DnD Shorts final video

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Yes and we've been discussing this possibility for months, perhaps over a year, albeit usually the terminology was "coffee table books" or the like. The weird awkwardness of "treasured collectibles" has a disturbing ring of truth to it lol.

I would love to use Cory Doctorow’s colorful neologism for the process of a corporation evolving some product through their near-monopoly in the market into a customer-abusing, partner-abusing, version that is worse at doing what attracted customers to it in the first place.

enshittification – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

 

[BrassDragon]

It's also interesting to note what they haven't been rumored to be discussing: the threat of hateful and discriminatory products or blockchain-based content tarnishing their brand.

To this very day and in multiple communications, that's the stated reason for nuking the OGL 1.0a... and apparently it just doesn't come up in a strategic context.

 

[Haplo781]

Watching the video now.

Wow. Damn.

This is basically everything I casually predicted months or even years ago, with a less doom-y mindset. It all makes sense, though if it's true, Chris Cao is a bit of an idiot, because he wants to go far too hard too fast. Also, given D&D Beyond was acquired against his advice, it sounds like WotC is not unified on his vision. That's not necessarily a good thing, but it's interesting. I can believe they thought $30 was viable whilst discussing it internally, not because they could get it, but because echo-chamber-type discussions often give people ridiculous ideas. I mean, I've been in discussions watching highly intelligent and educated men and women wildly overestimate how successful a legal product is going to be, and my careful attempts to burst balloons are accepted politely but basically ignored. Then unfortunately I was right lol.

The Blueprint 2.0 seems to be nigh-identical to what happened with 4E, as well. The whole thing back then was "These IPs need to make more money!" except back then it was only $50m, not hundreds of millions or more.

Fascinated to hear Dan Rawson is a good guy, and Williams is hands-off, that's kind of interesting. Unsurprised to hear Jeremy Crawford is well-regarded, he seems like he'd be a lot of fun when not trolling us all with Sage Advice. Good that he's respecting Ray's story and also unsurprising he was well-liked. Kyle Brink whilst theoretically outranking Chris Cao is allegedly basically working for him, which is interesting - it makes sense given the tens of millions being poured in to D&D - if you've twice the employees and twice the budget, even if the org chart says you're lower, that's not going to be how it works, politically.

Cao needs to be fired. He is singlehandedly responsible for this entire mess.

 

[Justice and Rule]

It's also interesting to note what they haven't been rumored to be discussing: the threat of hateful and discriminatory products or blockchain-based content threatening their brand.

To this very day and in multiple communications, that's the stated reason for nuking the OGL 1.0a... and apparently it just doesn't come up in a strategic context.

I mean, that's basically no surprise. That's just a bone to throw to those who really want to defend Wizards no matter what so they can say there are legitimate reasons, non-money reasons for these sorts of draconian contracts.

Also, given the content, I can see why he took the risk of showing possible messages from Teams. He went off half-cocked recently, so if you want to come out with some extraordinary claims, you'll need extraordinary evidence. He (and his sources) may have thought that this was a reasonable risk to take to get the information out and get people to take it seriously.

 

[kenada]

I worked with people who don't understand "Don't Reply All" with a "Yes"

That doesn’t preclude having separate tools for documenting things that need to be retained longer. If someone doesn’t want to follow the policy, that’s a whole different problem.

 

[Haplo781]

Same. If true it's what I've been saying here for a long while.

Hasbro isn't making much money. Hasbro is leaning on WOTC's D&D and MTG to bail Hasbro out. D&D core books make money but the money slowed and cooled. Adventure books don't make enough for WOTC nor Hasbro. So this Chris Cao is aggressively attempting to pull out the gaming industry money printer. And the OGL stands in its way.

But I never bothered to look at Hasbro stock and yup it all makes sense now if true.


And my guy didn't know what Teams is. Really should have handed this info to someone else.

Alta Fox is typing...

 

[Justice and Rule]

Alta Fox is typing...

 

[BrassDragon]

I mean, that's basically no surprise. That's just a bone to throw to those who really want to defend Wizards no matter what so they can say there are legitimate reasons, non-money reasons for these sorts of draconian contracts.

As an activist outside of this hobby, it's a more than a bit infuriating to see the struggle for human decency reduced to a PR fig leaf to hide behind (and ineffectually at that.)

There's enough to be mad about already so I'll just drop it and pick the more relevant battles... but it would really lower temperature if they stop doing this crap. It's actively undermining the credibility of the cause.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's also interesting to note what they haven't been rumored to be discussing: the threat of hateful and discriminatory products or blockchain-based content threatening their brand.

To this very day and in multiple communications, that's the stated reason for nuking the OGL 1.0a... and apparently it just doesn't come up in a strategic context.

I mean, yeah, for obvious reasons. The blockchain is dead in the water. It's the 3D TV of "Web 3.0" (puke lol). A solution looking for a problem and totally failing to find one. And the hateful IP-threatening products have just not appeared, and they've had 20 years. WotC has done far more damage in both directions on that front than any 3PP, both by putting out products with inappropriate stuff which we won't discuss lest the poor mods have to step in, and by stepping on 3PP products on DM's Guild which definitely didn't need to be stepped on.

Cao needs to be fired. He is singlehandedly responsible for this entire mess.

I mean, in a corporation, the buck stops with management, which in this case would appear to be Rawson (allegedly nice), Williams (allegedly hands-off, perhaps to WotC's detriment) and Cocks. I don't think Cao is the right person for his role, but I'm not saying "fire him!!!". Someone authorized him to hire hundreds of people and spend $10s of millions, and I'd guess that'd have to be Cocks.

Whoever hired him and gave him this much latitude is a big part of the problem - and Cao was there before Williams or Rawson by a long time.

As a corporate aside, if WotC does "fire" him, I don't expect them to literally fire him, because that'd be embarrassing. The usual path would be to put him on "gardening leave" (i.e. sit at home on company payroll, but don't do anything beyond maybe check your email 1/day) for several months until he can find a position at another company. It's all terribly lovely above a certain level in corporations lol.

 

[Staffan]

I can believe they thought $30 was viable whilst discussing it internally, not because they could get it, but because echo-chamber-type discussions often give people ridiculous ideas.

Also, because rich people rarely have a sense of how much money us commoners have.