Matt Colville weighs in.

[Minigiant]

Keeping the 1.0 OGL would be great,
However if the community doesn't provide WOTC or the Floundering Hasbro another path to make continuous money, they won't listen to us.
And proudly saying you don't want their books OR worse never planned on buying their books just makes it worse.

Hence why I share Coville's overall pessimism.

 

[Bagpuss]

I don't have the patience to listen to 32 minutes of stuff. Do you have the Cliff Notes?

EDIT: Just realised I gave the Cliff Notes to DMShort's "Every Insider Leak I've Been Given..." not the Chris Cao interview. To be honest it is probably more relevant. As his interview was about MtG Arena that had just come out of Beta.
________________________________________________

The Execs at WotC particularly Chris Cao don't understand D&D (Chris Cao doesn't even play), they want to turn it into a 3D digital platform that can be a single player or co-op player experience without the need for a DM. But they fear anyone could copy their Unreal Engine 3D digital platform with the current OGL. They want to kill Roll20, Foundry, and other VTTs because they are competitors in this digital space, to do that they need to destroy the OGL. Most of this seems to be coming from Chris Cao who sees D&D gamers as the same as Farmville players, he seems to be planning to monetize D&D with microtransactions for 3D models, skins, spell effects, etc.

Currently D&D makes about $150 million a year they want to turn it into a $1 billion dollar brand like MtG. They aren't going to do that selling books, and it seems if they have to kill what D&D currently is to make it a billion dollar digital brand, they are happy to do that.

There is a real disconnect between the design team at WotC that don't like what is going on but have no power, and the execs that have the power but do not understand D&D in it's current form and want to turn it into a video game.

_________________________________________

IMHO Chris Cao's vision of a D&D game has about as much in common with a real D&D TTRPGs as the D&D Movie has. It's D&D in name, it's D&D in some of the tropes and features, but it isn't D&D.

Seems to me the OGL 1.0a was written specifically do prevent what Chris Cao wants to do with the brand. However it's a legal document so it is only worth anything once it gets tested in court and who's willing to face Hasbro's lawyers over it?

 

[Guest 7034872]

I can't think of a more serious person to comment on this whole thing, so if that's where Mr. Colville is, then I'd say the die is cast.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Any way you slice it, they're asking people to pay more for less. I don't think it will work.

Putting aside the obvious of joke of "Have you been in a grocery store lately?". I think it could. There's been tons of examples of it in the past. You remember when you would pay once for a copy of Microsoft Office and you would use that software for like 7-10 years before buying a new version and having to pay again. Now, you pay that same price every year. Is the product better for that 7-10 fold increase in price?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

This is what I have been saying and predicting.

You isolate people. If more groups plug a line in the back of their head and enter the matrix you do too if that is where the players are.

Instead of sketching your character you buy a picture/token.

Homebrew isn’t a matter of course. You BUY the option. Nothing is admissible that does not help WOTC. Rolled a good character? 3 18s again, Bob?!

Too bad. You did not use the official dice roller online. And you wish there was a magic shop? Well there can be. It’s 3 dollars to have a random shop show up in town but what is available will be randomly determined.

And on and on and on.

Will it “work?” And if it does, how soon? I don’t know. But if it does, it will be a culture destroyer. And that is a sad thought.

 

[gametaku]

Putting aside the obvious of joke of "Have you been in a grocery store lately?". I think it could. There's been tons of examples of it in the past. You remember when you would pay once for a copy of Microsoft Office and you would use that software for like 7-10 years before buying a new version and having to pay again. Now, you pay that same price every year. Is the product better for that 7-10 fold increase in price?

You can still buy Microsoft Office standalone.

Buy Office Home & Student 2021 (PC or Mac) - Download & Pricing | Microsoft Store

Buy Office Home & Student 2021 for Windows or Mac. A one-time purchase gets you apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, featuring security updates.

www.microsoft.com

 

[eyeheartawk]

You can still buy Microsoft Office standalone.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...-us&country=US&activetab=pivot:eek:verviewtab

Neat! I didn't even know they offered it anymore.

 

[mamba]

Putting aside the obvious of joke of "Have you been in a grocery store lately?".

I kinda need to eat, I do not need to play D&D

I think it could. There's been tons of examples of it in the past. You remember when you would pay once for a copy of Microsoft Office and you would use that software for like 7-10 years before buying a new version and having to pay again. Now, you pay that same price every year. Is the product better for that 7-10 fold increase in price?

Who outside of corporations and freelancers buys MS Office?

I have no idea how that works today, I use it at work, I do not have it installed at home (I have LibreOffice there).

Do they want it to be a subscription, sure. Do they have anything worth subscribing to at the price they set? At best this remains to be seen

 

[Plokman]

As long as we teach those younger kids the way of the real theater of the mind, any TTRPG will win. Really there is not a thing they can do to make us stop, we bought the product and rules we can do whatever we want.

Pessimism is not going to help.

 

[DarkCrisis]

As long as we teach those younger kids the way of the real theater of the mind, any TTRPG will win. Really there is not a thing they can do to make us stop, we bought the product and rules we can do whatever we want.

Pessimism is not going to help.

Not to mention whole other RPGs covering various genres (not just fantasy!) exist.

 

[lvl20dm]

Where are we getting "loot boxes" from the One D&D playtest? I feel like commenters, in this instance Mr. Colville, either know something I don't, or are interpreting some statements from WotC differently.

 

[Velderan]

Aren't there already 2 D&D MMOs? In comparison to WoW how are they doing? Do they charge anything close to $30/month? Since 2000 how well has D&D digital initiatives fared?

Both D&D MMOs have a free to play model, compared to WoW that has a monthly subscription AND a cash shop where you can buy cosmetics. I guess to answer your question "in comparison to WoW how are they doing?", not well.

 

[DEFCON 1]

We older adults don't get to declare what the "culture" of D&D is. We certainly can declare how we engage with the culture of D&D... but none of us have the right to say what that culture is. The same way the AD&D crowd didn't get to declare the game dead when 3E was released, or the 3E crowd when 4E was released, or anybody when 5E was released.

I usually agree with Colville on most of his takes about D&D... but this is one that is just entirely sour grapes. He thinks that HIS way of engaging with D&D is the right and proper way to do it, and that anything that comes out of whatever online version WotC produces is not it.

That is complete and utter bullshite.

If the children of the future engage with D&D online through a VTT, and then decide to spend money in whatever modes are available to them to do things like make their avatars look like the characters they have in their heads, make their spellcasting have cool animations and such, or DMs decide they want to buy terrain packs to make their VTT experience even more in-depth... NO ONE gets to say those kids have lost anything when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons.

Our ways aren't "better" than theirs. Especially when we don't even know what their way of playing and engaging with D&D is even going to be. So to lay out this "Back in MY day..." screed about how our poor children won't know the glories of what it meant to play is the same exact crap our Boomer and Silent Generation parents said when we were inside playing on our Atari 2600s. It was a bullshite attitude then, and it's a bullshite attitude now. And Colville should know better.

 

[Velderan]

Where are we getting "loot boxes" from the One D&D playtest? I feel like commenters, in this instance Mr. Colville, either know something I don't, or are interpreting some statements from WotC differently.

I'd assume he's getting that from the fireside chat for investors that declared the brand under-monetized and said they were looking for that recurrent digital spending like you find in video games.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'd assume he's getting that from the fireside chat for investors that declared the brand under-monetized and said they were looking for that recurrent digital spending like you find in video games.

Or he just was in a bad or depressed mood when he made his Twitter screed and said a bunch of inflammatory stuff to get people riled up just to make himself feel better.

He gets that way sometimes. Like when her discovered someone went through his garbage at his house apparently in a hopes of finding out information about his home campaign world of Orden... Matt went on Twitch a couple days later in a sour mood and basically told everyone "Since all of you want to know my world so badly... I'll just hand it all to you right now. Ask me any question you want and I'll answer it". And almost every single question was answered with "I don't know, I haven't thought of that yet."

It was basically him, after feeling violated by someone going through his garbage, taking out his angers and frustration on the people who genuinely care about the work he does and for whom they have interest. It was not a good look.

I don't blame him at all for feeling the way he did... it was just his way of processing it was not the greatest way of doing it I don't believe. Because that's when you have a better chance of saying something accidentally that you don't really mean but people take it to heart and you get in trouble over it.

 

[Velderan]

Or he just was in a bad or depressed mood when he made his Twitter screed and said a bunch of inflammatory stuff to get people riled up just to make himself feel better.

He gets that way sometimes. Like when her discovered someone went through his garbage at his house apparently in a hopes of finding out information about his home campaign world or Orden... then Matt went on Twitch a couple days later in a sour mood and basically told everyone "Since all of you want to know my world so badly... I'll just hand it all to you right now. Ask me any question you want and I'll answer it". And almost every single question was answered with "I don't know, I haven't thought of that yet."

It was basically him, after feeling violated by someone going through his garbage, taking out his angers and frustration on the people who genuinely care about the work he does and for whom they have interest. It was not a good look.

I don't blame him at all for feeling the way he did... it was just his way of processing it was not a good way of doing it I don't believe.

I mean sure but generally people have a thing that caused them to be in a bad mood or depressed like your example about someone going through his trash. That's all my comment was pointing to. Right, wrong, or indifferent he had a thing that caused him to arrive at the conclusion he did.

 

[Parmandur]

Chris Cao was Executive Producer of MTG Arena.

While I'm ot comfortable believing that he is The Evil One based on rumors...it is plausible he has a lot ofnsway at WotC, considering the raging success Magic Arena has been.

Do you know what kids I know who play Arena do...? Play Magic with real cards that they sleeve and put in deck boxes.

 

[lvl20dm]

I'd assume he's getting that from the fireside chat for investors that declared the brand under-monetized and said they were looking for that recurrent digital spending like you find in video games.

I listened to all of that and did not come away with the idea they WotC was out of the book business and in to Loot Boxes. As long as they continue to publish books, which is what One D&D is currently playtesting, I'm not sure I can really get all that worked up about the potential for microtransactions in a VTT that I may not even use. And what are we even talking about here? Dice skins and digital minis? That doesn't spell the end of D&D.

 

[lvl20dm]

Or he just was in a bad or depressed mood when he made his Twitter screed and said a bunch of inflammatory stuff to get people riled up just to make himself feel better.

He gets that way sometimes. Like when her discovered someone went through his garbage at his house apparently in a hopes of finding out information about his home campaign world of Orden... Matt went on Twitch a couple days later in a sour mood and basically told everyone "Since all of you want to know my world so badly... I'll just hand it all to you right now. Ask me any question you want and I'll answer it". And almost every single question was answered with "I don't know, I haven't thought of that yet."

It was basically him, after feeling violated by someone going through his garbage, taking out his angers and frustration on the people who genuinely care about the work he does and for whom they have interest. It was not a good look.

I don't blame him at all for feeling the way he did... it was just his way of processing it was not the greatest way of doing it I don't believe. Because that's when you have a better chance of saying something accidentally that you don't really mean but people take it to heart and you get in trouble over it.

Wait - that's crazy?! Someone went through his trash looking for .... I guess a discarded notebook?

 

[Velderan]

I listened to all of that and did not come away with the idea they WotC was out of the book business and in to Loot Boxes. As long as they continue to publish books, which is what One D&D is currently playtesting, I'm not sure I can really get all that worked up about the potential for microtransactions in a VTT that I may not even use. And what are we even talking about here? Dice skins and digital minis? That doesn't spell the end of D&D.

Who knows what they're planning, but I agree nothing they said in that investor call implies the imminent end of printed books. With them spending $146m on DDB, I could certainly see a huge influx of mostly optional digital things to buy to recoup that investment but emphasis on the word optional.

If the digital stuff does extremely well and book sales drop off sharply could they begin shifting towards a digital only strategy? Maybe but we're not even close to that yet. MTG: Arena makes a lot of money and they still print cards because they still sell extremely well so perhaps the 2 things can coexist in D&D as well.