What Are You 12?

[DonTadow]

I think their being run by a corporation. And not a traditional gaming company. Every move they've made is what I'd expect from a company that sells the dungeons and dragons commodity. But this is a corporation, one with a marketing team smart enough ti figure out how to sucker people into pay 20bucks per 1/3rd of one of their core books over the course of a year. One who has take non the music industries approach and is sueing or threatening their customers. One that has put the company line as .. D&D has to be changed to make it profitable.

I figure people will figure it out one day, but the D&D legal body belongs to wotc, its soul has been abandoned.

 

[Mournblade94]

I think their being run by a corporation. And not a traditional gaming company. Every move they've made is what I'd expect from a company that sells the dungeons and dragons commodity.

This is the truth I long expected. WOTC has honest gamers working for it, who wish the hobby well, but ultimately to keep their job they are beholden to the bean counters of Hasbro who care nothing for the spirit of the gaming hobby.

 

[Cadfan]

1) A friend of mine created a submission to WotC and was denied. A few years later, WotC released a series of books with the major artifact from his submission with not only the same ability, but with the exact same name (and the name is the title of the book).

I don't know what to say about this except that I know a LOT of graybeards convinced that game companies stole their ideas. Our local guy is convinced that he designed hald of Carmegeddon. We just nod our head when he talks, its best that way for everyone.

2) The podcasts on WotC web sites are full of foul mouth expletives that I as a business owner would never have associated with my company. And half of the players on the podcasts appear to not know the rules at all.

Dude. I feel like I should respond to this by mimicking your title: "What are you, 82?"

You're right. The podcasts feature foul language. Also, they feature celebrities popular with people under the age of about 35. Many of them are new to 4e, and some are new to D&D. So you're correct, they don't know the rules very well.

The podcasts are also incredibly popular. The players have fun, the dialogue is interesting,

3) Any post that is anti-WotC and even slightly controversial on the WotC forums is locked down, often within a matter of hours. Free speech is practically denied if anything negative is said about WotC.

This is COMPLETELY wrong. WotC's forum moderation is even less useful than ENWorld's. Its true that threads get locked, but those threads go far, far further down the rabbit hole before they do than anything here. And the people who provoked the lock never receive anything more than a slap on the wrist. IP bans are against policy. And writing lengthy, flame war posts about how cruelly the mods treated you is considered a sport, and is in fact tolerated by the mods in an extra burst of ironic flavor.

Let me put it this way: if I made a signature proclaiming that I was "destroying fanbois, one by one," filled my every post with a made up word "retarted," would ENWorld's moderation

1. tell me to stop, or

2. discipline people who yell at me, and post that its unacceptable for other people to treat me like a troll, even if I engage in trolling in other threads. Delete the occasional post that goes too far out of line, and carefully protect my ability to call people "ghey" "retarted" or "fanbois."

4) WotC seems to be threatening a lot of web sites with lawsuits if anyone creates anything useful as a 4E tool. I have a few web sites in my favorites list that no longer exist or have their useful tools available.

The PDF thing is silly, but are you really defending sites like emass?

It just seems to me that a bunch of young punks are running the show at WotC. Maybe I'm just an old grognard, but I am seeing quite a few things that make me go: hmmmm.

Its not because you're old. In fact, defending sites like emass is something almost exclusively for 12 year olds. So you've got something in common with this generation after all!

Admin note: Personal attacks are not suddenly okay. See my post, below, before anyone is tempted to respond to this post. ~ PCat

 

[coyote6]

As for #2, are you referring to the podcasts featuring the Penny Arcade guys actually playing D&D? From reading PA, profanity isn't unexpected; I'm pretty sure WotC knew what to expect. If one summons the ghost of George Carlin to MC at your corporate party, then one presumably knows what one is asking for, and presumably wants it.

I suspect that WotC would quite like to sell lots of copies of D&D books to as many of the readers of PA as they can manage, ergo the podcasts.

 

[Wormwood]

1) A friend of mine created a submission to WotC and was denied. A few years later, WotC released a series of books with the major artifact from his submission with not only the same ability, but with the exact same name (and the name is the title of the book).

What were the terms under which your friend submitted his piece?

2) The podcasts on WotC web sites are full of foul mouth expletives that I as a business owner would never have associated with my company.

The PA Podcasts are clearly labelled as containing 'poopy talk'; and regardless, I would wager that *far* more D&D game tables sound like those podcasts than they do dinner with Ned Flanders.

And half of the players on the podcasts appear to not know the rules at all.

Yet all of the players seemed to enjoy themselves. They've got plenty of time to learn the rules later.

3) Any post that is anti-WotC and even slightly controversial on the WotC forums is locked down, often within a matter of hours. Free speech is practically denied if anything negative is said about WotC.

The Wizards boards are full of criticisms of D&D and WotC. But obvious trolls and flamers are shut down fairly quickly. And what does Free Speech have to do with a private forum, anyway?

4) WotC seems to be threatening a lot of web sites with lawsuits if anyone creates anything useful as a 4E tool. I have a few web sites in my favorites list that no longer exist or have their useful tools available.

One man's useful tool is another man's blatant IP rip-off.

It just seems to me that a bunch of young punks are running the show at WotC. Maybe I'm just an old grognard, but I am seeing quite a few things that make me go: hmmmm.

Actually, the dudes at WotC seem like a fairly cool bunch of guys. Pity about the lawyers, I suppose.

 

[Piratecat]

Do not make personal shots at someone just because you disagree with him. It's perfectly okay to refute points, but we're not going to put up with people making cheap jabs. I'm really tired of moderating people who think they can break the rules just because they're angry. Now's the time to stop.

 

[Plane Sailing]

So, your friend has contacted or sued WotC and got suitable recompense, right?

I imagine for most individuals there seems little point in attempting to sue a big company, since it tends to be very costly and probably has slim chance of success.

3) Any post that is anti-WotC and even slightly controversial on the WotC forums is locked down, often within a matter of hours. Free speech is practically denied if anything negative is said about WotC.

IIRC wasn't this only an issue with one of the moderators (GamerZero or something) at the point where Gleemax was, for want of a better expression, 'failing'?

I've not noticed it as an issue on their boards generally.

Cheers

 

[thadrine]

1. I had the same thing happen to me.

2. I agree with this, however I have to say that I do not have a problem with the profanity my self. What I would like to see on their podcast is the days where they had some of the designers actually go over a battle encounter, maybe even done as a video....oh, wait they fired them.

3. My original account on the WotC boards has been permanently banned. What for? For telling a player I was going to have join my online game that he could just get the core books from the online SRD. Which WotC hosted themselves!

4. I have had friends lose their jobs over this site closer. None, of the places I went to in the past are up and running, even those that did not have any 4e material up, where still sent a cease and desist order.

 

[Piratecat]

None, of the places I went to in the past are up and running, even those that did not have any 4e material up, where still sent a cease and desist order.

Do you mind listing these sites? I have trouble believing that anyone not hosting illegal WotC IP got a cease-and-desist. I'd be intrigued to see who you were thinking of.

 

[Henrix]

2) The podcasts on WotC web sites are full of foul mouth expletives that I as a business owner would never have associated with my company. And half of the players on the podcasts appear to not know the rules at all.

I thought it was a sign of the fact that the US public may be maturing a little.

To much of the rest of the world the US fear of adult language seems a bit childish, to be honest.

The podcasts are labeled as containing 'adult' language, and it isn't like they are particulirily foulmouthed, they just don't watch every word they say (and not, which is even less mature in my eyes, take away the offensive words and put in a 'beep').