Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The folks with the resources to take an idea, produce it with higher quality materials, distribute it more widely and undercut competitors' costs would be the ones driven out of the market?
D&D (2024) D&D Pre-orders; this is sad
- Thread starter TheAlkaizer
- Start date
MonsterEnvy
Legend
Well if you don't have an account this is all pointless to you to start with.
Exhibit A: Amazon Basics products.
Yes because of the overhead and the democritization of technology. If you compare this to the situation today - If you design your own game today, WOTC and other corporations are still the ones with the distribution netork, the publishers etc so it is no worse off for you compared to how it is now. It is worse for them.
To be clear I am talking about intellectual property, not physical things and it would all be open source so you would have access to the same software and tools WOTC uses.
If you are talking about printing books or purchasing say a studio or producing razoer blades, then yes corporations will be able to do that better than individuals, but that is a small portion of the value compared to the intellectual property and while the barriers to an individual competing would be significant, they would be lower than they are now.
WOTC could not prevent others from selling their video games or digital media or any of that.
On a personal level, if you put a painting on canvass that is your painting and no one owns it (unless you sell it to someone), but if you have a digital file anyone who has access to that file can do what they want with it, to include printing a copy on canvas themselves. Further if you do sell it to someone then that physical painting is theirs. They can copy it, reproduce it, burn it in their fireplace, whatever they want.
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Your example works against you even though this is not an example of intellectual property.
Amazon Basic Products is a store brand that is produced for Amazon by other producers, smaller producers that can't compete directly with megacorps like Wal Mart, Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and it is those megacorporations that are feeling the pinch the most from ABP and other online retailers.
Smaller producers making ABP branded products are benefiting from ABP right now and under my idea it would even be better because they would not have to sell ABP through Amazon, they could sell the same Amazon-branded products they are making for Amazon right out of their own storefront or on Ebay, and they could do it without permission from Amazon.
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Normally I would agree, but in this case they are pre-offering something for a service they haven’t even fleshed out yet so it gives that predatory DLC appearance to something that some people have been worried will be full of it. Maybe this is all nothing and you’ve already said it’s nothing to you, but I can at least see that one as being a cause for concern.
humble minion
Legend
True. I normally think of it as held for ransom access, though…
They're giving me something I will likely never use because I have no desire to ever use a VTT again. It's a bit of advertising like the free toy you used to get in cereal boxes back in the day. I cannot think of how this could be predatory DLC. Will they sell extra special minis? Of course, they sell boxes of minis now. I don't see this being any different.
Remathilis
Legend
People annoyed by the Enshitification of commerce. Film at 11.
You know why things get enshitifed? Because we let them. We use Spotify instead of buying vinyl. We watch Netflix instead of getting the BluRay (or, gasp, seeing it in the theatre). We pay premium for no Ads on our favorite websites and services. We buy the fast pass/Genie+ on our summer vacations. We pre-order products without release dates, Kickstart products we can't confirm will ever be made, fight scalpers for concert tickets and game stations and then buy from them when we can't beat their bots. We get drop shipped crap from Temu that we wouldn't buy from a flea market in real life and by tech products every two years due to built in obsolescence and inability to update/repair them.
And we gladly do it all because of fomo, convenience and clout.
You do it. I do it. We all do it. And they know it. We decided convenience is worth the price and they have obliged by raising the price.
You're really shocked WotC is doing this? They're late to the game. And this is all rather benign: people were trying to get rich off of procedurally generated monkey jpegs.
This is just a symptom of the whole rot late stage capitalism has brought. Either prepare to amputate the gangrenous limb or enjoy the time you still have left.
Me? I have some books on pre-order.
You know why things get enshitifed? Because we let them. We use Spotify instead of buying vinyl. We watch Netflix instead of getting the BluRay (or, gasp, seeing it in the theatre). We pay premium for no Ads on our favorite websites and services. We buy the fast pass/Genie+ on our summer vacations. We pre-order products without release dates, Kickstart products we can't confirm will ever be made, fight scalpers for concert tickets and game stations and then buy from them when we can't beat their bots. We get drop shipped crap from Temu that we wouldn't buy from a flea market in real life and by tech products every two years due to built in obsolescence and inability to update/repair them.
And we gladly do it all because of fomo, convenience and clout.
You do it. I do it. We all do it. And they know it. We decided convenience is worth the price and they have obliged by raising the price.
You're really shocked WotC is doing this? They're late to the game. And this is all rather benign: people were trying to get rich off of procedurally generated monkey jpegs.
This is just a symptom of the whole rot late stage capitalism has brought. Either prepare to amputate the gangrenous limb or enjoy the time you still have left.
Me? I have some books on pre-order.
dave2008
Legend
You responded to Stalker0's comment of:
"There is no indicator from this one image that you are being forced to buy a subscription to dnd beyond or anything of the sort."
by saying:
"you need a subscription for the early access."
To me that implied you were equating subscriptions with being "forced."
glad I was mistaken! Now I just hope I actually got the bundle! I ordered all three separately, but when I click on the bundle it says I already own the books - so I assume that means it worked?!
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