WotC How much does Hasbro / WotC impact your feelings towards D&D?

[Micah Sweet]

I still believe Jeremy and co tried to make the best game they could, attempting to appease both corporate and fans. That's not an easy needle to thread.

Agreed. I just don't really think they're necessarily threading it, and I'm sure they don't have nearly the creative freedom they would in a smaller company.

 

[overgeeked]

Solid 5. Every time I look at the books, think about playing, etc all the BS Hasbro has pulled is brought to mind. I don’t want to promote their corporation or their brand in any way, even a roundabout one.

I have zero problem playing older editions of D&D. It’s whatever is currently in print that’s the issue. But I’m not a fan of 5E generally, so when it’s time for fantasy gaming it’s all OSR all the time for me.

 

[Queer Venger]

OGLgate came close to driving me away from D&D specifically because some of my favorite D&D content originates from outside WotC/Hasbro, and the continuation of that content was directly jeopardized by WotC's plans.

They backed down in the face of outcry and bad mainstream press so I stayed, and the placement of 5E's SRD in Creative Commons has largely eliminated my concerns about that specific problem arising again. The affair did leave me uneasy and mistrustful of WotC/Hasbro, though I still don't think they can be categorized as anywhere near as bad as many major corps are.

I can't imagine that there is anything similar that WotC could do with D&D that would (potentially) change the way I viewed D&D like OGLGate might have had it gone as originally intended by WotC, but then again maybe they'll find a way.

I voted "3". What WotC does doesn't define D&D for me, but it is not inconsequential to how I view D&D.

I agree with you, a lot of amazing creators who 100% love D&D (MCDM, Kobold press creators, Dungeon dudes in particular). But Im also seeing their content FINALLY being added to Beyond's digital tools; I think WotC is able to tell Hasbro to listen, that this is a community built on relationships, not profit. Sometimes success is a double edged sword, historically D&D has been niche, then it blew up, then Hasbro stepped in, then got knocked down because many of us spoke up. My hope for 2025 and beyond is that Hasbro just lets Wizards and the fans drive the bus and they quietly shut the poop up and sit in the back of the bus like they should.

That said, I really hate what they did to Larian; that one is something I will remember; I hope they are not stupid enough to do it again.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've had to put up with crap from both TSR and WotC, so I've learned not to put too much faith in a corporation. If they put out a product I'm interested in, I'll buy it; otherwise I won't.

 

[Queer Venger]

The awesome effect of all this is folks will finally play something other than D&D.

thing is Ive been playing other games than D&D for over 30 years (CoC, VtM in particular). 5e was a big part of what brought me back to D&D.

But yeah, nature loves diversity and happy a lot of new games are getting love.

 

[cbwjm]

Literally 0 (1) impact. OGL kerfuffle? Didn't care.

I can't think of other examples of stuff they've done that have made people mad enough to stop buying/enjoying dnd.

 

[TheSword]

So I’m a 4, because I do generally buy most WotC products and I want the game to be successful. I enjoy 3pp adventures and occasionally settings but I’m not at all interested in 5e clones and for me the official version most current IS D&D. New players are going to come through official sources and will enter the hobby through the latest edition, not a relic system or a clone. So expecting the game to thrive outside of that is hubris. WotC owned the game for 27 years. Aside from a few blips they’ve been good stewards and most of the things I like most about D&D occurred on their tenure.

Now if WotC did something really bad then it might bother me. I just haven’t seen anything that comes close to that bar yet. Just the typical things that happen when every significantly large group of adult humans come together in any enterprise.

I want D&D designers to be able to communicate with their fans directly without a small proportion of toxic fandom dog-piling them on forums. Moreover I want to be able to enjoy discussing WotC products without the same toxic fandom dog piling every thread.

So in summary WotC/Hasbro release lots of cool products that encourage me to like D&D and I’d like to continue doing that without other folks peeing in my cornflakes. Thanks.

 

[TheSword]

Solid 5. Every time I look at the books, think about playing, etc all the BS Hasbro has pulled is brought to mind. I don’t want to promote their corporation or their brand in any way, even a roundabout one.

I have zero problem playing older editions of D&D. It’s whatever is currently in print that’s the issue. But I’m not a fan of 5E generally, so when it’s time for fantasy gaming it’s all OSR all the time for me.

Case in point. For someone who’s not a fan of 5e, my god you talk a lot about it.

 

[jmartkdr2]

For me it's mostly indirect - I don't care a whole lot about stuff not related to the product I'm looking to buy (books), so DnD Beyond changes are trivia news to me. I already had no intention of ever buying it, ergo a drop in quality doesn't change my mind at all.

But some of my friends who I game with care, and so there's more social pressure to look into non-WotC options. This is something I'm willing to use for my own purposes (ie it's an in to try to convince people to try PF2 or 13th Age.)

Edit to add: the one type f corporate decision they made that keeps me from buying their product is fairly consistently choosing to make products I'm not interested in buying.

 

[Steampunkette]

I really enjoy D&D and TTRPGs built on 5e's chassis.

I just won't work on 5e products going forward because of my distrust of Hasbro's practices.