D&D 5E Rants Regarding the Corporate Castration of our Beloved Hobby

[GMMichael]

This infuriates me. To me, this seems to demonstrate such disregard and lack of appreciation for WotC's customers that it borders on insulting. F#$% you all, give us more money! Thoughts?

Yeah. Play a free game with easy-to-design characters, like this one.

 

[OB1]

Can we start a sub-forum to put all these "WOTC and Curse are Evil for making money" threads into?

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not really sure how offering products at market value is equivalent to a company cussing out it's customers.

 

[Keravath]

I'm sure if OrcPub had been willing to pay WotC the same fees, they could have done so.

That would depend on how the licensing contract with Beyond was written and depend on whether they were given exclusive digital distribution rights or not for the specific applications involved. I don't think any of us know what has or has not been said between WotC and either Orcpub or Beyond or others.

All we do know is that WotC has asked Orcpub to remove non-SRD content and has asked other folks to remove some character sheets with significant character building capability from DMSGuild and elsewhere. This move did correspond to the public release of D&D Beyond so there may or may not be a relationship.

 

[Parmandur]

That would depend on how the licensing contract with Beyond was written and depend on whether they were given exclusive digital distribution rights or not for the specific applications involved. I don't think any of us know what has or has not been said between WotC and either Orcpub or Beyond or others.

All we do know is that WotC has asked Orcpub to remove non-SRD content and has asked other folks to remove some character sheets with significant character building capability from DMSGuild and elsewhere. This move did correspond to the public release of D&D Beyond so there may or may not be a relationship.

While it's true that we don't know all contractual factors, it can't be too exclusive, as Fantasy Grounds, Roll 20 and D&D Beyond are competing with each other in overlapping spaces. For those willing and able to pay the fees, something can be worked out.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Regardless of copyright protection, etc., it would be pretty nice if every hardcover book contained a unique unlock code that someone could use to unlock that content one time on a digital platform. They could then keep a central database of each time a code has been used on each platform, to prevent content/platform piracy.

So what happens when you get home, enter your unlock code, and discover that somebody copied it in the store without buying the book and your code has been used?

I totally get that it feels like buying the book should get you the digital content for free, but how exactly is this going to work? It has to:
1) Be backwards compatible with all the books sold
2) Not require new technology or training in bookstores/FLGS
3) Not require expensive/complicated packaging to prevent in-store theft of codes
4) Work with online retailers

Anybody have a workable proposal? I'm skeptical....

As for the notion that there is no harm in just letting people make characters for free, I think it would cost them a bunch of sales of PHBs. If you're a new player, just getting into D&D, and you can make characters for free on the internet are you really going to shell out $50 for a book?

 

[ccs]

Yes, how DARE the company try & make $ on their product.
How dare they crack down when they find someone (orc pub for ex) stealing their material....

Okay, I am full of rants. The one that really gets me going lately is concerning D&D Beyond, the OGL and SRD. So, you might be familiar with such online tools as OrcPub? OrcPub was, and still fairly is, an amazing online character builder for 5e. OrcPub is solely responsible for the ease with which I began my foray into this beloved hobby called Dungeons & Dragons. Without their amazing tools, I would probably have suffered from information overload and extreme tedium, ultimately giving up on D&D altogether. OrcPub was especially amazing because it included options from EVERY source, even Unearthed Arcana articles, for creating your character. It DID, anyway, until WotC caught wind of it and stepped in. They demanded that OrcPub remove all non-SRD content from the site, limiting each class to a single archetype and every character to the Acolyte background. OrcPub, of course, complied as they did not want to incur the wrath of the vampiric corporate lawyers. Why would WotC do this over a simple character builder? Something that isn't selling its service or even turning a profit? The answer is....drumroll...D&D Beyond!

Now, WotC, in partnership with Hasbro and Twitch, cooked up a neat little toolset for 5e and named it D&D Beyond. This toolset includes a character builder and compendium of all things 5e. However, and here is the caveat, it is incomplete. It, too, only contains SRD content unless you buy digital copies of the core books and adventures in order to unlock their content in the toolset. So, to summarize, I currently own about $300 worth of hard copy core rulebooks and adventures that sit on my shelf in my living room. In order to utilize the content of those books on D&D Beyond, I would then need to buy the digital version for $30 EACH BOOK! No unlock codes for those holding hard copies. No love for those who have already shelled out the big bucks for the real-world, ink and paper books. Due to this, they feel it necessary to scour the webs for anyone utilizing non-SRD content and put a stop to them so that we, the devoted fans, players and DMs, have no choice but to submit to their grand conspiracy to separate us from even more of our hard earned money. As if we have not spent enough of it already.

This infuriates me. To me, this seems to demonstrate such disregard and lack of appreciation for WotC's customers that it borders on insulting. F#$% you all, give us more money! Thoughts?

 

[MechaPilot]

So what happens when you get home, enter your unlock code, and discover that somebody copied it in the store without buying the book and your code has been used?

I totally get that it feels like buying the book should get you the digital content for free, but how exactly is this going to work? It has to:
1) Be backwards compatible with all the books sold
2) Not require new technology or training in bookstores/FLGS
3) Not require expensive/complicated packaging to prevent in-store theft of codes
4) Work with online retailers

Anybody have a workable proposal? I'm skeptical....

As for the notion that there is no harm in just letting people make characters for free, I think it would cost them a bunch of sales of PHBs. If you're a new player, just getting into D&D, and you can make characters for free on the internet are you really going to shell out $50 for a book?

The books could come with cards that have a code on them. The code is beneath a scratch-off portion (like those scratch and win lottery tickets), so you'll be able to see if the code has been revealed (which likely means it's already been used). To discourage theft of the cards from the books they should be kept behind the counter and dispensed by the sales staff when a book is sold.

Alternately, it could work like getting a free game with purchase of a graphics card. The code is generated by the register and printed on a receipt. The purchaser then submits the code online and downloads the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Probabaly easier all around to ship each book with a scratch off code on a card, which could be kept behind the counter.

 

[Morrus]

Regardless of copyright protection, etc., it would be pretty nice if every hardcover book contained a unique unlock code that someone could use to unlock that content one time on a digital platform. They could then keep a central database of each time a code has been used on each platform, to prevent content/platform piracy.

That would require a TARDIS.