D&D General Bob World Builder Recreates WOTC's "Do You Like Me?" Survey!

[mamba]

Aren't there already RPGs out there with companies that care more than Hasbruh does?

probably

Doesn't the 5RD already make D&D freely available, if for some reason you don't know about the above companies and RPGs?

no, it is a subset of D&D, it eg contains only one subclass per class, one example feat, etc. it is not the PHB minus the art

 

[Velderan]

As one of the youtubers who got shut down, let me come to their defense.

Here are some big things they've done since the OGL debacle:

• Release the 5.1 SRD into the CC.
• Release the 5.1 SRD into four languages.
• Build a whole suite of free after-school resources including downloadable PDF adventures for kids.
• Continue support for outside digital tools like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds even while building their own platform.
• Add D&D support and pledged D&D 2024 support to Foundry – a downloadable and self-hostable VTT.
• Released the 2024 D&D core books in print.
• Offered an non-exclusive license to third-party publishers on D&D Beyond instead of the draconian DMs Guild license.
• Committed to releasing the 2024 D&D rules in the 5.2 SRD in February 2025.

That's a lot of things they've done.

They're not perfect, obviously, speaking as one of the guys who got hosed trying to preview their book for them.

And no, really, we can never rebuild trust and nor should we. They're a 4 billion dollar company with a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. For many of the executives in Hasbro we aren't customers. We are, as Cory Doctory likes to say, inconvenient gut flora.

But there are good folks working at WOTC who love the game and manage to get into positions of authority enough to make Ulysses Pacts they cannot take away later.

Their local game store initiative is pretty cool too! They've taken criticism for not doing enough to support FLGS and while they could probably do more, hopefully this is the start of them doing more to help FLGS remain competitive.

 

[Remathilis]

Yep. Someone once tried to show me one of those once. I walked out in the middle. If people want to torture themselves, go for it. The vast majority of folks will pay for the movie or streaming service.

personally I would not bother watching this, and I doubt it has much of an impact on ticket sales either… probably more than for the PHB though, as you watch the movie once and do so while it is new

I'm glad to know the threshold is "I condone piracy as long as it's poor quality".

 

[mamba]

I'm glad to know the threshold is "I condone piracy as long as it's poor quality".

which is not at all what I said, I said I doubt it has much of an impact on sales and that I would not bother with it, the not condoning part is all you… and if you think WotC made any positive impact there by going after Sly Flourish and Alphastream, I got news for you…

 

[Maxperson]

Just because it means profit for the company doesn’t make it not valuable to us. Supporting multiple VTTs is beneficial to both us and them.

It sort of has to be valuable to us or they wouldn't make a profit. What I am referring to is building trust after the OGL debacle. To do that they need to go above and beyond(not D&D Beyond ), and doing things that benefit us that don't make them profit is a good way to do that. Doing things that are good for them and good for us in order to make profit isn't going above and beyond or earning trust back for what they did.

My point is, saying they’ve done nothing is inaccurate.

There's a difference between doing nothing and doing nothing to earn trust back.

• Release the 5.1 SRD into the CC.

This was done to earn back trust, but it wasn't enough. It bandaged the wound enough to stop the hemorrhaging, but that was it.

• Release the 5.1 SRD into four languages.

This builds a bit more back.

• Build a whole suite of free after-school resources including downloadable PDF adventures for kids.

I don't count this, because it is self-serving. This was done to build up the next generation of buyers, not to build back trust. In my view it's not a bad thing, because businesses need to do things like this in order to survive and make money, but it's not a trust building exercise.

• Continue support for outside digital tools like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds even while building their own platform.

This builds a bit more back.

• Add D&D support and pledged D&D 2024 support to Foundry – a downloadable and self-hostable VTT.

This builds a bit more back.

• Released the 2024 D&D core books in print.

I agree with the others that this isn't something done to build trust. They were never going to stop print and a vocal minority that believed that they would going VTT only doesn't change this into a trust building exercise.

• Offered an non-exclusive license to third-party publishers on D&D Beyond instead of the draconian DMs Guild license.

This is also self-serving. They kinda had to do it because they couldn't stop 3PP and they want to move as much as possible to D&D Beyond.

• Committed to releasing the 2024 D&D rules in the 5.2 SRD in February 2025.

This was another necessary move after the OGL debacle.

After your post I responded that there were a few things you listed that I was unaware of that built some trust back. Some, but not all, and they've made multiple minor bad decisions in the same intervening amount of time between the debacle and now, so what small amount of trust was earned back by those actions was eroded away.

 

[mamba]

• Committed to releasing the 2024 D&D rules in the 5.2 SRD in February 2025.

This was another necessary move after the OGL debacle.

I’d say releasing 5.1 was necessary / unavoidable, 5.2 counts towards rebuilding trust

 

[KYRON45]

It sort of has to be valuable to us or they wouldn't make a profit. What I am referring to is building trust after the OGL debacle. To do that they need to go above and beyond(not D&D Beyond ), and doing things that benefit us that don't make them profit is a good way to do that. Doing things that are good for them and good for us in order to make profit isn't going above and beyond or earning trust back for what they did.

There's a difference between doing nothing and doing nothing to earn trust back.

• Release the 5.1 SRD into the CC.

This was done to earn back trust, but it wasn't enough. It bandaged the wound enough to stop the hemorrhaging, but that was it.

• Release the 5.1 SRD into four languages.

This builds a bit more back.

• Build a whole suite of free after-school resources including downloadable PDF adventures for kids.

I don't count this, because it is self-serving. This was done to build up the next generation of buyers, not to build back trust. In my view it's not a bad thing, because businesses need to do things like this in order to survive and make money, but it's not a trust building exercise.

• Continue support for outside digital tools like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds even while building their own platform.

This builds a bit more back.

• Add D&D support and pledged D&D 2024 support to Foundry – a downloadable and self-hostable VTT.

This builds a bit more back.

• Released the 2024 D&D core books in print.

I agree with the others that this isn't something done to build trust. They were never going to stop print and a vocal minority that believed that they would going VTT only doesn't change this into a trust building exercise.

• Offered an non-exclusive license to third-party publishers on D&D Beyond instead of the draconian DMs Guild license.

This is also self-serving. They kinda had to do it because they couldn't stop 3PP and they want to move as much as possible to D&D Beyond.

• Committed to releasing the 2024 D&D rules in the 5.2 SRD in February 2025.

This was another necessary move after the OGL debacle.

After your post I responded that there were a few things you listed that I was unaware of that built some trust back. Some, but not all, and they've made multiple minor bad decisions in the same intervening amount of time between the debacle and now, so what small amount of trust was earned back by those actions was eroded away.

Why is it that you feel you are entitled to anything from a profit making entity?
What do you contribute to them?

 

[Remathilis]

which is not at all what I said, I said I doubt it has much of an impact on sales and that I would not bother with it, the not condoning part is all you… and if you think WotC made any positive impact there by going after Sly Flourish and Alphastream, I got news for you…

My opinion is that DnD Shorts shat the bed and a lot of good fair use content got caught up in the mix while trying to clean it. And from what I can tell, WotC is trying to sort out the fair use reviews like Sly or Jorphan from the bad actors.

It only takes one to ruin it for everyone

 

[mamba]

Why is it that you feel you are entitled to anything from a profit making entity?
What do you contribute to them?

they want my business, don’t they? So they kind of have to meet me half way. I am not buying something just because they are creating it, I have to be sufficiently interested in the product and not turned off enough by the company to not buy it regardless of interest.

 

[mamba]

My opinion is that DnD Shorts shat the bed

no doubt

and a lot of good fair use content got caught up in the mix while trying to clean it. And from what I can tell, WotC is trying to sort out the fair use reviews like Sly or Jorphan from the bad actors.

they have an odd way of going about it then. If it was fair use, why demand SF blur his video, and if they decided it was fair use after all, why not let him know so he can show the original version again

All they did is alienate some of their biggest fans