D&D (2024) 2024 is out...and yet.....where are the threads?

[Reynard]

No.
There's no reasonable understanding of ethics that requires a creator to give away copies to the specific people you want rather than those the creator wants.
Having a limited number of printings available at a special time isn't unethical either.

I'll review my Aquinas, Avicenna, Hobbs, Kant, Mill, etc. But I don't expect to find support for this position put forth here.

I didn't say anything about ethics. I just said they were weaponizing FOMO -- specifically to drive Beyond tier subscription increases, since those subscribers will get their books early. It's just marketing, but let's not pretend it isn't.

 

[mamba]

Ok. But the influencers didnt write the Players Handbook. WotC did.

The book is part of the D&D tradition and of interest to every member of the D&D community.

Gatekeeping this valuable community resource feels ethically problematic.

no, it absolutely doesn’t, I can buy it at GenCon and not share it with anyone and there is no problem whatsoever.

WotC even can send me a copy with no strings attached (which they do for YTers) and I am still not under any obligation to even talk about it existing

 

[bedir than]

I didn't say anything about ethics. I just said they were weaponizing FOMO -- specifically to drive Beyond tier subscription increases, since those subscribers will get their books early. It's just marketing, but let's not pretend it isn't.

you also called it gatekeeping while supporting the claim of it being unethical.

it's not gatekeeping to not give everyone everything for free. Roll20 also had early access for preorders. So does your local gaming store.

 

[Yaarel]

Isn't it WotC "gatekeeping" it by providing specific influencers copies.

WotC is fine. I assume WotC intended for the influencers to make the Players Handbook content known.

It is the influencers who seem to "hide the ball" when talking "about" the Players Handbook. They force D&D players to rely on them personally and only access partially what they happen to care about. There are exceptions, such as @SlyFlourish. And negotiable considerations: such as Treantmonk who has laser focus on the 2024 mechanics, and who does quote the mechanics verbatim and comprehensively when analyzing them.

But, if D&D Shorts would forgive me: If WotC was doing what he is doing, namely turning the D&D tradition into a walled garden behind a paywall ... would he really not critique WotC for this behavior? And yes, it is for a limited time, until the book is widely available − even a CC SRD! But still.


[Edit]:

Apparently, Hasbros D&D Creator Team Relations sent out emails to the influences with new rules asking them to not show more than 75% of a two-page spread at a time. This is why some of their videos "went private". I was blaming the influencers for the "gatekeeping", but it was Hasbros concerns about stitching a digital book together that was causing this gatekeeping. Not the influencers.

 

[Reynard]

you also called it gatekeeping while supporting the claim of it being unethical.

it's not gatekeeping to not give everyone everything for free. Roll20 also had early access for preorders. So does your local gaming store.

I didn't call it gatekeeping. You might have noticed I was quoting @Yaarel in fact. You may have even noticed that I was kind of being dismissive of the idea.

Or not, if you were poised to whiteknight a corporation for no discernable reason.

 

[LordEntrails]

(nevermind)

 

[Umbran]

Where did the hype go?

There are only about 3000 people who have the PHBs, IIRC, and they are all in the middle of GenCon. They did not pay all the travel and hotel expenses to take images of book pages and talk about them on the internet.

 

[CleverNickName]

The OP must have a lot of people blocked. I see almost three dozen threads tagged with "D&D (2024)" on the first page alone...compared to 10 that have the "D&D General" tag, and only one with the "D&D 5E" tag.

 

[RedRumi]

They're enjoying the rest of their Gencon first?

 

[bedir than]

Isn't it WotC "gatekeeping" it by providing specific influencers copies, as well as weaponizing FFOMOvia a very limited GenCon release?

I didn't call it gatekeeping.

But yes, you did. And then you decided to use insults rather than stand behind your own words.