Request: Sub-Forum for WOTC/Hasbro Post

[Snarf Zagyg]

I think @Mistwell has a good point, but I also understand completely where @Morrus is coming from.

It would be a bad look for enworld if it appeared that they were trying to marginalize criticism of WoTC/Hasbro. In addition, the moderators do a difficult and thankless task, and I don't think we want to burden them even more.

That said, there is a lot of arguments and toxicity when it comes to the business side of WoTC/Hasbro- as I have noted, parasocial relationships are a heckuva drug. It is really disheartening to see almost every conversation about D&D and the rules changes quickly taken over by the same arguments about business issues; not to mention that there are actual threads discussing (quite heatedly) the business issues.

Perhaps it would be possible to at least create a tag or something for conversations about the business side of Hasbro and WoTC?

WAIT! I just noticed that THERE IS THAT TAG! Doh. There is a WOTC Tag, that Morrus used for, inter alia, the layoff announcements. Maybe we can ask that threads about the business side started by other use that tag, and perhaps it would be possible to gently point people to that tag if they are using other threads to discuss business issues instead of the thread topic (aka, threadcrapping)?

Just thinking while typing. Again, I hope that this is a passing issue and the heat is just one of those edition change (or not edition change?) things. But it is getting a bit much.

 

[Scribe]

I am starting to do that. But I hate it. I don't hate we have that option of course, but I hate shutting out someone's voice on all topics because I don't like some of it. It's a really broad and blunt solution which I wish had more nuance to it. Not that I have any idea what more nuance would look like.

A way to ignore Threads or Tags, but neither option is available. There are probably a half dozen people I would like to put on ignore but dont for the same reason.

Amusingly some of the people I butt heads with the hardest on some topics, we are aligned on others, its just the way things go.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I know that like any trend these conversations will eventually die down, but I will say for myself that I've found myself a lot less engaged in ENWorld because of how many threads about the 2024 edition get taken over by conversations about WotC. I find myself basically avoiding any thread about the new edition (which is most threads!).

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think Snarf's (and Mistwell's far as that goes) positions are sound, but ignores a pretty fundamental human-reaction thing with this; even people who go into a thread about mechanics or lore with 5.5 in good faith are going to hit things that remind them of some of the issues they have with the company and feel strongly about, and out its going to pour again. That's not even counting the "just can't let it go" part of the audience that has to revisit all the time anyway. Neither of these are limited to D&D/WOTC though they're very visible for self-evident reasons; there are a couple people who have to chronically restate their grievances with Paizo in any PF2e thread they enter or even enter one for no reason but that (though I think one of the most visible ones got the boot not long ago), and I've seen entirely outside the D&D sphere.

That's where the probably excessive amount of moderator attention needed would likely kick in.

 

[Zaukrie]

Maybe start banning people that trash nearly every thread? Send a message....

 

[Zaukrie]

Maybe warn them in threads, when they go off topic, like in the electric car thread, or the thread Morrus started the other day.

 

[Theory of Games]

... or maybe just ignore the WotC-busters. Last thing EnWorld needs is to become a tyrannical censored place like RPG.NET. Ignoring is easier than Mods flying around red-texting everything.

 

[Umbran]

Also, the moderation load of that is not feasible or something we want to become our job.

Agreed. A great deal of the Hasbto/WotC discussion comes about in the context of discussing the new rules - they aren't easily separable.

 

[Umbran]

Maybe warn them in threads, when they go off topic, like in the electric car thread, or the thread Morrus started the other day.

We have day jobs. We cannot babysit at that level of detail.

 

[TheSword]

It feels like edition wars all over again.

Shows no sign of dying down. Because every time someone at WotC looks left there’s a thread on EnWorld about it and the scab gets ripped off.

It’s been 20 months since OGL. Which is 40 times as long as the damn idea lasted.