What do you think WotC "owes" gamers?

[jdrakeh]

He's saying that your example was wildly hyperbolic because it exaggerated the facts toward some rhetorical end. How did it exaggerate the facts? By being wildly hyperbolic, of course. In other words he's begging the question.

No, I'm saying that it was wildly hyperbolic because it picked a completely unrelated, tangentical, hot button, topic (slavery) and injected it into the thread simply for sensationalistic value. Human slavery has nothing to do with the thread's topic or the sidebar about retail ethics.

Resorting to such tactics in presenting an argument is only necessary when one lacks real or relevant examples to offer forth in support of their position. The same can be said of introducing weighted hypothetical arguments (such as pawsplay's recent "What if" example) that focus, not on the debated situation as it currently exists in reality, but upopn how it might exist if only X, Y, and Z were true. Indeed...

Whenever an argument in defense of something starts to read like a "What if" comic book, gleefully ignoring reality, that argument is already over...

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, it's often hard to draw a clear "immoral" comment without going to lengths on the internet because someone will disagree about whether something is immoral.

So rather than risk dissenting opinion, you should deliberately misrepresent certain realities to sway opinion in your favor as much as possible? I'm certain that isn't what you meant to imply, but it's exactly what you're advocating.

 

[Imperialus]

the only things that I think an RPG company "owes" it's consumers is probably best summed up in GoO's death as an example of what not to do. Companies should:

1) provide product (or at least a full refund) that has been paid for in good faith, be it a pre-order or a "free bonus gift" for pre-ordering.

2) Tell customers if orders are no longer being shipped and remove purchace links from their websites.

3) Maintain the reputation of any brand that they have been entrusted with, GRRM is going to have a difficult time selling an RPG based off of Song of Ice and Fire again.

Anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. Even #3 is debateable.

 

[Faraer]

It pains me to no end to see how many people agree that a business owes nothing to anyone but itself.

And to see people quote capitalist dogma as if was some moral authority. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Humans, morally, should do right by each other, whether or not that makes profit for corporations!

Wizards of the Coast should makes products that do what they claim and please those who buy them. And because it controls properties such as D&D and the Forgotten Realms, it has the responsibility to do what's best for them in the long term.

 

[Pielorinho]

Moderator's Notes:

Let's all listen to the sound of a thread being closed. I'll talk to the other moderators about whether those of you who kept discussing politics after Umbran's crystal-clear warning need a temporary ban.

Daniel