D&D (2024) Nerf to magic users?

[overgeeked]

Has anyone seen this? He claims to have gotten some leaked info for the next play test packet. Sounds like the Wizard will be scaled back to 1e/2e style wizards.

I'm skeptical, I guess we will see.

Edit to add correct video

It would be nice, because they need bludgeoning to hell with the nerf bat. But it’ll never stick. Wizard players will vote it into the dirt. The joys of design by committee.

 

[overgeeked]

Guys, the video was blatant satire. He’s quoting AD&D and calling it “leaked from the next Unearthed Arcana.” Also the pinned comment is him saying “I’m flattered anyone actually believed I was connected enough to have access to internal WotC emails and leaked playtest documents.”

Of course. Anything approaching sensible, balanced design in D&D 5E is obviously going to be satire.

 

[Charlaquin]

I didn't see that. I watch YouTube on my TV so I never see comments. Thanks for the clarification. It definitely felt off.

I mean, I get not seeing the pinned comment, but also he highlights a part of the “leaked interview script” and has a text annotation saying “dead giveaway this is fake.” Also, all of the “screenshots” are clearly from AD&D books, and have text annotation directly citing the sources as such.

Not that I blame folks for missing it. He gives no verbal or tonal indication that he isn’t being completely serious, which makes the idea that it was indeed meant to be satire and not intentional disinformation somewhat suspect. Yet, the text annotations so clearly indicate it as such, so it wouldn’t be very effective disinformation if that was the goal. The net result comes across as if he was trying to use the premise of leaked playtest material as clickbait and then hold up the claim of satire as a shield to try to deflect criticism of it as being clickbait.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The net result comes across as if he was trying to use the premise of leaked playtest material as clickbait and then hold up the claim of satire as a shield to try to deflect criticism of it as being clickbait.

Or like... a joke.

 

[Charlaquin]

Or like... a joke.

Except that, as I said in the post you’re quoting, if it’s a joke it’s poorly done, due to the lack of verbal or tonal indication.

 

[Charlaquin]

Looks like he just made a community post apologizing for the confusion. For whatever reason YouTube doesn’t have an option to share a direct link to a community post (or if it does I can’t find it), but here’s the text of the post:

Most people got the joke/satirical nature of yesterday's video, and some didn't. (I had put onscreen giveaways including the fact that my "sources" were all cited to old-school D&D sources, and of course there was my pinned comment). I do NOT have "leaks" from Hasbro! The video was a humorous way to contrast the weakness of old-school D&D spellcasters to modern ones, by pretending that WOTC was "revising" the game back in time! Talking about the history of D&D and Pathfinder interests me greatly. I apparently underestimated some people's awareness of tropes of old-school D&D ("magic users," d4 hit dice, dying at 0 hit points, etc.) and was surprised some thought this was real! Or thought that a gaming company representative would ever say "sense of pride and accomplishment" ever again! (EDIT: I also should have anticipated how much people would believe WOTC/Hasbro doing ANOTHER shocking thing! lol)Be assured that, if I ever do report on genuine leaks, there will be no ambiguity. I put out a video in Jan. 2023, before Gizmodo made the OGL scandal mainstream, about the leaked language of WOTC's draft OGL that Roll for Combat had leaked earlier that day. For that I did my due diligence and source-checking, and I cited and named my sources and why I relied on them.Meanwhile, my apologies to anyone who didn't get the joke, and I hope you enjoy the humor on the second go-around. Meanwhile, have a Happy New Year!

-TRL

 

[MichaelSomething]

People misinterpreting your satire as actual opinion? A pain I know far too well.

 

[Willie the Duck]

He claims to have gotten some leaked info for the next play test packet.

Remember, all the most credible YouTube videos have shocked face or face palm thumbnails.

My general rule is that anyone claiming to have insider information that they do not back up fall under the Sturgeon's revelation of 90%+ of everything is junk.

People misinterpreting your satire as actual opinion? A pain I know far too well.

There is always an issue with satire. If the audience misinterprets it, is it because they are being dense, or because the satirist failed to effectively communicate the satire (and us generally living in a world where then intended satire really could be someone's genuinely held positions/deliberate falsehoods).

• It seems every content aggregators site in the last decade or so has articles about times people didn't catch satire, and feature a section on The Beastie Boys "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)" and how ridiculous it was that 1986 teen or frat boys or whatnot didn't realize the song was a goof on them. This always bothers me because, well, what did the average 1986 teen or frat boy know about the Beastie Boys (who kinda were the booze & party types depicted in the song right up until Licensed to Ill) that would suggest to them that the song wasn't being sung earnestly?
• Likewise general topic forums like Reddit/Quora tends to have a thread about people not catching satire, and someone always brings up people not realizing that Starship Troopers was satire. My reaction is always generally 'what about the satire was subtle, Doggie Howser in a nazi uniform or ending like a WWII promotional news real; and my gut instinct that there's really only a handful of people who didn't catch it, that the forum posters are overinterpreting the prevalence of because they want their having gotten it to be rare and exemplary. However, on further reflection I realized that a lot of people first saw (possibly only ever saw) the movie as a teen/possibly younger (particularly a nudity-edited version on TBS for years after the initial release) and maybe not catching the satire did happen, and was a result of the specific context of the experience.

The former is likely what you experienced (assuming you are talking about forum posts where the satire was not caught) because who knows if this random forum participant is making a joke or really believes/advocates something outlandish? This YouTuber seems to have hit the latter -- people who viewed it on a desktop saw the comments and caught on to the satirical quality*, while those watching on phones or whatnot** did not have access to the information that would tell them that it was intended as a joke (as opposed to someone pretending to have early access to D&D2024 information, which is sadly quite believable to anyone familiar with Youtube gaming nontent-producers).
*plus those who knew this youtuber and know their actual capabilities/humor style
**and maybe had the video show up on their feed without context

 

[MichaelSomething]

There is always an issue with satire. If the audience misinterprets it, is it because they are being dense, or because the satirist failed to effectively communicate the satire (and us generally living in a world where then intended satire really could be someone's genuinely held positions/deliberate falsehoods).

• It seems every content aggregators site in the last decade or so has articles about times people didn't catch satire, and feature a section on The Beastie Boys "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)" and how ridiculous it was that 1986 teen or frat boys or whatnot didn't realize the song was a goof on them. This always bothers me because, well, what did the average 1986 teen or frat boy know about the Beastie Boys (who kinda were the booze & party types depicted in the song right up until Licensed to Ill) that would suggest to them that the song wasn't being sung earnestly?
• Likewise general topic forums like Reddit/Quora tends to have a thread about people not catching satire, and someone always brings up people not realizing that Starship Troopers was satire. My reaction is always generally 'what about the satire was subtle, Doggie Howser in a nazi uniform or ending like a WWII promotional news real; and my gut instinct that there's really only a handful of people who didn't catch it, that the forum posters are overinterpreting the prevalence of because they want their having gotten it to be rare and exemplary. However, on further reflection I realized that a lot of people first saw (possibly only ever saw) the movie as a teen/possibly younger (particularly a nudity-edited version on TBS for years after the initial release) and maybe not catching the satire did happen, and was a result of the specific context of the experience.

The former is likely what you experienced (assuming you are talking about forum posts where the satire was not caught) because who knows if this random forum participant is making a joke or really believes/advocates something outlandish? This YouTuber seems to have hit the latter -- people who viewed it on a desktop saw the comments and caught on to the satirical quality*, while those watching on phones or whatnot** did not have access to the information that would tell them that it was intended as a joke (as opposed to someone pretending to have early access to D&D2024 information, which is sadly quite believable to anyone familiar with Youtube gaming nontent-producers).
*plus those who knew this youtuber and know their actual capabilities/humor style
**and maybe had the video show up on their feed without context

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...

 

[Charlaquin]

The former is likely what you experienced (assuming you are talking about forum posts where the satire was not caught) because who knows if this random forum participant is making a joke or really believes/advocates something outlandish? This YouTuber seems to have hit the latter -- people who viewed it on a desktop saw the comments and caught on to the satirical quality*, while those watching on phones or whatnot** did not have access to the information that would tell them that it was intended as a joke (as opposed to someone pretending to have early access to D&D2024 information, which is sadly quite believable to anyone familiar with Youtube gaming nontent-producers).
*plus those who knew this youtuber and know their actual capabilities/humor style
**and maybe had the video show up on their feed without context

Notably, if you were watching the video, you’d have had the context to get that it was satire, as the sources were all cited to TSR-era books. But, anyone who wasn’t reading the on-screen citations for some reason, or was just listening to the audio and not watching the video, yeah, it’s understandable they wouldn’t have caught on.