I Don’t Care What WotC is Doing

[Chainsaw Mage]

You may not care about WotC, but WotC cares about YOU!

<Insert "BuddyWotC" pic here>

 

[ExploderWizard]

I am curious about what WOTC is doing but it is the detatched curiosity of the observer. I will keep an eye out for anything that might be interesting to me but not expecting much.

 

[Henry]

I do care because I like the system and want to support it - but I want to support stuff I like, not blind buying crap I won't use. I've just read Thalmin's 3rd-4th quarter list, and I did at least see one or two things I like - but this year is gonna be slim pickings compared to the last three for me. It will be the first time my potential Pathfinder and other system choices eclipse D&D choices, and it's pretty telling for me on the direction of D&D right now.

 

[Reynard]

Put me down as someone who doesn't care about the future of the game. Seriously. If the entire RPG "industry" died tomorrow, I wouldn't care because I would keep playing with family and friends.

(I *would* care about people losing their jobs, of course, but that would be the extent of my caring).

See, I'd like to think D&D is more valuable than just my family and friends. For thirty odd years we've watched it noodle into the cultural consciousness, for good and ill. I have met great friends who I would never have known at all if gaming was simply an insular hobby among those already "in the know".

No. What WotC does matters, because like it or not they hold the D&D trademark. It's why I lobby so hard for them to embrace and support all versions of D&D. The D&D community is a real thing and deserves to grow, not wither away on the vine.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I am curious about what WOTC is doing but it is the detatched curiosity of the observer. I will keep an eye out for anything that might be interesting to me but not expecting much.

In retrospect, my thread title is a bit misleading.

Personally, WotC hasn't done anything to earn my carelessness; I generally don't care about any company. Except for large corporations that do things like crash the economy, or spill a lot of oil onto the ocean.

See, I'd like to think D&D is more valuable than just my family and friends. For thirty odd years we've watched it noodle into the cultural consciousness, for good and ill. I have met great friends who I would never have known at all if gaming was simply an insular hobby among those already "in the know".

This inspires me to care a bit about the game, though I think universal edition support is a vain hope.

Also, I don't think D&D is in any danger of withering, dying or what-have-you. It may go through cycles of lesser or greater popularity, but unless North America and half of Europe are suddenly and absolutely beggared, D&D is here to stay. And by 'D&D,' I mean 'wide-appealing kitchen sink fantasy adventure rpg.' D&D may someday be replaced by another brand name, but whatever rpg succeeds it will have the same spirit that D&D has. As long as killing things and taking its stuff is fun, there'll be a fantasy rpg to let us play at it as anything from a swordsman to a weird part-animal magic-user.

Until we achieve a Star Trek-like utopia and somehow manage to sterilize millenia of jungle instinct, we'll have D&D or something like it. And if that every happens, rpgs will be the least of the things we 'lose.'

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

See, I'd like to think D&D is more valuable than just my family and friends.

(Shrug). It's a game. A magnificent game, in all its incarnations, but just a game.

Hospitals are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Schools are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Civil rights are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Renaissance art is more valuable than just my family and friends.
Cathedrals and mosques and synagogues are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Earth's ecosystem is more valuable than just my family and friends.

But D&D is just a game.

 

[Reynard]

(Shrug). It's a game. A magnificent game, in all its incarnations, but just a game.

Hospitals are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Schools are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Civil rights are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Renaissance art is more valuable than just my family and friends.
Cathedrals and mosques and synagogues are more valuable than just my family and friends.
Earth's ecosystem is more valuable than just my family and friends.

But D&D is just a game.

The "Just a game" argument fails to take into account the importance of play to not only human civilization, but to human quality of life. Play matters, deeply and powerfully, and impact us not just as children but through our lives. And believe it or not, Play can change the course of history (e.g. wargaming).

Nonetheless, I wasn't very clear I don't think. I didn't initially mean to the make the Play argument originally. What meant was that D&D matters *beyond* my family and friends, in that D&D has an impact on me through those that come to it and thereby come to me, and therefore what the owners and publishers of D&D do with it matters. The only way for it not to be so is not only for one to be out of the sutomer pool, but also out of the player pool as well.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

The "Just a game" argument fails to take into account the importance of play to not only human civilization, but to human quality of life. Play matters, deeply and powerfully, and impact us not just as children but through our lives. And believe it or not, Play can change the course of history (e.g. wargaming).

You are, of course, right that play matters, enormously, to human beings.

Good thing D&D is but one of countless ways to do it.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

Nonetheless, I wasn't very clear I don't think. I didn't initially mean to the make the Play argument originally. What meant was that D&D matters *beyond* my family and friends, in that D&D has an impact on me through those that come to it and thereby come to me, and therefore what the owners and publishers of D&D do with it matters. The only way for it not to be so is not only for one to be out of the sutomer pool, but also out of the player pool as well.

By the way, you just made me think of something. I appreciate what you're saying about feeling "connected" to people through and because of D&D. That's precisely what's happening right now--you and I (or at least Reynard and Chainsaw Mage) are connecting, in some sense, because of D&D.

But I wonder if there is an even *stronger* connection for those whose version of D&D is OOP. I've always had a sense that dragonsfoot, for example, is an incredibly strong and united community (if it isn't absurd, of course, to use the term "community" of an internet forum) precisely BECAUSE their game is no longer produced.

I suspect that if D&D dies--meaning if WoTC stops making it--the bond that all D&D gamers share will be strengthened, not weakened.

 

[Treebore]

I don't care either. There are plenty of other RPG companies out there keeping me happy.