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D&D Beyond Cancels Competition
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8360542" data-attributes="member: 7023840"><p>In fairness, this isn't driven by a desire to screw over artists. Or to get art for free.</p><p></p><p>I think that I've established my bona fides in terms of treating creatives in the TTRPG industry better (see, e., my other thread on the topic). But let's look at this from a more general point of view:</p><p></p><p>1. Companies generally don't run these types of contests to get "free stuff." At all. It's not like Hasbro would be like, "Hey, let's get an entirely fan created Monster Manual by running contests!!!!" Do you know why?</p><p></p><p>Because it's not worth it. You have to pay attorneys to set up these contests. You have to pay your staff to sift through the entries. And the vast, vast majority of contests solicit a lot of stuff that ... sucks. Most people that aren't professional artists (or writers, or whatever) aren't nearly as good as they think they are. It's a lot cheaper to pay someone (especially given how little professional creatives make) to create art or writing on spec than to run these competitions.</p><p></p><p></p><p>2. So why do it? Because there is always an ulterior motive. If you peer behind the scenes, it's always for marketing. To get contact information for customers. To build excitement and brand loyalty. The actual contest itself is almost always secondary <em>to the company</em>. To use a famous example, there is that "free" NCAA bracket contest that allowed you to win a BILLION dollars- of course, the insurance on the contest that Quicken Loans paid wasn't a billion dollars (given the odds of payout) and to enter the contest, you had to provide all of this information- which normally they would have to pay a pretty penny for. They made out like bandits. It's the same here- DDB isn't doing this for the art- they don't care. It will cost them more to set this up and run it than it would to get the art themselves. Instead, they are doing it for the (they had assumed) good publicity and brand loyalty and so people would be talking about DDB.</p><p></p><p></p><p>3. If this is the case, why have the onerous terms? Because lawyers, that's why. Look at any contest in which you submit something to a "real company" now, and you will find similar language. Here's the basic issue- companies don't want you to sue them. Most of these contests aren't cost-effective to begin with; add in lawsuits, and it's stupid to run them. And America runs on lawsuits. </p><p></p><p>So why would people sue? Well, either the company uses the work when showing people what was submitted (I know!), or the company later produces something that a person will claim is similar or derivative to what they submitted. No company wants to take the risk of asking for submissions from the public at large and then, ten years later, have someone sue them because they claim that their awesome stick-figure drawing was the basis for the in-depth artistic piece the company commissioned. You think this is a joke, but it's not. It's America. Companies will always have protective language in competitions.</p><p></p><p></p><p>4. Finally, there is a benefit to the general public for these competitions. Yes, the vast majority of the submissions are not going to be good. But ... some will be. For many non-professionals, the first step to realizing that they are good, that they can have a career, is winning some silly competition- to get that type of confidence. For others, the act of competing, of sitting down to create, provides the structure to see if they can keep doing it. It's provides some benefit, IMO.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Conclusion- look, if companies really did use these types of competitions to get a whole bunch of art for free, I'd have a real problem with that. But that's not the reality. So long as this is something that is done sparingly, and for fun, I think that we really need to calm down. Maybe some thought needs to be given to the boiler-plate lawyer's language ... but we also need to at least take into account the reason companies put that language in.</p><p></p><p></p><p>As always, IMO, YMMV, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarf Zagyg, post: 8360542, member: 7023840"] In fairness, this isn't driven by a desire to screw over artists. Or to get art for free. I think that I've established my bona fides in terms of treating creatives in the TTRPG industry better (see, e., my other thread on the topic). But let's look at this from a more general point of view: 1. Companies generally don't run these types of contests to get "free stuff." At all. It's not like Hasbro would be like, "Hey, let's get an entirely fan created Monster Manual by running contests!!!!" Do you know why? Because it's not worth it. You have to pay attorneys to set up these contests. You have to pay your staff to sift through the entries. And the vast, vast majority of contests solicit a lot of stuff that ... sucks. Most people that aren't professional artists (or writers, or whatever) aren't nearly as good as they think they are. It's a lot cheaper to pay someone (especially given how little professional creatives make) to create art or writing on spec than to run these competitions. 2. So why do it? Because there is always an ulterior motive. If you peer behind the scenes, it's always for marketing. To get contact information for customers. To build excitement and brand loyalty. The actual contest itself is almost always secondary [I]to the company[/I]. To use a famous example, there is that "free" NCAA bracket contest that allowed you to win a BILLION dollars- of course, the insurance on the contest that Quicken Loans paid wasn't a billion dollars (given the odds of payout) and to enter the contest, you had to provide all of this information- which normally they would have to pay a pretty penny for. They made out like bandits. It's the same here- DDB isn't doing this for the art- they don't care. It will cost them more to set this up and run it than it would to get the art themselves. Instead, they are doing it for the (they had assumed) good publicity and brand loyalty and so people would be talking about DDB. 3. If this is the case, why have the onerous terms? Because lawyers, that's why. Look at any contest in which you submit something to a "real company" now, and you will find similar language. Here's the basic issue- companies don't want you to sue them. Most of these contests aren't cost-effective to begin with; add in lawsuits, and it's stupid to run them. And America runs on lawsuits. So why would people sue? Well, either the company uses the work when showing people what was submitted (I know!), or the company later produces something that a person will claim is similar or derivative to what they submitted. No company wants to take the risk of asking for submissions from the public at large and then, ten years later, have someone sue them because they claim that their awesome stick-figure drawing was the basis for the in-depth artistic piece the company commissioned. You think this is a joke, but it's not. It's America. Companies will always have protective language in competitions. 4. Finally, there is a benefit to the general public for these competitions. Yes, the vast majority of the submissions are not going to be good. But ... some will be. For many non-professionals, the first step to realizing that they are good, that they can have a career, is winning some silly competition- to get that type of confidence. For others, the act of competing, of sitting down to create, provides the structure to see if they can keep doing it. It's provides some benefit, IMO. Conclusion- look, if companies really did use these types of competitions to get a whole bunch of art for free, I'd have a real problem with that. But that's not the reality. So long as this is something that is done sparingly, and for fun, I think that we really need to calm down. Maybe some thought needs to be given to the boiler-plate lawyer's language ... but we also need to at least take into account the reason companies put that language in. As always, IMO, YMMV, etc. [/QUOTE]
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