This came up in another part of the forums and wanted to relocate it here for potentially more visibility by D&D Beyond staff. The original idea is quoted below:
Negotiate and publicly announce deals with third-party creators to digitally publish their work on D&D Beyond. This would show a commitment to investing in third-party creators and allow WOTC to make money. It’s a win for everyone.
The idea is to effectively turn D&D Beyond into the Steam of TTRPGs compatible with D&D 5e/OneD&D. This has the potential to benefit WotC in two ways:
1. Community self-policing regarding offensive material, hateful content by having a comment section and rating system very similar to Steam that WotC can use to take action if necessary and remove the content and disassociate themselves from it. This would help structure and better enforce one of the intentions laid out in the OGL 1.2
2. Steam takes a 30% cut from video games sold on their marketplace. WotC can take some revenue cut for promoting, hosting, and selling 3rd party 5e compatible material on D&D Beyond. This accomplishes one of the earlier OGL draft goals of improving D&D monetization.
In return, the community has a centralized and highly visible location, and committed support from WotC regarding 3rd party material. The community also benefits from having all of the conveniences, toolsets, and capabilities of D&D Beyond integrated with the 5e compatible 3rd party material. WotC should also bear responsibility for promoting various 3rd party material on D&D Beyond from time to time, with sales, or shout outs, or banners - all of which would drive revenue for both WotC and 3rd parties (exactly as Steam does it). This would help demonstrate solidification of partnerships between WotC and the community.
I realize DM's Guild somewhat is intended to serve the purpose of this idea... but it is a) outdated web design ; b) not centralized or nearly as visible as D&D Beyond to players and the community ; c) does not directly integrate with D&D toolsets, cross-reference capabilities, character integration, or (perhaps in the future) with WotC's own VTT. Moving the functionality of DM's Guild directly into D&D Beyond seems to be better for both WotC and the community.
Edit: I wanted to add that another avenue for D&D Beyond is to not just serve as a Steam marketplace, but also as a direct publisher of 3rd party material in very much the same way that the video game industry has the developer/publisher model.
This came up in another part of the forums and wanted to relocate it here for potentially more visibility by D&D Beyond staff. The original idea is quoted below:
The idea is to effectively turn D&D Beyond into the Steam of TTRPGs compatible with D&D 5e/OneD&D. This has the potential to benefit WotC in two ways:
1. Community self-policing regarding offensive material, hateful content by having a comment section and rating system very similar to Steam that WotC can use to take action if necessary and remove the content and disassociate themselves from it. This would help structure and better enforce one of the intentions laid out in the OGL 1.2
2. Steam takes a 30% cut from video games sold on their marketplace. WotC can take some revenue cut for promoting, hosting, and selling 3rd party 5e compatible material on D&D Beyond. This accomplishes one of the earlier OGL draft goals of improving D&D monetization.
In return, the community has a centralized and highly visible location, and committed support from WotC regarding 3rd party material. The community also benefits from having all of the conveniences, toolsets, and capabilities of D&D Beyond integrated with the 5e compatible 3rd party material. WotC should also bear responsibility for promoting various 3rd party material on D&D Beyond from time to time, with sales, or shout outs, or banners - all of which would drive revenue for both WotC and 3rd parties (exactly as Steam does it). This would help demonstrate solidification of partnerships between WotC and the community.
I realize DM's Guild somewhat is intended to serve the purpose of this idea... but it is a) outdated web design ; b) not centralized or nearly as visible as D&D Beyond to players and the community ; c) does not directly integrate with D&D toolsets, cross-reference capabilities, character integration, or (perhaps in the future) with WotC's own VTT. Moving the functionality of DM's Guild directly into D&D Beyond seems to be better for both WotC and the community.
Edit: I wanted to add that another avenue for D&D Beyond is to not just serve as a Steam marketplace, but also as a direct publisher of 3rd party material in very much the same way that the video game industry has the developer/publisher model.
Steam is also a problematic monopoly in the PC gaming market.