There’s very few companies in this world that aren’t beholden to at least someone. If it’s not a parent company like Hasbro, it’s shareholders, an investment company, landlord or just the bank.
It very much appears to me that since the OGL about face, there is a section of the community for whom nothing WotC do will ever be right. spurred on a fed by click-bait YouTube commentators that make a fast buck stirring outrage and shock to get views.
On pretty much every ‘scandal’ - read ‘thing some folks don’t like’ - involving WotC, the fanbase has gotten what the majority seemed to want. OGL confirmed and expanded, new edition scaled back to a 5.05, AI art banned. Y’all don’t know when to take a win.
I mean I know everyone likes the underdog, and clearly WotC isn’t one of the those, but you would think that the explosion of the hobby - and the number of smaller companies, publishers, writers, artists, commentaries, live streamers and fans that have benefited symbiotically from WotC - means we would show a little less hate and a tad more goodwill.
In 30 years of playing the game it’s never been easier to get a session of D&D in. There are people asking me about it all the time, I’ve had three new groups spring up in the last 4-5 years. We’ve got more tools than we every had, more art, more beautiful maps, more publishers, more relaxed copyright, more online support. Do you honestly think that 20 years ago, individual fans would have been able to publish an adventure or sourcebook set in Ravenloft IP or Forgotten Realms and not get sued into the ground. These are salad days for D&D not Rome burning.
The most frustrating thing for me are the many many folks in the thread who have already openly said they don’t and won’t play 5e jumping on the bandwagon. Adding to the furore but actually contributing anything other than more outrage and hate. The continual negativity on the boards about WotC (and to a lesser extent companies in general) is starting to get really wearing.
