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

[Scribe]

I’m pretty sure when it comes to polling favorability for a proposition. 8-10 is seen as advocation, 6-7 is pretty ambivalent and 1-5 is pretty dismissive.

A more balanced alternative analysis I’ve seen is 4 to 5 as agreement and strong agreement. With 1 and 2 as strong disagreement and disagreement. 3 being unable to decide either way. Don’t forget that also Includes my score of 4, because yes WotC does influence how I feel, but positively because I think they release great products.

Post after post has corroborated the scores to say it doesn’t matter much at all to most people about how the feel about D&D in case we weren’t sure about the scoring. 75% don’t feel strongly which combined with anecdotal posts is comforting to me. There was no score lower than 1 to chose else I think the averages would be even lower.

So every value over 1, means their view is influenced, the sum of which is the majority, and you want to claim the majority are not influenced...

 

[KYRON45]

It's discouraging to me to see that 65% of respondents are cool with what we've seen from WotC/Hasbro.

Maybe it's not that were cool with it.....maybe it's that we just don't care.
I'm sure there will now be a tidal wave of people telling me that this is the same thing.

 

[mamba]

So every value over 1, means their view is influenced, the sum of which is the majority, and you want to claim the majority are not influenced...

even 1 can mean some minor influence. I have seen some posts saying they would have preferred to have a 0 to indicate no influence whatsoever, but that were far less posts than votes, so there are bound to be some additional % points in it that are influenced

 

[KYRON45]

229 votes out of 150 gabillijilligan* people who buy WOTC stuff. Not people who play, but just people who buy.
What is that number as a percent?

*i went to an urban public school in the 80's...this may not be a real numerical value.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

229 votes out of 150 gabillijilligan* people who buy WOTC stuff. Not people who play, but just people who buy.
What is that number as a percent?

*i went to an urban public school in the 80's...this may not be a real numerical value.

 

[Professor Murder]

I went with 3.
I try not to listen to the sky is falling talk, but I am not burying my head in the sand either. For me, the breakpoint will be how the game is monetized. Let me buy my books and play the game.
Dungeons and Dragons was bigger than Gygax, bigger than TSR and will in the end be bigger than WotC or Hasbro. If they truely screw the pooch, someone else will take up the torch and venture into the dark with us.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

It’s possible to aim for both. Developing a good product that beats its competitors and make some schmeckles doing it.

I often see that product-that-I-don’t-like gets equated with bad-product. I don’t buy that.

Folks should go and pick a selection of D&D adventure products from the early 1980s and see if what you get now is better value for money. On the basis that £10 then is around £40 now. Interestingly I pre-ordered my PHB for £32. How good a product would £7.50 have got me in the early 1980’s? Rose tinted spectacles all round.

Instead of using a comparative standard to judge WotC products, we use the What-I-Can-Find-Wrong-With-The-Assistance-Of-The-Entire-Internet-Using-Gaming-Comunity Standard. Which is notoriously judgemental and picky. If the same standard was applied to any product it would be found wanting.

I wrote "just naked profit". Of course I want game producers that manage that precious balance between profit, engagement and quality to be successful.

And I don't agree about your value for money argument. With 50 years evolution of layout, printing, game theory and experience I darn well hope I get a better game for my buck now. Today rpg's are a broad hobby and industry, back then it was a fringe cellar hobby at best, so of course printed game books were more expensive and primitive. On the other hand, back then we had the whole DYI zine scene, thankfully that came back with OSR.

And since many of us here were young in the early eighties, poor in money but rich in time, I can say without a doubt that the amount and quality of fun I got per buck from my Runequest 2e and AD&D books back then was way more value than I get from a 5e glossy tome today, even if the 5e book is prettier and - from some kind of current standard - a more evolved game. But it's also a way more shallow game with the exciting angles filed off, developed to fit a broad commercial mass market to optimize profit. Imho.

And FYI, I don't search for what's wrong with WotC products - you make a pretty rude argument for others speaking out about product criticism. I compare WotC stuff with other RPG's that's available - with-the-assistance-of-the whole-Internet - and I personally prefer some of the other products.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe it's not that were cool with it.....maybe it's that we just don't care.
I'm sure there will now be a tidal wave of people telling me that this is the same thing.

I think in this case, someone who has a strongly felt ethical position looking at people not caring would call that "being uncool with [unethical thing]" as upsetting. But not everyone is going to have the same moral calculus on complex topics like the ethical acitivies of a toy manufacturer. Heck, we have a hard time getting moral consensus on much more weighty matters. Doesn't mean thst everyone who has a different position is unreasonable or unethical.

 

[Mistwell]

I think in this case, someone who has a strongly felt ethical position looking at people not caring would call that "being uncool with [unethical thing]" as upsetting. But not everyone is going to have the same moral calculus on complex topics like the ethical acitivies of a toy manufacturer. Heck, we have a hard time getting moral consensus on much more weighty matters. Doesn't mean thst everyone who has a different position is unreasonable or unethical.

Indeed. I care about the issues involving WOTC. However, those issues don't rank in my personal top 100 issues in society, and I am not Doug Forcett where I am attempting to be a perfect moral being in all things. This thing just doesn't rank high enough for me to make the sacrifices involved with treating it like a higher ranking issue. Particularly since enjoying D&D is something that keeps me going to focus on the issues which do rank very high for me.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

In my case it has a big impact. But only on D&D as an actual product. It doesn't affect my interest in the hobby, other games and the books and editions I already own. I haven't bought a D&D product since 2020, an I don't see myself buying more in the years to come. There's just too many good games made by good people around.