D&D General Interview with D&D VP Jess Lanzillo on Comicbook.com

[Lanefan]

Virtual things are real. This current discussion, for example.

You are equating being real with being physical.

Yes, I am.

This discussion is virtual. You and I have at least met in person, and thus have considerably more idea who we're interacting than when interacting with someone here we've never met in person, but it's still virtual.

That's just, like, your opinion, man. One I happen to agree with if by VTT you mean playing online,

Yes, I am equating those things: VTT play meaning (and being) online play. Using digital assitance while playing in person is still in-person play.

But even if we are actually talking about online play, how does that make it bad in principle? There are lots of people on this forum who have expressed a preference for online play for a variety of reasons. Are you saying that are objectively wrong to like what they like? I don't get it.

Why is it sad, though? Again, you are talking about online play, not using a VTT, which are very different things (for example, when we played online during lockdown I still built physical sets and put a camera over them). But regardless, it's only sad to you. Because it's not what you're used to or what you like. When I was a kid my dad probably thought it was sad that I wasn't into his country music, and he definitely thought it was sad when I got into the Sex Pistols (which my kid thinks are lame Dad rock, so he thinks it's sad that I like them, too. He and grandpa agree about the Sex Pistols!).

But Dad was wrong. It wasn't sad, it was just different. That's what most of this thread boils down to: assuming that change is bad.

Change is good when it's good and bad when it's bad. In this case I think it's bad for the socialization reasons I've already mentioned upthread.

As for the Sex Pistols, I didn't get into them when I in theory would have been expected to (in the late 70s/early 80s). I was a new wave kid then, and it was quite some time before I came to really appreciate early punk.

 

[Hussar]

I think my irony meter just exploded.

/snip

This feels like misdirection. The question had nothing to do with a false dichotomy between players who play online and those who play in person. She steered the real question about a fear of a future digital D&D and mandates from on-high to shift to digital to a culture war between players who like playing in person and those who play online. That was never the concern. I don't know anyone who would say that playing online shouldn't exist. This is about a fear of WOTC trying to take further control of the game by pushing it into their own walled garden.

/snip

Instead, I'm hearing I'm gatekeeping the hobby by being concerned that WOTC is shoring up the walls of their walled garden...

/snip

I say VTT play is bad in principle because it's a less-social experience than playing in person. At best, in comparison with in-person play VTT play is a very poor second choice. VTTs were undeniably useful during lockdown; but lockdown's over now, which means we can all get back to the table and drop the whole VTT thing.

The problem is (and I saw this coming) VTT play got normalized during that period. And that's just sad.

Gee, I wonder why Jess Lanzillo talked about gate keeping in the hobby. Wherever could that idea possibly have come from?

It's not like for the past twenty years, opinions like @Lanefan's have been repeated over and over again to tell me and others who do play on VTT that we are the inferior form of play and not really worth any consideration since we don't really play the game.

 

[CellarHeroes]

I have no problem with promotions like that and could see them doing something. Much like you get a fancy version of the gold dragon if you pre-order the rule books. Way back in Living Greyhawk (3E) days if you ran enough games they would actually send you special things. I still use the ship tiles they sent me now and then, although most were tokens for special benefits you could use at the table to get a small benefit. You couldn't buy them, only get them as rewards. It was kind of a nice perk.

I was disappointed when Adventurers League didn't have a similar reward system.

 

[Oofta]

I was disappointed when Adventurers League didn't have a similar reward system.

I'm sure some accountant looked at the balance sheet and couldn't tie a direct line between AL and the bottom line. Which is too bad because it brought in new people and kept others invested. The store I ran stepped up and gave us credit, but I miss the rewards too.