So how do we respond?

[Incenjucar]

This is the “downside” of the old argument that RPGs, despite being expensive to get into, are actually cheap in the long run because they offer a massive amount of entertainment for few dollars. Once you get in, you can play forever without buying anything ever again. Which is why it’s inherently difficult to sell just rules for a game of imagination.

Yep! It's why you need to make sure that your audience has affection enough for you to look for excuses to send you money. My Patreon + Twitch bill is triple digits every month for a bunch of people and things that are 100% free for me to access, because I like them and I want them to get paid even though I don't have to pay them a dime.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yep! It's why you need to make sure that your audience has affection enough for you to look for excuses to send you money. My Patreon + Twitch bill is triple digits every month for a bunch of people and things that are 100% free for me to access, because I like them and I want them to get paid even though I don't have to pay them a dime.

this is what RPG companies need to deal with (From the smallest DMs guild seller to Wotc/Hasbro) if you want to continue to make money you have few options... splat roll out like 3e, subscription like 4e, or (the best but least predictable) the growth of 5e.

Other then that you have the edition treadmill. "Hey look remember that book you use every week for 8 years, let get you to rebuy it with some updates and errata and this time you get a vote and a voice in what we fix"

 

[Vaalingrade]

When you look at it in hindsight, how can any corporate entity not act to protect its interest in those circumstances.

By.... doing the same thing that made them billions over the last decade?

Why would anyone protect the goose that lays the golden eggs when you can dissect it in the vain hope of finding out how it does that and breeding your own army of supergeese?

 

[see]

Let's face it. We all knew this would happen when Hasbro bought the game.

Hasbro "bought the game" in September 1999, predating the release of any version of the OGL or SRD.

 

[Scribe]

Neither are they a charity. It’s their corporate responsibility to make profit for their shareholders.

 

[Dausuul]

This doesn't sync with the fact that they've been doing better than they ever have. They're not an underdog here.

Exactly. D&D is booming like never before, even in the salad days of the '80s. You can argue whether 3PPs are contributing to that and how much, but there's no question that Wizards-owned D&D and third-party publishers can coexist and flourish.

None of us knows how all this is going to shake out, but I'm noticing a pattern here:

1. D&D grows like gangbusters alongside a vigorous 3PP community.
2. The owner of D&D gets dollar signs in their eyes and chases increasingly dubious dreams of empire, while at the same time trying to claw back market share from the 3PPs.
3. D&D suffers a crisis and collapse. At the owner of D&D, heads roll.
4. The new stewards of the game dump the grand plans, go back to the drawing board, and look for ways to re-engage the community.
5. Repeat.

We've seen this full cycle play out twice now, first with TSR and then with Wizards in the 3E/4E era. We are now in phase 2 of the third cycle. It's far from certain that the rest will play out the same way as before... but I suspect that's what's coming.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Hasbro "bought the game" in September 1999, predating the release of any version of the OGL or SRD.

yeah 3e, 3.5, the board games, 4e essentials, and 5e have all been under Hasbro

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Neither are they a charity. It’s their corporate responsibility to make profit for their shareholders.

I’m sure they want to do that with a thriving D&D community but my bet is that they think that the big players are in too deep to cut tail and run, and if they aren’t well DMsGuild fulfills a similar purpose for them.

if making us all happy and feel like part of the family made them more profit they would do so. If throwing us to the wolves made them more money they would do so.

yup 100% this

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's what happens sadly often when someone new takes over at a company.

"I'm new and better than the last guy. I will promise the investors that they will make massive short term and short-sighted gains in the year and a half I'll be here before leaping from the burning husk I make out of the company to get those gains with a parachute made of the finest gold woven together with human misery."

 

[payn]

It's what happens sadly often when someone new takes over at a company.

"I'm new and better than the last guy. I will promise the investors that they will make massive short term and short-sighted gains in the year and a half I'll be here before leaping from the burning husk I make out of the company to get those gains with a parachute made of the finest gold woven together with human misery."