannot make their own video games.

 

[pukunui]

My issue isn’t so much the tiers and early access and all that. My issue is that I want the special FLGS covers, which aren’t part of the preorder.

So if I want both hard copies and the DDB versions, I have to pay full price for both because the digital + physical bundle with the discounted prices only applies to the standard cover books.

When I bought my copy of the Theros book from my FLGS, I was given a discount code for the DDB version. It would be nice if they would continue that practice, especially for the FLGS exclusive versions.

 

[Belen]

Oh, there are. One of the biggest tax breaks is that investment in the company itself typically deducts from taxable profits. But once the SEC stops looking at stock buybacks as stock price manipulation, it becomes SO ATTRACTIVE to buy back stock as 1) an investment in the company and 2) a way to keep C-suite stock portfolios richer and fatter so they can light even more cigars with $100 bills and buy RVs for SCOTUS justices.

Stock buybacks are not investments. They are shareholder profits. They are generally funded by debt and that just weakens the company and devalues them. They never should have changed the rules to make it easier to do buybacks.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My issue isn’t so much the tiers and early access and all that. My issue is that I want the special FLGS covers, which aren’t part of the preorder.

So if I want both hard copies and the DDB versions, I have to pay full price for both because the digital + physical bundle with the discounted prices only applies to the standard cover books.

This feels like an oversight, since WotC is letting game stores sell the books two weeks early. They could probably arrange some sort of DDB + FLGS sales model, but I'm guessing that's a lot of additional logistics to set up and will take time to do, if WotC is inclined to.

But yeah, DDB + FLGS version is my preferred bundle as well.

 

[billd91]

WOTC could not send Pinkerton thugs to someone's house if they did not own exclusive rights to the content to start with.

Considering the Pinkerton debacle was about physical product, I'm not sure how intellectual property rights actually figure into it.