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

[Yaarel]

• Shock and denial
• Pain and guilt
• Anger and bargaining
• Depression
• The upward turn
• Reconstruction and working through
• Acceptance and hope

This sequence is accurate for me.

Like everyone else, I dismissed the initial reports. But then realized the claims about Hasbro-WotC maleficence proved substantive.

There was a couple of days I realized I was depressed, and it was because of Hasbro-WotC. The D&D tradition brought so much joy for so many years, and Hasbro-WotC made D&D toxic.

In my case, it helped to accept that it is ok to be depressed.

I felt a deep, positive, impulse to back away from Hasbro-WotC. That is proving to be the correct decision.

At the moment, despite avid searching, I see no hope for Hasbro-WotC. It will either fail or morph into a systemic dysfunctional workculture that I dont want to be part of.

Right now, I see glimmers of hope. I am at the threshold between Reconstruction and hope.

I am thinking seriously about what the ORC will make possible, and becoming familiar with other gaming systems that I find appealing.

 

[Minigiant]

I think someone in wizards thinks this, but that's because they're bad at their job and don't understand the tabletop rpg market. Because it's not true.

No,it's true

The easiest way to make more and more is to get rid of competition. Especially after 3PPs and forced isolation brought in many new fans. That's kinda what the OGL by making 3PP go into D&D instead of making their own RPGs.

WotC forgot to give 3PP any incentives. That was idiotic.

 

[Yaarel]

No.

Hasbro-WotC refuses to back down about the OGL 1.0a is the biggest obstacle is easy financial growth. All other options for year on year growth now that the global disaster is over are risky or unreliable.

And WOTC has recently proved that they aren't good enough to do most of them.

Hasbro-WotC already makes almost all of the roleplay gaming money, now.

All the other gaming companies put together are a drop in the bucket compared to what Hasbro-WotC makes from D&D.

Hasbro-WotC doesnt care about this piddly amount.

Hasbro-WotC seeks to kill the OGL 1.0a because of what Hasbro-WotC plans to do in the future. These plans are gratuitously aggressive and require the removal of any legal rights from the gaming community. Especially. Hasbro-WotC seeks to destroy any competition in the emerging internet and digital marketplace. But there is more to this.

 

[Minigiant]

Hasbro-WotC already makes almost all of the roleplay gaming money, now.

All the other gaming companies put together are a drop in the bucket compared to what Hasbro-WotC makes from D&D.

Hasbro-WotC doesnt care about this piddly amount.

Hasbro-WotC seeks to kill the OGL 1.0a because of what Hasbro-WotC plans to do in the future. Especially. To destroy any competition in the emerging internet and digital marketplace. But there is more gratuitously aggressive plans in addition to this.

Exactly.

It's all about future growth. They want to make something that will add to what they have now in the future.

 

[Jer]

No,it's true

The easiest way to make more and more is to get rid of competition. Especially after 3PPs and forced isolation brought in many new fans. That's kinda what the OGL by making 3PP go into D&D instead of making their own RPGs.

WotC forgot to give 3PP any incentives. That was idiotic.

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.

 

[Minigiant]

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.

The competitor is future VTT makers who might do it better.

 

[wingsandsword]

It's a TSR level mistake in how the rpg market works.

A LOT of this current saga feels like a sequel to the TSR era. The same attitudes, the same arrogance, the same failure to comprehend the gaming culture, even some odd little coincidental similarities like the company that makes D&D is run by a "Ms. Williams".

“History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” - Mark Twain

 

[Incenjucar]

I'm pretty much just taking this all as a challenge and an opportunity to make my mark in something a little less constrained by inertia. I imagine at least one of the ORC systems could use my brand of balanced and bizarre homebrew.

 

[Jer]

The competitor is future VTT makers who might do it better.

Ridiculously stupid. They don't even have their own vtt yet. And all of this just because someone "might" make a better vtt?

If that’s really all it is they're even dumber than I was thinking they were.

 

[Yaarel]

Ridiculously stupid. They don't even have their own vtt yet. And all of this just because someone "might" make a better vtt?

If that’s really all it is they're even dumber than I was thinking they were.

Yeah. The Hasbro-WotC execs dont understand "ecosystem" and "symbiosis". They are behaving like bullies and idiots − and imperialistic exploiters.

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.

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.

Hasbro-WotC seeks to rule the Medieval World ... LOL.