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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9409643" data-attributes="member: 8461">So you're saying that those labels are equal in how apt they are? That it's just as correct to say that Shell is a cosmetics company as it is an oil company? That McDonald's can be called a real estate company just as much as a fast food company? And you think that this is actually something which abets communication and understanding? Because that's a pretty hard claim to make.This is false. They have yet to make a single video game.Which is neither here nor there, since a VTT isn't a video game. Or do you think that people who use Roll20 are playing a video game?Which is why it's more apt to not refer to WotC as being a video game company, since that's not their "core product," regardless of how much money is allocated to what department.Um, what? They haven't changed it, at all, ever, in any capacity? You do know that 5.5 or whatever it's going to be called is about to come out, right?Because they have changed it, as I noted above? Because we've seen them try and change related things, like the OGL, in an effort to boost their VTT business (remember the "no animated spell effects" clause of the OGL v1.2?). Because we've seen them use video game style pre-order pricing and promos ("free gold dragon virtual mini!"). Because they think the brand is "under-monetized" and want to create a "recurring spending environment." But please go on about how they're not going to change things.That's not the point you were making before. You directly compared D&D to Champions of Krynn, holding them up side by side. I mean, I can understand changing your tune now, since that was a very poor point of comparison, but you said what you said.No, they didn't. Champions of Krynn was made by SSI, not TSR. WotC has yet to create a D&D video game; they just license or publish games made by other people.Wait, so now you're saying that because a DOS-based game couldn't be turned into a micro-transaction filled recurring spending environment, that means that D&D will never be made into one, even though WotC has flat-out said that's what they want it to be? That's an...interesting, take on things. Inaccurate, but interesting.The game would be better off it were being run by robots. It's being run by corporate suits who want to prop up next quarter's profits. "Under-monetized," and all that.I mean, anything that you can chew up and swallow is "consumable," so that's not really a salient distinction..Which is, once again, my central point. Having WotC become a video game company, and making D&D in that vein, means that it stops being a tabletop game.That's possible, but when they're proceeding under the auspices of profit maximization with regards to their brand being "under-monetized," then it becomes hard to see how they could justify putting out a product (like the tabletop RPG) that isn't designed to abet the push for maximum monetization. It's nice to think that WotC would just let the tabletop part of the game be its own thing, separate from their VTT/DDB aspect of the business, but that doesn't strike me as a remotely realistic expectation of them. When the people in charge mandate profits first, and everything else second, there's no reasonable expectation that anything else will be left as-is.See above.No, it can't. You cannot create a digital environment where "anything can be attempted," unless you've created a working holodeck.It didn't.Not even once.No, the game is not designed that way. The game is designed to allow for, as noted previously, anything to be attempted. There is no digital game that can do this, regardless of how "inspired" it might be. Show me a D&D game where your character can potentially kill any NPC (even Ultima makes Lord British unkillable, notwithstanding poison bread or falling bricks), or flood a troublesome dungeon, or lets you introduce multiple new races of your own design without needing to do any computer programming. No such thing exists.The constraints of the format will necessarily do that, regardless of whether wants to or not. Again, show me the video game that allows for the same level of creative freedom as tabletop play. You can't do it.On the contrary, you're unable to refute any of my points even while saying they already have been, which means that the one not making sense is necessarily you.Wrong on both counts. See above; you don't have an example of a video game that's as limitless as tabletop play, so your assertion doesn't stand up to scrutiny.They'll go where the money is. Or do you think that they're in the service of the hobby's good and not profit maximization?Everything was "never done" until it was done.Ah yes, the old "Champions of Krynn wasn't a recurrent spending environment, so there's no evidence that WotC will make their VTT one, even though they said they would" argument. This is how we know you're the one not making sense.It's already happening. Or have you not gotten your free virtual gold dragon mini yet? Because you won't get it otherwise, and then good luck using a gold dragon in the VTT (unless you pay for it separately, once it goes on sale in their digital storefront)."Under-monetized." 'nuff said.Are board games a "recurrent spending environment"? Because if not, then this point doesn't hold water.Strictly speaking the VTT isn't even a video game, though at this point you seem pretty married to using that shorthand, so I guess it's fine if you call it that (even if it's not accurate). But no one's being "fooled" since they're very open about what they're trying to do. Did you not hear the stuff about "under-monetized" and a "recurrent spending environment"? Or were you too caught up playing Champions of Krynn instead?So now you're denying that you used the terms "True Artificial Intelligence" and "The Matrix" and tried to characterize that as what I was saying? Because we can all see your post history, you know. And if you think WotC can't digitize D&D further than they already have, well, you clearly haven't been paying attention. Gold dragon mini, and all that."True Artificial Intelligence." "The Matrix." Own the behaviors you ascribe to others.And yet I've successfully rebutted every one of your points.The irony is that you're the one who's confused, even though I keep explaining things to you.No, it doesn't. There are games with that brand logo attached to them, but playing those is not playing D&D.It didn't.It wasn't. Champions of Krynn is not D&D in digital form.Which will become less true if WotC keeps going forward with their plan to make the tabletop game into an adjunct/on-ramp for the VTT.They really don't. No one plays Champions of Krynn alone in their room and thinks that they've just played D&D (and if they do, they're wrong).There's every logical reason that making D&D into a digital experience ("video game" in your lingo) would affect the tabletop game, because the priorities of the company that makes both favor the digital recurrent spending environment that they can monetize over the tabletop game that they can't monetize nearly as much.You keep thinking the past predicts the future, even when WotC has flat-out told us that the future they want to create is the exact opposite of what you're saying they'll do.No, they didn't. Repeating this falsehood won't make it true.Slapping the brand name onto a product doesn't mean that playing D&D means playing that product. Again, no one says that they're a D&D player because they beat Champions of Krynn.See above.I'll note again that Champions of Krynn was not a recurrent spending environment. You keep comparing apples to oranges, but they're not the same.No, not in the least.Making up a fictitious scenario doesn't really abet your point.Right, so any company that designs their own webpage is a webpage design company by your logic. Just don't expect that logic to catch on with anyone else.Did they make a statement about turning their books into recurrent spending environments because they've been under-monetized? You keep forgetting that WotC already told us that they want to do what I'm saying they'll do; that's why I'm saying it.Then you should have no complaints, because a single post with everything in it is easier to follow than multiple posts in rapid succession.I'll point out here that you don't speak for other people's reading habits; maybe limit things to your own point of view, since short of a declarative statement that's all you can really speak to anyway.See above. All text looks the same "at a quick glance." That's why you have to actually stop and, you know, read it.</blockquote>

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