D&D General Interview with D&D VP Jess Lanzillo on Comicbook.com

[Oofta]

that wasn’t my question, I am not expecting that either

Okay ... then why ask if I find loot boxes objectionable? Might as well ask if I find raw tomatoes objectionable. I mean, I don't like either one, but it doesn't really matter.

and I do not see this as a parent problem only, If you had be 18 to use the VTT, no problem, if you target 14 year olds, there are stricter limits for what you can do

HASBRO is built on targeting kids 14 years old and younger but they also aren't selling bubble gum flavored vapes. Still the parent's responsibility to control their kid's spending.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Selling digital is easier than physical market. You save the cost of printing, transport and storage, and the product can arrive thanks internet to zones where physicial books can't be sold because they are too small towns. But the rivalry is fiercer in the digital market, and there is a serious risk of losing by fault of piracy. The physicial books can keep the economic value for a longer time.

I guess Hasbro wants D&DB to be the Netflix of TTRPGs. Here my fear is the reputation of the business spoilered by fault of toxic people with bad intentions toward other players.

If I was Hasbro I would worry very much in the case Epic Games wanted to release a Fortnite: VTT. Some videogame studios could release a RRPG, with an added VTT mode (and also tools to produce your own machinima videos).

My own suggestion is D&DB allowing the option to play your Hero Quest board-game with the AI of the VTT working like the DM, but with total freedom for house rules or playtesting ideas like new heroes or monsters.

 

[mamba]

Okay ... then why ask if I find loot boxes objectionable?

because if you did, what makes them objectionable to you is not all that different from what I find objectionable about MTs

HASBRO is built on targeting kids 14 years old and younger but they also aren't selling bubble gum flavored vapes. Still the parent's responsibility to control their kid's spending.

and to me it still is not just the responsibility of the parents

 

[mamba]

You have to have a credit card or banking account of some type to be able to purchase things online. Kids do not have such things unless parents allow them to.

yeah, not ever did kids get access to these without their parents knowledge

If the problem exists or arises, it is a parenting problem and is not unique to D&D. Same applies to anything that can be purchased online.

at no point did I limit it to D&D, I was talking about MTs in general

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And no, I don't buy "but there could be".

You do know WotC popularized the concept of TCGs and have made insane bank from basically this mechanism, right? I'd be interested to know how the digital card-packet-opening in the online version of MtG works, because unless you can trade cards you don't need to other players, that is, functionally, a loot box - only worse because it's part of gameplay! If you can trade excess cards it's rather less bad.

As I said, I think it's unlikely there will be lootboxes or similar, but that's solely due to changes in the legislative environment in Europe and parts of Asia. If this were 10 years ago, I have zero doubt WotC would absolutely have been selling loot boxes or similar.

Who says I spend hundreds of dollars on DDB? But even if I did we have people who admit they've spent thousands of dollars on terrain. If they want to spend their money that way or spending $20 for lunch by going out to eat every day more power to them. But I'm not worried about the "what might happen" bogeyman. If they go a direction I don't want I'll cancel my subscription. My particular hobby is still cheap, especially compared to things like MtG.

That confirms what I was saying, yes. Because you're wealthy enough, you don't have to care about what might happen. You don't even have to think about it. I'm not suggesting you do spend hundreds of dollars on DDB, but you could, and if you lost that, to you that's a major issue or regret.

I'm unsure though if you're missing the point, or intentionally refusing to acknowledge it. That point, to be clear, is that whilst you and other (the people spending thousands on MtG, for example) are largely consequence-free here, that's not really the norm. Especially as most D&D players are in their 20s and 30s, and comparatively vastly worse off than your generation (given I know you're at least 40-something).

So you're good - but others are not so safe, and you seem to dismissing the idea that anyone could be put in a bad position by enshittification here.

Basically your position seems to be, if I understand correctly "I've got mine, so if bad things happen because of enshittification in the future, I'm still fine, and who care about anyone else?". Is that wrong?

 

[LordEntrails]

yeah, not ever did kids get access to these without their parents knowledge


at no point did I limit it to D&D, I was talking about MTs in general

Which has nothing to do with this thread or even this forum. Discussing parenting is not an appropriate topic.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Which has nothing to do with this thread or even this forum. Discussing parenting is not an appropriate topic.

Dude, he's not the one who brought that up, so that's rank hypocrisy. Just say you'd prefer not to discuss that.

 

[mamba]

Which has nothing to do with this thread or even this forum. Discussing parenting is not an appropriate topic.

the topic was MT and why they might be objectionable, no one is giving parenting advice.

I see no reason why we as a society should allow companies to prey on the weak and vulnerable for their financial gain. MTs are one aspect of that, no reason to eg regulate cigarettes but not MTs

 

[Oofta]

because if you did, what makes them objectionable to you is not all that different from what I find objectionable about MTs


and to me it still is not just the responsibility of the parents

Selling products that are a totally optional hobby luxury item that only adds visual effects is in no way the same as loot boxes.

A kid can go out right now and spend nearly two grand on a Lego star destroyer. I don't blame Lego if a kid does that, I blame the parents for not controlling the kid's spending.

 

[Vael]

You do know WotC popularized the concept of TCGs and have made insane bank from basically this mechanism, right? I'd be interested to know how the digital card-packet-opening in the online version of MtG works, because unless you can trade cards you don't need to other players, that is, functionally, a loot box - only worse because it's part of gameplay! If you can trade excess cards it's rather less bad.

There is no way to trade or cash out of MtG Arena, it's entirely a sunk cost. One could with their earlier client, MTG Online, which does support trading and selling and renting cards. But ... that client is ancient and shows it.

Honestly, that's why while I still play paper MTG, I don't touch Arena anymore. It's a good game, but doesn't support Commander, my main format, and I don't care to pay into it to draft, which sucks because it is a very convenient way to draft, my second fav MTG format.

But I think Arena is instructive for looking at Beyond and D&D. Despite doom and gloom about becoming purely digital, paper MTG still sells like hotcakes, with several recent sets breaking sale records. Arena is viewed as a great way to teach MTG and a significant revenue stream, but it has not supplanted paper cardboard crack. They've tried Arena only cards and formats, and those are fine, but also completely ignorable because they aren't in paper and therefore not legal in paper formats. (well, sort of, there's a few cards that have been printed in a recent set, but that's a convention exclusive set ... I don't want to get too into the weeds here).

I just can't see pen and paper play and just buying the books as something going away anymore than I see MTG becoming a digital only card game.