I have read it. What proportion of creatives do you think work for WotC on their 3-4 books a year vs the rest of the creatice TTRPG industry? Second question. Do you think that proportion is enough to constitute a chokepoint? Third question. If it is possible to exercise chokepoint control do you think creatives have worse or better conditions working at WotC
It’s just that you had a mix there of things they did (Pinkertons) alongside an assumption (D&D Beyond as a chokepoint) and an opinion based on a direction that they’re not necessarily taking (D&D becoming an MMO), so it’s a little tough to digest or agree with the entire point.
I guess that depends on what changes you're looking at. If you're looking at the changes that push the look and feel of inclusiveness and character build flexibility like removing the stat boosts from character species, then I don't see how that could come from a "screw the customer" attitude coming from the top.
No, they don't: the investors are utterly indifferent to "us". Just as we are propey indifferent to them.
so they are intentionally making products worse because they despise us?
Some segment of OSR gamers on Twitter are grousing about how the Heroes Feast Spell in the PHB has tacos and sushi (but North American pumpkins are "normal food" so we know what they mean). They are claiming thst the artists involved "hate D&D and fantasy".
They do.
I was presenting very shortened and simplified version of a full argument for simplicity, I do not care about making me an example of something without asking for clarification first.
The physical media cannot be a chokepoint. WotC is currently trying to turn D&DBeyond into a CHokepoint - hence their attempt that making it a marketplace where you can buy both main and third party content, but also testing place where you can rate playtest material and a place where you have access to your sheet, books AND new VTT software. Hence why the only thing to scare them during OGL debacle was people massively leaving D&DBeyond. Even their latest behavior is consistent with the actions of established chokepoint - albeit fired prematurely. It's all building towards make D&DBeyond a necessary tool for interacting with the game, which is why it is pushed as such default even in their own adds they show people putting away books and dice while at one table, to use D&DBeyond instead. Once they control the means through which us, the customers, interact with the producers of goods (MCDM, Kobold Press, Ghostfire Gaming), they can do things like force changes into which books you are using (hence why attempt to replace old spells with new was "firing prematurely" - they haven't yet caught enough fish into the net to comfortably pull such trick), ramp up the prices, start taking bigger cuts from 3rd party book sales etc. They won't have a monopoly (DriveThruRpg is already a similiar chokepoint, but even then WotC has their hand in that one through DMs Guild, ditto for Paradox and Storyteller's Vault and Paizo and Pathfinder Infinite). This thing is very deliberately built to control the way you play and ensure it is done in a way that allows WotC to squeze every last drop of blood from you.
Maybe because what you have mentioned doesn’t come across as brutal and direct contempt for customers. Let alone hate.
That's literally what the OGL fiasco was: a massive downgrade of the D&D experience for an unhinged cash grab.
