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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khaalis" data-source="post: 4743194" data-attributes="member: 2167">Personally, I just see this as yet another reminder that WotC/Hasbro is a corporation. Period. These decisions and actions, bordering on underhanded if not downright shady (due to the amount of time this was done in), were obviously put in place by the executives and lawyers at Hasbro/WotC.  It also shows me that the powers that be at Hasbro/WotC are about as competent as those running GM. All other topics aside, this is simply a bad business decision on their part. On a personal note, I hope it bites them in the proverbial <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />.There may be individuals involved in the D&D product that care about the consumer base, but the company as a whole doesn't. Its a business, pure and simple. They aren't in it for the love of the game or the hobby. They simply see the gaming consumer base as a target market to which they produce the lowest costing product they can manage to get people to buy for the highest price possible. Target markets are fluid. So even if they piss off a few hundred, even a few thousand people, there will always be more, NEW, customers to take their place. Why do you think they have such a HUGE marketing focus on expanding the consumer base to new people?  Without a wide-spread, organized protest and boycott of WotC/Hasbro products that makes a big statement to their bottom line, the company won't even notice the complaints and anger voiced by we, the outspoken MINORITY. They simply don't care. Wasting a lot of time crying "foul" is only good for us to vent our frustration, but will have no impact on Wotc/Hasbro at all.Blizzard is another perfect example of this. With millions of subscribers to WoW, they could care less if they piss of a few thousand and force them out of the game. The cyclical fluid nature of the consumer base will more than make up for any short term impact on sales. Hasbro/WotC has the same mindset.The day of a company truly caring about their client base died in the late 60's early 70's at the latest (with rare few exceptions).As for digital media, they will never stop pirating, no matter how hard they try. For some, this simply derives from the NEED for digital copies of books, and it is something the company has apparently yet to realize. Hasbro/WotC needs to wake up and smell the coffee. They still haven't figured out (as seen with their totally incompetent offerings at digital game support) that we now live in the technological information age. The day of purely "paper' products is a thing of the past. Most people I know who still Pen & Paper game, aren't technically P&P anymore, instead using laptops for a lot of the old "paper" sources of gaming, including and most especially being able to carry around WotC's 150 lb. worth of books (e.g. 3.5E) on a laptop. WotC/Hasbro needs to join the rest of us in the 21st Century or go the way of the dodo, just like GM is facing./rant off</blockquote>

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