WotC State of the Game, Darklords of Ravenloft

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It was 2 years; Wes misspoke and it was edited in the video above his camera view. And he specifically said it's NOT a copy paste, but more focused on the darklords. Was he defensive? Yes, mostly out of annoyance, because I suspect he genuinely didn't expect to be asked that.

I think at least two of the people on the video need a lot more media training.

Being angry and offended by a pretty tame and common question that arises when your company hasn't adequately explained the difference between the previous and relatively recent product shows a real tone deafness, as does laughing at the idea that Innsmouth would just be Innsmouth from Lovecraft's story.

Your job is to explain this stuff to the customers, not laugh at them for having these questions.

If they can't not be jerks about this -- and straight up publicly laughing at questions the fans have about an upcoming product they're being asked to pay real money for is being a jerk -- someone else should be doing these videos.

(I have previously had to give media training to someone in a similar role who didn't get why sneering at stupid questions was counterproductive. He's now great at the role, many years later, but there was a while we had to keep him away from the public because he wasn't helping.)

 

[Scribe]

Being angry and offended by a pretty tame and common question that arises when your company hasn't adequately explained the difference between the previous and relatively recent product shows a real tone deafness, as does laughing at the idea that Innsmouth would just be Innsmouth from Lovecraft's story.

Your job is to explain this stuff to the customers, not laugh at them for having these questions.

If they can't not be jerks about this -- and straight up publicly laughing at questions the fans have about an upcoming product they're being asked to pay real money for is being a jerk -- someone else should be doing these videos.

I really gotta say, for the 'flagship' of the hobby it blows my mind that behavior like this would happen.

Just give me the 3.5 SRD in CC Wizards, its been how long? Years?

 

[bedir than]

If they can't not be jerks about this -- and straight up publicly laughing at questions the fans have about an upcoming product they're being asked to pay real money for is being a jerk -- someone else should be doing these videos.

I took the laughter to be laughter in response to DiceCreamSandwich telling a joke about how he had to ask the question about Van Richten's, including his own laughter as he was asking.

 

[VashVet]

I think at least two of the people on the video need a lot more media training.

Being angry and offended by a pretty tame and common question that arises when your company hasn't adequately explained the difference between the previous and relatively recent product shows a real tone deafness, as does laughing at the idea that Innsmouth would just be Innsmouth from Lovecraft's story.

Your job is to explain this stuff to the customers, not laugh at them for having these questions.

If they can't not be jerks about this -- and straight up publicly laughing at questions the fans have about an upcoming product they're being asked to pay real money for is being a jerk -- someone else should be doing these videos.

(I have previously had to give media training to someone in a similar role who didn't get why sneering at stupid questions was counterproductive. He's now great at the role, many years later, but there was a while we had to keep him away from the public because he wasn't helping.)

I can’t speak to how they went about preparing for the event, but given that was Parr’s initial question out of the gate, I’d be shocked if that wasn’t a question that hadn’t been mentioned beforehand, and if it hadn’t been discussed with Schneider previously, then someone really didn’t do their job well. I don’t really want to beat a dead horse, but it was not a great response, regardless.

I’m pretty forgiving as a fan. I’m conditioned after an edition change that there’s going to be a certain percentage of retread and even I was thinking a better, more diplomatic response could’ve been given.

 

[Selas]

And to be fair, Van Richten was produced during the pandemic, so it's not their best attempt (definitely cut corners). Even if THW retreads a lot of VGR content, if it follows the same philosophy as HoF, it'll be a marked improvement

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I took the laughter to be laughter in response to DiceCreamSandwich telling a joke about how he had to ask the question about Van Richten's, including his own laughter as he was asking.

The laughter I was referring to was the Innsmouth laughter.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And to be fair, Van Richten was produced during the pandemic, so it's not their best attempt (definitely cut corners). Even if THW retreads a lot of VGR content, if it follows the same philosophy as HoF, it'll be a marked improvement

Oh, I intend to buy this book and I think it'll probably be excellent.

But the roll-out to their next book should give customers needed information upfront, rather than having to wait on a Q&A to find it out. If there are still questions the public has after that, no one should publicly be expressing that they're asking a dumb or weird question, even if they are. Save that stuff for company Slack afterwards.

 

[Scribe]

Save that stuff for company Slack afterwards.

Scribe's Teams Chat...has entered the chat.

 

[Selas]

If they don't include this in THW, I'm absolutely making my own versions using this as a template.

Seems like they aren't included from what I've read online

 

[Remathilis]

Seems like they aren't included from what I've read online

Bummer. To the homebrewery I go!