As a brand D&D will always contain an element of humor. Part of this comes from the culture of those who play the game. Look at what we as players enjoy as entertainment; The Famliy Guy, South Park, The Simpsons, Monty Python. The brand does not take itself too seriously (as compared to M:TG). There has always been an element of humor within the D&D brand if you so choose to insert it. Or you can be desadly serious and save the world. It's your game.
What the cartoon says about D&D? It is not meant to be a statement of the brand or some distillation of the core values. It is meant to entertain.
It has a dragon and a dungeon. People mostly enjoyed it. People who enjoyed it (or didn't) are talking about it. My web traffic is up. It is marketing. Mission accomplished.
Served its purpose for getting people talking about D&D I am sure, but...well first thanks for actually taking time away form the GSL work to respond here....does D&D need to go through any more negative publicity to just get it out there. 4th edition shocked the gaming world as is, so I don't think people are not already talking about the dramatic changes to the game.
I like satire in most forms, but potty humor is not all that interesting to me and seems to come from a feeble mind. I liked Monty Python, Faulty Towers, Red Dwarf (to an extent), and Are You Being served, but those other TV programs you mention are very low brow humor bordering on just childishness from people who refuse to grow up. They are nothing like a Sit-Com, but more like the Robot Chicken form of just comedy in the form of stupidity, and are really sad programs. Simpsons does try to touch on some real issues over the top as a psuedo Sit-Com.
I think what might be hurting the D&D brand is how it IS treated differently than M:TG as a joke product rather than a more serious one. I don't know how to get tournament style play from D&D to make it that serious to show on ESPN2, but it would probably lend better to promoting the brand than a bunch of potty humor as in this cartoon.
Also the fact that who and why the jokes are being made, must be looked at as well. A company really shouldn't make fun of its target audience for any reason else it will become an elitist niche. Being already a niche product it would not be good to drive it into a smaller customer base by driving people away from it.
The troll being made fun of, the "sycophants", etc was in poor taste with how it was done. Taking 4th edition into account in any way to call those groups is not good as it shows sentiment that WotC views its customers as kobolds, or in 4th editoin terms its minions. One-shot-one-kill entities.
I may be wrong thinking the interviewer has been representative of Gamer_Zer0 all along, but it seems likely, and again in poor taste after the recent events. I never saw him as a bad person, but just misplaced in the duties given with no authority to carry them out form what I read about him. His interviews seemed to go the same way as most of the cartoons did, which brought me to that conclusion.
The cartoons for the most part were always funny until they targeted the gamers themselves. That was out of line. Eating the gnome and burning him and the interviewer over and over was funny because they were not real people and something the brand would not suffer from, but actually targeting your customers to ridicule is a throwback to the someone from TSR whose actions do not need to be repeated.
WotC has kept D&D alive through effort, and it would be sad to see a turn like this continue into the future to have the work WotC has done so far to revive D&D take a turn south.
Yes adventurers as crunchy and taste good with ketchup, and papers and paychecks was a cute game for a wizard and blacksmith to be playing, but there is a line that should be drawn where the satire of the game does not become an insult to its players.
I would like to see more cartoons in the core books or even the magazines. Wormy made fun of wargamers and the struggle they had in the new gaming environment, but this cartoon only makes fun of real world people with no real purpose other than that, and there is the problem.
Again thanks for taking time out of your schedule to answer, and hope that future cartoons go through you to prevent such things that could abuse the game/customer relationship to be allow them both to grow better and stronger without trying to take stabs at each other.
The company shoUld take the higher ground in these cases even if the diverse sides are at each others throats. Kobolds v. Trolls
And if you can make her laugh, your probably doing all right.
Scott is absolutely correct. There is merit to to the old expression " There is no such thing as bad press."
