Chris Cocks says it makes sense to move D&D to a "live service" model, but Hasbro will always make physical books

Chris Cocks isn't shy about plans to move Dungeons & Dragons to a more live service model of gaming. In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Cocks explicitly said that "it makes sense" for players to shift their mindset towards a live service due to the high amount of players using digital services, but assured the interviewer that books will still be produced by Hasbro. When asked if Wizards was moving away from books in favor of a more piecemeal release schedule, following the announcement of D&D Beyond's new Drops service. "Books will always be an important part of D&D," Cocks said. "It will always be kind of like a special totem that you can collect. I have a big bookshelf of D&D books myself."

"But we see what's happening – almost everyone who plays D&D uses D&D Beyond, like a super high percentage uses it," Cocks continued. "A very high percentage use Foundry VTT or Roll20, and so it just makes sense that you should start to migrate your thinking about the way you play to more of a live service where you don't have to wait 18 months for us to build a book. We can start to release components or aspects of that book over time, and you don't have to buy everything all at once. You can buy chapters or segments of it over time. That makes a ton of sense to me. That said we will still have big moments. We will still have like, 'hey, ta da, here's a huge campaign.' You can expect there'll be more around that, both from us and from all the creators in the world that can leverage a platform like D&D Beyond to share their content as well."

Broadly speaking, Dungeons & Dragons has always been a "live service" game, as the game's core business model involves continuously releasing new content in the form of new rulebooks or campaigns. However, it seems that Cocks is principally interested in shifting this model around more frequent releases. We'll note that the business model suggested by Cocks was already rolled out in a manner of speaking. The Dhampir species rules were released as a "digital DLC" for D&D Beyond subscribers who digitally ordered a Forgotten Realms book bundle, but a physical version of the rules are being released via the upcoming Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book. However, a la carte purchases were removed from D&D Beyond several years ago in order to force users to purchase entire books instead.

 

[Lazybones]

This argument is still theoretical, at least in terms of D&D; this thread began with a promise from WotC to continue to "always make physical books." I know some of the posters here always assume the worst intentions from WotC/Hasbro, but the idea that future-D&D (6e?) could be based on a dystopian mandated-subscription system seems fairly unlikely right now. They even backtracked on the subscription-only provision of miniscule amounts of content (i.e., the so-called "Drops").

I'd be willing to give the worst-case scenario more credence if there weren't credible alternatives in the TTRPG space. I suspect an announcement that the next edition of D&D would be subscription-only would be met by celebration at Paizo, Kobold Press, ENWorld Publishing, and so on. Heck, I'll admit that if that scenario comes to fruition, I'll be first in line to support those competitors.

 

[jolt]

There are too many real life barriers to gaming - family, illness, jobs, etc. When I pay for gaming content, I need to be able to use that content when and how I want. I'm never going to pay for a gaming service that doesn't let me do that. There are enough problems already.

 

[Clint_L]

For what it's worth: I never made the claim that content should be provided 'for free'; the point was that the fact that people pay specifically for subscriptions does not automatically mean that they like the situation we are currently in and would not prefer other means of obtaining the content.

I mean, I don’t like paying for things, period. I would rather get them for free. Paying for something always means that I want it enough that I am willing to pay for it, not that giving away money is ever my first choice.

However, in some cases people actually have choices other than buy or don’t buy, and so we can see where their preferences lie.

For example, music, movies, books. Streaming and subscription services are rising not because these things are not available in multiple ways - they are, including physical ownership - but because streaming services are popular.

And, pertinent to this thread, we have D&D. You can still buy books, and lots of people are. But the explosive growth of DDB surely indicates a rising preference for digital.

 

[Clint_L]

There are too many real life barriers to gaming - family, illness, jobs, etc. When I pay for gaming content, I need to be able to use that content when and how I want. I'm never going to pay for a gaming service that doesn't let me do that. There are enough problems already.

It sounds like you are advocating for DDB, which allows you to access and share all your gaming material anytime, anywhere.

 

[bsss]

My dude you know you can literally highlight everything on DDB and save it locally as a word doc, right? To say nothing of the robust piracy network that automatically scrapes from their website. You don't have a problem with subscriptions, you have a problem with DRM in the abstract. But WotC is just straight up not using DRM and they seemingly don't care if you pirate. So your argument, that you can't get the information you want in the format you want on the schedule you want for the price you want is just straight up specious. I don't pay for DDB drops but I managed to get all them onto my harddrive and it took like, a minute.

So because copy and paste exists, reasons to dislike subscription models, for criteria I didn't claim, are specious? So many people reaching for arguments in this post that is essentially "correlation [choosing to subscribe to something] is not causation [people chose to subscribe because they like subscription models]".

 

[Incenjucar]

This argument is still theoretical, at least in terms of D&D; this thread began with a promise from WotC to continue to "always make physical books." I know some of the posters here always assume the worst intentions from WotC/Hasbro, but the idea that future-D&D (6e?) could be based on a dystopian mandated-subscription system seems fairly unlikely right now. They even backtracked on the subscription-only provision of miniscule amounts of content (i.e., the so-called "Drops").

I'd be willing to give the worst-case scenario more credence if there weren't credible alternatives in the TTRPG space. I suspect an announcement that the next edition of D&D would be subscription-only would be met by celebration at Paizo, Kobold Press, ENWorld Publishing, and so on. Heck, I'll admit that if that scenario comes to fruition, I'll be first in line to support those competitors.

I think we're most likely to see nudges in that direction periodically, but the reality of the space is still closer to the XBOne announcement that cost them a generation. Unless the coming generation of gamers has a love of ephemeral things, I expect thwarting such plans to continue.

 

[abazaba]

And, pertinent to this thread, we have D&D. You can still buy books, and lots of people are. But the explosive growth of DDB surely indicates a rising preference for digital.

Preference for digital ? Perhaps. Preference for subscriptions ? Perhaps not. These two do not necessarily need to be the same thing.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

So because copy and paste exists, reasons to dislike subscription models, for criteria I didn't claim, are specious? So many people reaching for arguments in this post that is essentially "correlation [choosing to subscribe to something] is not causation [people chose to subscribe because they like subscription models]".

If your dislike of subscription models are based on practical considerations instead of ideology, and those practical considerations can be easily bypassed... yeah, that's a specious argument. If your argument is not based on practical considerations, I apologize for misinterpreting you... but then I have to ask what is actually bothering you if it's not "real"?

EDIT: I guess my argument is more "you know just because a corporation gives you a limited set of options, you're actually under no obligation to pick from them, right?" If you want D&D material, get some D&D material, don't let a corporation tell you how to use the data if they can't enforce it.

 

[abazaba]

My dude you know you can literally highlight everything on DDB and save it locally as a word doc, right? To say nothing of the robust piracy network that automatically scrapes from their website. You don't have a problem with subscriptions, you have a problem with DRM in the abstract. But WotC is just straight up not using DRM and they seemingly don't care if you pirate. So your argument, that you can't get the information you want in the format you want on the schedule you want for the price you want is just straight up specious. I don't pay for DDB drops but I managed to get all them onto my harddrive and it took like, a minute.

If your dislike of subscription models are based on practical considerations instead of ideology, and those practical considerations can be easily bypassed... yeah, that's a specious argument. If your argument is not based on practical considerations, I apologize for misinterpreting you... but then I have to ask what is actually bothering you if it's not "real"?

EDIT: I guess my argument is more "you know just because a corporation gives you a limited set of options, you're actually under no obligation to pick from them, right?" If you want D&D material, get some D&D material, don't let a corporation tell you how to use the data if they can't enforce it.

Please correct me if I am misinterpreting or otherwise fail to understand your argument here, but: are you seriously advocating here that quote/unquote 'stealing' (or at the very least 'copying') content from a service in a way that is in direct conflict with the terms of agreement for the service, is perfectly fine as long as you do not get caught ?

 

[jayoungr]

And, pertinent to this thread, we have D&D. You can still buy books, and lots of people are. But the explosive growth of DDB surely indicates a rising preference for digital.

We have no way of knowing how many people own physical books and also have a DDB subscription. We also have no way of knowing how many people are subscribing primarily for DDB's character builder options rather than because they want all their content in DDB's format.