The Moral of the Story Is....Maybe there's such a thing as (D&D being) too big

[Charlaquin]

Then you're welcome to ruin me forever. I've operated small business, operated as a freelance illustrator and cartographer, now a small RPG publisher. I wouldn't have done any of it for free, and I believe Capitalism is the only economic/governing system in existence - all others fail eventually. Not saying Capitalism doesn't have negatives to it, everything does, but it’s still the best way to do it, and the only way I'd do it. True capitalism is at the Mom and Pop shop, small business in every community. Corporatism is not Capitalism, and it's that which WotC/Hasbro is ruining their house with. Corporatism is that evil, that is always blamed on Capitalism, which is nothing like Corporatism.

I disagree with your assessment but we aren’t supposed to talk about it here.

 

[gamerprinter]

One reason why I will always resist any urge to think of my self as a D&D or Warhammer hobbyist. I'm a roleplayer and wargamer first, IPs may come and go, and I keep my hand in on a variety to stave off the chance I get too dependent and locked-in to something that's under corporate control.

I'm a creator first, then a roleplayer, never been a wargamer. I've created an IP, and I intend to create more. I won't touch an IP that isn't mine. So corporations have no hold over me...

 

[Minigiant]

5e's success attracted the suits and the suits realized that 5e was the least monetized, undercooked, and weakest booked edition of D&D. And they went for the easy fad route of subscription and not.. you know.. attempt any traditionally accepted ways to make more money to please the shareholders.

 

[MGibster]

Capitalism ruins everything

Tetris was originally created by Alexy Pajitnov while he was with the Soviet Academy of Science in 1984. It was just a little side project of his, but his coworkers absolutely loved the hell out of it, and the academy ended up banning it beacause people spent to much time playing it. Pajitnov wanted a way to introduce his game to a wider audience, but there were no mechanisms for him to introduce Tetris to the wider Soviet population nevermind the world. Crazy, right? If I asked you if you'd ever heard Kobrobeiniki you'd probably say "bless you," but if I asked you to hum the Tetris theme I bet you could do it. Where did Tetris really gain popularity and become a household name? In the western world under its capitalist system.

 

[MGibster]

One reason why I will always resist any urge to think of my self as a D&D or Warhammer hobbyist. I'm a roleplayer and wargamer first, IPs may come and go, and I keep my hand in on a variety to stave off the chance I get too dependent and locked-in to something that's under corporate control.

Games Workshop always refers to the Warhammer hobby and never war gaming. I started a thread not too long ago arguing that it was bad for D&D to overwhelmingly dominate RPGs the way it does. It's okay that it dominates, something is going to be the most popular so why not D&D? But it's a bad thing when one game is synonymous with the hobby in the ears of so many people.

 

[Greg Benage]

I think before this fiasco, those sorts of fears were considered "gatekeeping."

 

[TheSword]

Anti-corporate rhetoric and attacks are making the boards feel very hostile to folks who work for large businesses. Particularly in a managerial position. There has always been an undercurrent but now it’s a torrent. Maybe you don’t know, or don’t care, but it kinda stinks. Lots of people work for corporations that they like working for and don’t deserve to have the workplaces constantly attacked by generalizations and sweeping statements.

 

[Minigiant]

Anti-corporate rhetoric and attacks are making the boards feel very hostile to folks who work for large businesses. Particularly in a managerial position. There has always been an undercurrent but now it’s a torrent. Maybe you don’t know, or don’t care, but it kinda stinks. Lots of people work for corporations that they like working for and don’t deserve to have the workplaces constantly attacked by generalizations and sweeping statements.

Yeah, it is important that people understand that the issue isn't WOTC being a bigger corporation.
The issue is Hasbro and WOTC being run by people who don't understand their products northeir products' communities.
The key is the the suit didn't take the acceptable and more sucesseful methods to make money with MTG and D&D because they don't know the games enough to know how to build money on them.

It can happen with big corps and small companies. I've seen many small businesses fall apart due to the higher ups not getting the business (typically hand-down to a child or sell out by an owner's child).

 

[Charlaquin]

Tetris was originally created by Alexy Pajitnov while he was with the Soviet Academy of Science in 1984. It was just a little side project of his, but his coworkers absolutely loved the hell out of it, and the academy ended up banning it beacause people spent to much time playing it. Pajitnov wanted a way to introduce his game to a wider audience, but there were no mechanisms for him to introduce Tetris to the wider Soviet population nevermind the world. Crazy, right? If I asked you if you'd ever heard Kobrobeiniki you'd probably say "bless you," but if I asked you to hum the Tetris theme I bet you could do it. Where did Tetris really gain popularity and become a household name? In the western world under its capitalist system.

Cool story bro

 

[The Stray]

And while some of those systems might get a new SRD under Paizo's ORC License, not all of them will. While games that are designed from scratch can conceivably be re-released under the ORC License, that's probably not going to be the case for games whose publishers have since closed their doors (and so aren't around to release a new SRD under the ORC License) or are based off of the 3.5 or 5E SRDs. So if you're a fan of Mutants and Masterminds, for instance, then you might very well not see any more M&M products from third-party publishers (which have been coming out as recently as today) because those publishers are wary of the OGL v1.0a going away, and Green Ronin couldn't release the game (as it's based on the 3.5 SRD) under the ORC License.

I wouldn't worry about M&M specifically -- the 3rd edition of M&M is completely divorced from the 3.5 SRD, which they had to do to get the DC license. It could easily be moved to the ORC and built on there -- it's even further from its 3.x roots than Pathfinder 2e is.

I get your point, though, and have no arguments about the rest of it. It's stuck in the same "will they sue if we proceed?" dilemma the rest of the hobby is in, ORC or no ORC.