Those are all funny words for applauding an IP holder's choice to not do something.
Now flip this, how much of a mess would it create if that same IP holder
choose to not do something? Like being inclusive?
Sanitize means to clean something, that is not a particularly funny word. And that is exactly what companies like WotC are now doing, cleaning their IP/product of the things they now consider 'dirty' for their business. This is not about the
choice of the IP holder. WotC is pretty much
forced to choose this way, not by some moral compass, but by social pressure from a very small, but loud (political) group within their customer base. This group has sway over most of the rest of the customer base by shaming them to comply/accept their perspective. And companies go where the most money is, and that is with the biggest group of customers.
I absolutely agree that DS is not for everyone and has MANY troublesome subjects within the setting. Those are not things we 'enjoy' in the settings, but they are part of the setting, they give weight to the amount of evil in the setting. They are also not things that are easily removed or even possible to remove. Other people using those things in the setting to do a-hole things to other people is just an excuse, without DS they would find ways to do the same A-hole thing.
WotC pretty much said they can't fix DS without backlash, one way or another. They went for the option of not making another DS edition, with the only people complaining about it being the old fans that can't accept a different social/power structure among the current D&D customer base. This is the least amount of damage WotC can get out of the IP, as no one is not buying a product that doesn't exist. If they did produce it, the backlash would be huge and I suspect that there wouldn't be many sales. So what's the point of DS for WotC? It's a headache case that gets pulled out of the archive once in a blue moon to look at (again) to see if they can make any money from it without it causing a riot.
Am I happy that there is no official DS? No and yes. No because no new official DS. Yes, because I do not think WotC can do a good job anyway.
But WotC isn't your home table. They have to produce material accessible to... everyone, not just you. They're not going to have everyone fight with foam bats against a behugger because that's not what D&D is, but they are going to find a way to remove unnecessary evils that can and do harm real people from the game that they are selling.
Why do they
have to produce material accessible for everyone? And what does that mean? Is that $375 mimic made for every D&D customer? I think not. Dungeons & Dragons vs. Rick and Morty was NOT made for every D&D customer, nor was Acquisitions Incorporated or The Stranger Things starter box. Nor does the D&D starter set come with braille dice...
In what way can DS do harm to real people? If there are subjects in there you don't want to deal with, don't play it! Uncomfortable with HoL, don't play it! Or do the subjects in DS make people racist, etc.? If that's how that thought process goes... Euhhhhh... What would video games then do to people?
I would say that murder is an
unnecessary evil, murderhobo is an actual term. And sure we can say, those were all Evil by Nature beings, that's keeping it simple!
Unless you just murdered a bunch of Lizardfolk, whom are Neutral... Let's do away with the ability to play an Evil character. And let's not forget all the tools in D&D to do really bad things, like Charm Person. We can go down an extremely deep rabbit hole, especially with D&D!
We could of course fix that by not making it murder (kill unlawfully and with premeditation). Instead of adventurers (murderhobos), the default party could be City/Town/Village guards whom have the lawful option of using deadly force when necessary.... Yeah, that's not going to be problematic at all! All evil is unnecessary and that would put D&D without a job...
