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

[mamba]

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.

that is a freedom they also could take into a very different direction from what you like though

 

[cbwjm]

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.

This sounds much like me, some of the changes in 5.5 don't interest me enough to make the change, they've made quite a few products that I just didn't find interesting, and maybe, I'm juat a little burnt out on DnD. This combined made me start looking at other systems, been meaning to check out savage worlds and was going to get together with old gaming group to play but life keeps getting in the way.

I have also played a bit of OSE, it was nice going back to the feel of the older games.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I would say a very big impact. But I still remember being upset that the magic card people were taking over D&D

 

[Guest 7037866]

While I don't care or feel any impact as far as the companies go, I DO feel strong impact as to how WotC designs D&D... mostly annoyance.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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

Are we only allowed to talk about things we're a fan of?

 

[Micah Sweet]

that is a freedom they also could take into a very different direction from what you like though

I get that, but that's risk I can accept, and I always respect a strong creative direction even if I don't personally care for the result. I respected 4e, but I never liked it.

 

[The Soloist]

The only D&D I solo play when I get nostalgic is D&D BX. I never mixed or confused the game with TSR or WoTC antics.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Are we only allowed to talk about things we're a fan of?

I think one thing this thread shows is that there are people for whom being a D&D hobbyist means playing the game and ignoring what the company does. For other people, being a hobbyist means being aware of and discussing the actions of Hasbro and WotC.

For folks in the 1-2 range, it can be confusing to see folks in the 4-5 range still post about 5e when they are also very vocal about not playing it.

However, to someone in the 4-5 range, talking about Hasbro and WotC might actually be the main way they interact with D&D.

Does that make sense?

 

[Scribe]

They define the tone of the game, and carry massive influence even outside their own game by inertia alone...

 

[JEB]

Hasbro and Wizards' antics don't have much effect on how I feel about D&D itself, but absolutely does affect my willingness to buy and endorse their current products, since that's tacit support in my view.

(Mind, I've also had other reasons to become lukewarm on recent D&D products not related to corporate misdeeds. And this all may become a moot point soon, as it's looking likely I won't be continuing into the 5e Revised era.)