Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
While this is going horribly poorly I'll drop my two cents in.
I think it is definitely true that there is a strong contingent of TTRPG fans that will heavily attack D&D and Wizards of the Coast at every possible occasion. They will generally use the two (D&D & WotC) interchangeable, treat people who play D&D as idiot sheep who refuse to seek out "better" games, etc. Amusingly, from my perspective, is that this is not a politically homogenous group. A person in this mold made the comparison with Marvel and damn if that isn't the most apt comparison possible. Did you know that Marvel movies are both woke forced-diversity leftist bait AND, simultaneously, right-wing jingoistic military fetishism? D&D gets the same kind of treatment. And with respect to the members who qualify on this forum... you don't really matter, in the grand scheme of things. You are neither fans nor potential fans. You are noise shouting in the void.
Of course, there are also plenty of reasonable people who avoid D&D for all kinds of different reasons. As much as we could say "D&D is everything to everyone", the fact remains that D&D is a round peg, and while a lot of folks do a lot of hard, good work to fit that peg through as many holes as possible, it's not going to be the right fit for everyone (or every campaign). There are A LOT of really awesome games out in the world and to the people who are able to actually get folks to join along with them, I say kudos.
There are a group of people who might call themselves fans of D&D but not fans of WotC. I would count myself among them. There's a lot I love about the game. But Wizards... every time it seems they're going to take a step forward they take two steps back. It's been this way since the early days of 5e, with the awkward but well-intentioned gender-inclusive language and incredible diversity in art, coupled with teaming up with fascist reactionaries and serial abusers during the edition's launch (those of us with our original PHBs can still see those Special Thanks credits). For every meaningful, sincere attempt to improve the diversity of the hobby's biggest game, there came alongside the Vistani. And Chult. And the Book of Cylinders. And the Hadozee. And, yes, the Pinkertons.
If Wizards of the Coast wants to present themselves as a socially responsible and progressive company, and it is my belief that they sincerely do, then D&D fans need to raise their voices and insist they do better. That has, largely, what each of these incidences has boiled down to, once the more hard-hearted voices have been filtered out.
That's not "Wizards bashing". That's accountability.
I think it is definitely true that there is a strong contingent of TTRPG fans that will heavily attack D&D and Wizards of the Coast at every possible occasion. They will generally use the two (D&D & WotC) interchangeable, treat people who play D&D as idiot sheep who refuse to seek out "better" games, etc. Amusingly, from my perspective, is that this is not a politically homogenous group. A person in this mold made the comparison with Marvel and damn if that isn't the most apt comparison possible. Did you know that Marvel movies are both woke forced-diversity leftist bait AND, simultaneously, right-wing jingoistic military fetishism? D&D gets the same kind of treatment. And with respect to the members who qualify on this forum... you don't really matter, in the grand scheme of things. You are neither fans nor potential fans. You are noise shouting in the void.
Of course, there are also plenty of reasonable people who avoid D&D for all kinds of different reasons. As much as we could say "D&D is everything to everyone", the fact remains that D&D is a round peg, and while a lot of folks do a lot of hard, good work to fit that peg through as many holes as possible, it's not going to be the right fit for everyone (or every campaign). There are A LOT of really awesome games out in the world and to the people who are able to actually get folks to join along with them, I say kudos.
There are a group of people who might call themselves fans of D&D but not fans of WotC. I would count myself among them. There's a lot I love about the game. But Wizards... every time it seems they're going to take a step forward they take two steps back. It's been this way since the early days of 5e, with the awkward but well-intentioned gender-inclusive language and incredible diversity in art, coupled with teaming up with fascist reactionaries and serial abusers during the edition's launch (those of us with our original PHBs can still see those Special Thanks credits). For every meaningful, sincere attempt to improve the diversity of the hobby's biggest game, there came alongside the Vistani. And Chult. And the Book of Cylinders. And the Hadozee. And, yes, the Pinkertons.
If Wizards of the Coast wants to present themselves as a socially responsible and progressive company, and it is my belief that they sincerely do, then D&D fans need to raise their voices and insist they do better. That has, largely, what each of these incidences has boiled down to, once the more hard-hearted voices have been filtered out.
That's not "Wizards bashing". That's accountability.
