Washington Post: The WOTC dragon is “to be slain.”

[Dungeonosophy]

No. This shows the same misunderstanding of the ttrpg market that Wizards execs are making.

There are no "competitors" to D&D. In the ttrpg space there are people who play D&D and people who don't. People who play other games also usually also play D&D because that's how it works.

You don't get more D&D players by crushing other game companies. You get angry D&D players who are mad about Hasbro destroying one of their favorite other RPG companies and deciding they don't really want to spend money on D&D anymore.

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the ttrpg market to think that D&D can grow if they squeeze out other companies. It's a TSR level mistake in how the rpg market works.

Really well said.

 

[Jer]

Yeah. The Hasbro-WotC execs dont understand "ecosystem" and "symbiosis".

^this!

But the plans involve more than the VTT. They want movies and tv shows and popculture − while the VTT then serves as a method of "recurring monetization" of these popculture interests.

But they can have all of that. They own the Dungeons and Dragons trademark. Nobody else can use that. As long as they maintain the goodwill of the brand and don't do things that make people think that D&D sucks and they don't want to support it anymore they're gold on the pop culture front.

All of these Hasbro-WotC plans derive from envy and cruelty. Envy of successes like Critical Role. Cruelty against the populations who actually comprise the D&D traditions.

Now I can absolutely believe that they're mad that they're not getting Critical Role money. But none of this gets them that.