Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 9442141" data-attributes="member: 18182">We're getting into "you can't trust anybody" level thinking here. Which, is technically true. Any company can have a change in leadership and direction, can reverse course. Will Roll20, over time, become enshittified? Perhaps.But . . . if DDB was well run with great service and great prices . . . that would be a problem? That's some doom-and-gloom nothing can be ever truly be good level thinking!The larger the company the more prone it is to toxic corporate behavior, but even small companies can fall prey to prioritizing profit-over-people. Or just make bad decisions that can harm workers and customers. But I'll worry about when Roll20 becomes enshittified when it happens (if it hasn't yet, I'm not a user). Or all of the other various TTRPG apps out there currently.So . . . don't use digital media? Or digital tools that encourage you to purchase e-books tied to a specific app? That's not really a good solution for many, although respect to gamers who are paper-books-at-the-table only style players.I would agree that the state of digital media isn't great and has lots of issues, of which you've talked about on the forums and in your podcasts (not just gaming books, but music, video, books, audio books . . . all of it). But what does the average gamer do, who wants and enjoys digital support to do? Other than, yes, keep pushing WotC to release PDFs of their current titles?I don't think D&D 5E has become too crunchy . . . D&D has been crunchy and complicated since the AD&D days decades ago! For us dedicated nerds, we figured it out without digital support, but for more casual gamers who have flocked to the game in recent years, yeah, the current game is probably too crunchy. But look at the sturm-and-drang raised over a minor revision to the current rules! If WotC were to release a simpler, more OSR style of D&D . . . hoo-boy, the edition wars all over again.I think the hullaballoo over the upcoming changes to D&D Beyond is overdone. I think folks convinced that the 2024 rules changes are a "new edition" and are loudly upset over it are over-reacting. But I do think we need to keep advocating, like you do on your podcast, for companies to be as consumer-friendly as possible by providing downloadable PDFs and structure their digital tools to allow folks to run what they want to run, as much as possible. Being consumer-friendly is the right thing to do, both in an ethical sense and a practical one. WotC is losing consumer trust, and it might not be feeling that right now, but things are not headed in the right direction for the company.</blockquote>

Verification