D&D General Elon Musk Wants To Know 'How Much Is Hasbro?'

Following the richest man in the world's attack on Wizards of the Coast for two paragraphs in the 500-page celebration of D&D, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977, Elon Musk--who bought Twitter not that long ago--wants to know how much D&D's owner Hasbro would cost.

After the public sharing on Twitter of Jason Tondro's (who wrote the book’s foreword) private Facebook posts, Musk replied "How much is Hasbro?"

Hasbro's estimated capitalization is currently $8.71 billion, with $3.95 billion of debt.

It was on 21st December 2017 when Musk similarly enquired "How much is it?" before proceeding to make a bid for Twitter. He later tried to back out of the deal, but was forced to buy the platform for $44 billion in June 2022. Current estimates by investment firm Fidelity put the platform at a value 80% less than when he bought it, with a worth of only about $9.4 billion.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No they are not. They literally insult the old products and the people that designed them and played them. It's what started all this.

You really should read the pages in question for yourself. They've been posted in other threads.

They don't say what you seem to think they do. They certainly don't say anything about OD&D players.

 

[Remathilis]

You really should read the pages in question for yourself. They've been posted in other threads.

They don't say what you seem to think they do. They certainly don't say anything about OD&D players.

describing a product that contains sexist sections as that is not insulting, it is just a fact. If you cannot handle that and have a meltdown over it, that is on you.

Don't feed the trolls starts at home.

 

[Faolyn]

That's odd. Me and my extended group of gamers don't buy into any of the newer products. We play d20 2nd edition world of darkness older warhammer and battle tech.

So you're not a newer gamer, then. So who are these activists anyway?

We'd love to support the new games but they're garbage. They'll obsess on race and gender and sexual nonsense but not produce games worth playing.

Hmm, the vast majority of games I've bought have maybe a paragraph or two on such things (in a book that's anywhere from 100-400 pages long), at most, and/or put the word "pronouns" on the character sheet instead of "sex" or "gender." The only games I've seen that go into more detail are games that are specifically about romance--which is a very small number of them. And sure, most games use a word other than "race" these days, but the only times I've seen a game really discuss it is when the game is semi-historical and they're talking about human ethnicities.

Dunno how any of this counts as an obsession, but I guess you're one of those people who never changed with the times and won't be producing anything of interest or use to the modern gamer.

 

[Nikosandros]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Don't feed the trolls starts at home.

Historically, I believe it starts under bridges in the woods.

 

[Dire Bare]

That's odd. Me and my extended group of gamers don't buy into any of the newer products. We play d20 2nd edition world of darkness older warhammer and battle tech. We'd love to support the new games but they're garbage. They'll obsess on race and gender and sexual nonsense but not produce games worth playing.

Ah, here it is.

Don't feed the trolls folks.

 

[trappedslider]

Correction: Blake Jorgensen is not the CFO. He is a board member and the former CFO of PayPal.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:
I will remind folks of the policy from the previous thread - if you create an account today, and your first posts here are to tell us how awesome Elon Musk is, we are going summarily treat you like a troll/spammer, and just ban you.

 

[SteveC]

1) They didn't do that. The people claiming otherwise are outrage farming for clout and your money. WotC is explicitly saying that everyone is welcome, in part because they want everyone's money.
2) This sounds a lot like "well, if you dressed that way, you wouldn't have that issue," which is not a great approach to problem solving.

This is one of those things where we're going to have to agree to disagree. I haven't felt welcome from WotC in years. I don't discuss it because they typical response is to call me a snowflake and some variation of "you mad, bro?"

What people are serious about discussing it do say is that if I don't like the direction D&D is moving in, I can play any of the variations of it back to OE. Or even 4E. And that's true, but it's also not exactly helpful. How people feel about Elon buying D&D (which I don't believe is going to happen) can engender that same response: play any edition you want. If the game becomes something you don't like, play something else. That's not an especially helpful piece of advice, is it?

It was just as helpful when people said the same things to me about not liking the direction of the game. Frankly, a lot of the subject matter of what's going on hits on things that we don't talk about on Enworld, so I'm not going to start a discussion that will end with the Mods having to shut it down. The net effect of it is that I haven't bought the physical books for 5.5E. I won't be. I'm seriously thinking about whether to buy the rest of it electronically, too, at this point. And I'm not mad about it, just wondering if it's time to walk away. And I know I'm not the only one in this situation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What people are serious about discussing it do say is that if I don't like the direction D&D is moving in, I can play any of the variations of it back to OE. Or even 4E. And that's true, but it's also not exactly helpful.

As someone who gives that advice -- and has been playing since 1979 -- how is that unhelpful? Is the brand the thing you want, or do you want to play a game that fits the mechanics and vibe you want?

How people feel about Elon buying D&D (which I don't believe is going to happen) can engender that same response: play any edition you want. If the game becomes something you don't like, play something else. That's not an especially helpful piece of advice, is it?

No, it's perfectly helpful. If he buys WotC and brings in the deeply objectionable people I assume are lobbying him hard to take over, I will happily switch to another compatible game. I don't care if the game is called "Dungeons & Dragons" or "Tales of the Valiant" or "Floorpity Whoop Dee Do." The game experience is what I care about.

It was just as helpful when people said the same things to me about not liking the direction of the game.

Why not? I really don't understand the issue.

Do not get invested in this brand or any brand. They are products and their owners will do stuff you have no control over and will likely disagree with.

The way to deal with Crystal Pepsi as a Pepsi drinker was to not buy Crystal Pepsi, not hope for an oligarch to buy Pepsi and change the direction of PepsiCo and to punish everyone who'd been involved in Crystal Pepsi. Because lord knows what that oligarch will do after that, other than, at some point, do something you'll likely disagree with again.

The net effect of it is that I haven't bought the physical books for 5.5E. I won't be. I'm seriously thinking about whether to buy the rest of it electronically, too, at this point. And I'm not mad about it, just wondering if it's time to walk away. And I know I'm not the only one in this situation.

If you don't like the game, don't buy it. You shouldn't feel bad about it. This is a hobby, not your identity.