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

[TiQuinn]

If it can't be touched in its physical form, it's not real.

Digital possessions are services unless you can actually download the thing you bought. Otherwise you're just a subscriber.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't see a logical path from "WotC is going to have a VTT" to "bad things probably going to happen".

I think in that view you might be in something of a minority.

And if WotC is willing to stop at having a VTT it's probably OK. My concern is that before long they'll insist on becoming the VTT.

 

[KYRON45]

I did not say they would, I only said lootboxes need not be pay-to-win

You can't win D&D. Believe me; i've tried.

 

[TiQuinn]

You can't win D&D. Believe me; i've tried.

You should've rolled up a Coffeelock.

 

[Oofta]

I think in that view you might be in something of a minority.

And if WotC is willing to stop at having a VTT it's probably OK. My concern is that before long they'll insist on becoming the VTT.

The only way I see them becoming the VTT is if they offer a truly amazing tool that's priced right. I guess I only see an issue if they buy out the other VTTs for the sole purpose of shutting them down like Luxotica did so they can charge several times more than their competitors did.

 

[mamba]

The only way I see them becoming the VTT is if they offer a truly amazing tool that's priced right. I guess I only see an issue if they buy out the other VTTs for the sole purpose of shutting them down like Luxotica did so they can charge several times more than their competitors did.

there are other possibilities too, they could also not renew their license with the other VTTs…

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Digital possessions are services unless you can actually download the thing you bought. Otherwise you're just a subscriber.

Even if one can download them, they are transient goods unless one is extremely disciplined on backups and format maintenance.

 

[Mistwell]

I never complained about the ala-carte purchases on D&D Beyond. If I ever saw anyone complain about that, it was extremely rare and there was certainly no outcry in any community I frequented anywhere near the time frame when they decided to pull down ala-carte purchases in April 2024. I don't see any evidence that this was a reaction to a community outcry but I sure did hear an outcry after they removed it.

That was sort of a clever linguistic shift there. I didn't say you complained about ala-carte purchases. I said you complained about the microtransactions.

I think you and some others view ala-carte purchases of that sort as "not microtransactions." I think however WOTC views them as microtransactions, I think they fit most common definitions of microtransactions, I think many people did view them as such and described them as such here and elsewhere.

If we can assume, for the sake of argument, that both WOTC and a meaningful number of people (but not all) viewed those ala-carte purchases as microtransactions, does my argument that I think the people complaining about microtransactions didn't help the cause to keep those things at DNDBeyond make sense?

I wish they were as responsive to the community as you make them out to be. Maybe then they'd release D&D 5e books in PDFs! People complained about that for ten years.

I think the argument about PDFs is sometimes specious and based frequently (but not always) on a several false premises.

First I see people compare WOTC to other TTRPG companies that use PDFs. Those other companies are tiny compared to D&D though in terms of quantity of sales and revenue. I think a primary reason those companies use PDFs is because they literally cannot conceive of being able to afford to build the kind of digital access system that is DNDBeyond. Even WOTC had to buy an entire company to make it happen, and had struggled for years trying to do it before that. Those smaller companies use PDFs because that's what they can afford to provide their consumers, and then make the best of it in their marketing pitches to consumers.

Second, you can create a legal PDF of the books you buy on DNDBeyond, though it takes some extra steps, so it's not really about "losing the books I've bought if they ever pull it!" If that were truly the biggest barrier to a DNDBeyond account those people making such an argument would have overcome it long ago if they really wanted a digital version of those books at that price. Heck, if that were the real barrier someone would have put together software to print to PDF each chapter of a book and then combine it all back together again with a single click - something that's not all that hard to program if there were serious demand for that service.

WOTC responds with real change to people complain about something when it's 1) a frequent complaint, AND, 2) they can see money isn't being spent by consumers on that thing.

But DNDBeyond is seeing massive revenue for WOTC. So they're not seeing #2, and I don't think they ever will. However, I think they did see the ala-carte purchases were relatively small and decreasing over time, pared with microtransaction complaints. And they were seeing DNDBeyond subscriptions go down, pared with complaints about what was being threatened with the OGL. So they responded to those later complaints with change.

I think the reason WOTC isn't responding to the PDF complaints is DNDBeyond provides a better service than a PDF. PDFs are old technology (32 years old now). It's outdated relative to the more modern presentations of digital information. It doesn't present well on a phone and most uses of digital information go through a phone now. It doesn't allow the high levels and ease of interconnectedness of information and searching that modern consumers are used to these days when consuming text based information. PDFs are the equivalent to a DVD in a world dominated by Streaming. Sure, some subset of consumers like PDFs like they like DVDs, but most modern audiences prefer what DNDBeyond offers in flexibility and immediacy and interconnected data and presentation on their phone or other devices, like they prefer the on-demand nature and presentation on any device (even lacking a DVD player) and overall ease of Streaming.

And it shows in the purchasing behavior of WOTCs consumer base. People like DNDBeyond. If I had to guess, there is more money-motivated consumer pressure on WOTC to make a 3e version of DNDBeyond, than there is money-motivated consumer pressure on WOTC to make PDFs of 5e. Indeed, I don't know this for a fact it's purely speculation, but I would not be at all surprised if Paizo raised the question internally of what would happen if WOTC started to use the OGL to support Pathfinder core rules on DNDBeyond. And further, what would happen if WOTC started to convert their 5e adventures to Pathfinder on DNDBeyond as well. I cannot say for certain this was one motivating factor behind Paizo first moving to 2e, and then moving to the ORC license version of 2e. But I can say that the ORC license version of 2e is less open than 1e Pathfinder was, and less vulnerable to what I just described.

 

[Oofta]

there are other possibilities too, they could also not renew their license with the other VTTs…

That is a possibility I forgot to mention. Not sure it would make the the VTT as much as simply piss off a bunch of people.

 

[mamba]

But DNDBeyond is seeing massive revenue for WOTC. So they're not seeing #2, and I don't think they ever will. However, I think they did see the ala-carte purchases were relatively small and decreasing over time, pared with microtransaction complaints. And they were seeing DNDBeyond subscriptions go down, pared with complaints about what was being threatened with the OGL. So they responded to those later complaints with change.

I do not think that removing the a-la-carte purchases had anything at all to do with complaints about microtransactions and everything with not generating enough revenue to be worthwhile. They did not remove any other microtransactions after all.

WotC is embracing MTs, whether some people complain or not

I think the reason WOTC isn't responding to the PDF complaints is DNDBeyond provides a better service than a PDF.

according to whom? And why is this an either/or? They serve different goals