Matt Colville weighs in.

[darjr]

Dangit Matt!

 

[mamba]

I see the direction, I do not see them reaching that goal. This makes for a bad TTRPG and a bad CRPG. Why would I not play WoW or Diablo IV instead...

 

[darjr]

I see the direction, I do not see them reaching that goal. This makes for a bad TTRPG and a bad CRPG. Why would I not play WoW or Diablo IV instead...

They see that as the goal, the promise. Oh they see us as WoW! Winning.

 

[overgeeked]

To paraphrase: I don’t care I’m still free, they can’t take the dice from me.

 

[darjr]

To paraphrase: I don't care I'm still free, they can't take the dice from me.

Stealling that.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Even a bad WoW is going to make them more money than the best version of a TTRPG ever could.

Publicly-traded companies exist to make money; if this path could make them more money they're basically obligated to do it.

I get Matt's despair here, though I remain hopeful that this isn't actually what they want to do. That they'd like to keep the RPG going strong, instead of sacrificing it on the altar of their other monetization schemes. But I certainly don't know that this is what they want to do.

And, it's still possible that whatever their scheme is crashes and burns. Hasbro's been pretty great about entirely falling on their own faces with most of their portfolio.

 

[Haplo781]

To paraphrase: I don’t care I’m still free, they can’t take the dice from me.

Take my spells, take my saves,

Take me down into the grave

 

[mamba]

Even a bad WoW is going to make them more money than the best version of a TTRPG ever could.

Is that why so many MMOs closed down?

 

[overgeeked]

There’s no place I can’t be
Since I found the RPG
You can’t take the dice from me

 

[I'm A Banana]

Is that why so many MMOs closed down?

Fair point!

FWIW, I think WoW is a slightly dated thing for what they're actually going for. Colville mentions loot boxes. If that's near the target, it's more free-to-play / freemium online tabletop or something. A live service. Which can be a lot cheaper to launch than a full MMO.