I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Capitalism isn't (necessarily) bad.
But being condescended to certainly is. Propaganda is, too. Being manipulated is.
Without getting too sidetracked, the "bafflegab and spin" (love that term) is not only ineffective, it's actively off-putting. Like someone pretending to be your friend just so they can borrow your car. It's a souring experience, and it affects the whole brand.
The alternative isn't for game designers to go poor. The alternative is to sell the thing on its merits. Presumably, D&D can sell itself without breathless hyperbole about how awesome it is. It certainly has done it before.
Which is why people are saying the Rule of Three column is good customer relations, and good customer relations reflect nicely on the whole brand. Clear answers without ad copy.
There's a place for advertising trickery and manipulation, but generally, one's web presence isn't a good place for that to leap out and slap you in the face. If you get them to the web page, you've already won -- they're interested in your products and your brand. Your follow-up should be primarily information and engagement. Get them into the store as quickly as possible, knowing exactly what they'll be ordering (and interested in at least two other things).
And even when there's ad work being done, there's smart ways to do it, and not so smart ways to do it. Compare the most recent In the Works column with the most recent Ampersand. Some of it might just be Bill's writing style for that article, which sounds basically like a very excited eight year old at a theme park, but to me it reeks of inauthenticity and artificiality. That might not even be an accurate picture, but, as any good ad wonk will tell you, accuracy doesn't matter.
