Even in non-English media Wizards is being destroyed. People are leaving the game, I play in two tables and DM another one, and the three groups are now gone... Is this the end? Could Wizards save the franchise? The recent update is just PR shit...
Even during 4e and the GSL debacle, D&D only fell as far as #2 RPG in the world (behind Pathfinder.) There's a lot of yelling online but calling it "the end" is melodramatic.
I'm sure D&D will remain relatively popular simply because so much content for it exists, but the reality is that corporations cannot, ever, compete with actual artists and creators online in terms of quality and quantity of adventures, art and enthusiasm that they generate. They just can't. Blizzard used to come close, back in the new WoW days, and that's only because we were less of an online world - these days there's SO MANY creators online that the actual content that can be generated is astronomical compared to what a company could ever afford to pay to have generated for their own game.
Long and short of it; creators will not keep putting their efforts into a game that is going to steal their content and **** them over. They just won't. They'll go to other games, and sure they may not be as popular as D&D for a while, but things change with time that's the whole way it works. People will go where the artists and creators go, because that's where the good stuff is - rules systems and $60 rulebooks aren't what make D&D fun.
I'm sure D&D will remain relatively popular simply because so much content for it exists, but the reality is that corporations cannot, ever, compete with actual artists and creators online in terms of quality and quantity of adventures, art and enthusiasm that they generate. They just can't. Blizzard used to come close, back in the new WoW days, and that's only because we were less of an online world - these days there's SO MANY creators online that the actual content that can be generated is astronomical compared to what a company could ever afford to pay to have generated for their own game.
Long and short of it; creators will not keep putting their efforts into a game that is going to steal their content and **** them over. They just won't. They'll go to other games, and sure they may not be as popular as D&D for a while, but things change with time that's the whole way it works. People will go where the artists and creators go, because that's where the good stuff is - rules systems and $60 rulebooks aren't what make D&D fun.
The clause that might have given them that ability is being removed, so we won there.
As for quantity and quality, that's a double-edged sword - yes, 1PP will never be able to keep up with 3PP on those fronts, but Sturgeon's Law means they don't have to. DMsGuild and DTRPG could have the greatest adventure paths ever written, and I wouldn't know it if I have to wade through 100 copies of Timmy's First Dungeoncrawl to get there. There is a downside to things being too open.
Even during 4e and the GSL debacle, D&D only fell as far as #2 RPG in the world (behind Pathfinder.) There's a lot of yelling online but calling it "the end" is melodramatic.
Though commonly asserted, this is a myth based on faulty data. D&D was the second most popular game sold at game stores who elect to report sales, and that is where this “fact” comes from, but that is an inaccurate picture. Most casual players go to D&D, and most casual players buy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, or another big box store. These are people who know the name D&D, as everyone does, and want to play, but are not immersed in the hobby to know about game stores.
The “PF1 outsold 4e” data does not capture Amazon or other big box stores, and is thus the same as saying “PF1 outsold 4e in places where PF1 was better received than 4e.” If you looked at Amazon sales at the time, 4e products consistently were ranked as higher sales than anything PF1 put out, except brief bumps PF1 had when a new product was released—bumps that went away when the initial surge died, allowing 4e to regain its position on top of the pole. Similar trends were all but certainly seen on every big box store.
Yeah, the international press is simply recycling stories they trending in English language markets.
Well, the Financial Times, or the Guardian in the UK for that matter, do not recycle American stories for "filler" (Note; their own writers have the byline). This is a big, big story because of the vast OGL community and popularity of D&D they, not WoTC, have created over the decades. It's important business-wise since this could make or break WoTC and Hasbero just when it's on the cusp of making D&D even bigger (the movie, etc). Will they piss it all away, and is this a lesson for other gaming companies and publishers? Yes and yes.
I've been on the internet long enough to have seen this sort of thing shake out more times than I can count; I understand that you're thinking you'd have to 'sift through everything', but the reality is that in a creative space there will always eventually be some kind of ranking system or judgment zone or voice that gives reliably good recommendations that becomes the ranker of the community; fanfic spaces get it all the time, art spaces, etc.
There won't be a need for the average player to look at every Timmy's First Dungeon because 1. the popular artists and creators will already have a following and be the Big Fishes in the Small Pond, thus getting more money and attention than ever before, cementing them as the go-to content creators, and 2. there will inevitably be websites and channels and people that put effort into going through -everything- and presenting the best of the best, because it will also garner them a reputation and audience in their own right as the voice of what's good and what isn't. This is the way of things, it's how humanity does... -everything-. Movies, books, you name it, humans do this kind of structure to it pretty much as far as hobbies and entertainment goes.
There can be a miasma of things to sift through but structures will form. We have the internet, it's easier than ever for a new Discord server or whatever to become the next big voice that leads a huge portion of the gaming community to these areas to play these games because they're doing it in a more broadly acceptable manner than WotC, who are trying to literally steal everything from the content creators that have given them their lifeblood for the last 20 years. For shame.
Even during 4e and the GSL debacle, D&D only fell as far as #2 RPG in the world (behind Pathfinder.) There's a lot of yelling online but calling it "the end" is melodramatic.
Though commonly asserted, this is a myth based on faulty data. D&D was the second most popular game sold at game stores who elect to report sales, and that is where this “fact” comes from, but that is an inaccurate picture. Most casual players go to D&D, and most casual players buy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, or another big box store. These are people who know the name D&D, as everyone does, and want to play, but are not immersed in the hobby to know about game stores.
The “PF1 outsold 4e” data does not capture Amazon or other big box stores, and is thus the same as saying “PF1 outsold 4e in places where PF1 was better received than 4e.” If you looked at Amazon sales at the time, 4e products consistently were ranked as higher sales than anything PF1 put out, except brief bumps PF1 had when a new product was released—bumps that went away when the initial surge died, allowing 4e to regain its position on top of the pole. Similar trends were all but certainly seen on every big box store.
1) I was going by ICv2, who did include big box stores in their analysis. It's the best data we as outsiders can access.
2) If you're right, and WotC never actually dipped below #1, that only reinforces my point. This backlash is significant, and deserved, but financially represents a blip at best at the end of the day.
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Even in non-English media Wizards is being destroyed. People are leaving the game, I play in two tables and DM another one, and the three groups are now gone... Is this the end? Could Wizards save the franchise? The recent update is just PR shit...
https://www.ft.com/content/b8f27121-ac91-45c8-9f4d-7a1d86115c19
https://www.vidaextra.com/juegos-de-mesa/que-esta-pasando-wizards-of-the-coast-llegada-ogl-1-1-rechazo-popular-a-editora-d-d
https://latam.ign.com/dungeons-and-dragons/90789/news/el-cambio-de-licencia-del-juego-abierto-de-wizards-of-the-coast-provoca-la-ira-de-los-creadores-y-fa
https://www.geektopia.es/es/movies/2023/01/12/opinion/wizards-of-the-coast-desbloquea-un-logro-al-poner-a-toda-la-comunidad-de-d-d-en-su-contra-con-la-ogl-1-1.html
https://www.eurogamer.net/wizards-of-the-coast-faces-backlash-over-planned-changes-to-how-it-monetises-third-party-content
Even during 4e and the GSL debacle, D&D only fell as far as #2 RPG in the world (behind Pathfinder.) There's a lot of yelling online but calling it "the end" is melodramatic.
Yeah, the international press is simply recycling stories they trending in English language markets.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm sure D&D will remain relatively popular simply because so much content for it exists, but the reality is that corporations cannot, ever, compete with actual artists and creators online in terms of quality and quantity of adventures, art and enthusiasm that they generate. They just can't. Blizzard used to come close, back in the new WoW days, and that's only because we were less of an online world - these days there's SO MANY creators online that the actual content that can be generated is astronomical compared to what a company could ever afford to pay to have generated for their own game.
Long and short of it; creators will not keep putting their efforts into a game that is going to steal their content and **** them over. They just won't. They'll go to other games, and sure they may not be as popular as D&D for a while, but things change with time that's the whole way it works. People will go where the artists and creators go, because that's where the good stuff is - rules systems and $60 rulebooks aren't what make D&D fun.
The clause that might have given them that ability is being removed, so we won there.
As for quantity and quality, that's a double-edged sword - yes, 1PP will never be able to keep up with 3PP on those fronts, but Sturgeon's Law means they don't have to. DMsGuild and DTRPG could have the greatest adventure paths ever written, and I wouldn't know it if I have to wade through 100 copies of Timmy's First Dungeoncrawl to get there. There is a downside to things being too open.
Though commonly asserted, this is a myth based on faulty data. D&D was the second most popular game sold at game stores who elect to report sales, and that is where this “fact” comes from, but that is an inaccurate picture. Most casual players go to D&D, and most casual players buy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, or another big box store. These are people who know the name D&D, as everyone does, and want to play, but are not immersed in the hobby to know about game stores.
The “PF1 outsold 4e” data does not capture Amazon or other big box stores, and is thus the same as saying “PF1 outsold 4e in places where PF1 was better received than 4e.” If you looked at Amazon sales at the time, 4e products consistently were ranked as higher sales than anything PF1 put out, except brief bumps PF1 had when a new product was released—bumps that went away when the initial surge died, allowing 4e to regain its position on top of the pole. Similar trends were all but certainly seen on every big box store.
Well, the Financial Times, or the Guardian in the UK for that matter, do not recycle American stories for "filler" (Note; their own writers have the byline). This is a big, big story because of the vast OGL community and popularity of D&D they, not WoTC, have created over the decades. It's important business-wise since this could make or break WoTC and Hasbero just when it's on the cusp of making D&D even bigger (the movie, etc). Will they piss it all away, and is this a lesson for other gaming companies and publishers? Yes and yes.
I've been on the internet long enough to have seen this sort of thing shake out more times than I can count; I understand that you're thinking you'd have to 'sift through everything', but the reality is that in a creative space there will always eventually be some kind of ranking system or judgment zone or voice that gives reliably good recommendations that becomes the ranker of the community; fanfic spaces get it all the time, art spaces, etc.
There won't be a need for the average player to look at every Timmy's First Dungeon because 1. the popular artists and creators will already have a following and be the Big Fishes in the Small Pond, thus getting more money and attention than ever before, cementing them as the go-to content creators, and 2. there will inevitably be websites and channels and people that put effort into going through -everything- and presenting the best of the best, because it will also garner them a reputation and audience in their own right as the voice of what's good and what isn't. This is the way of things, it's how humanity does... -everything-. Movies, books, you name it, humans do this kind of structure to it pretty much as far as hobbies and entertainment goes.
There can be a miasma of things to sift through but structures will form. We have the internet, it's easier than ever for a new Discord server or whatever to become the next big voice that leads a huge portion of the gaming community to these areas to play these games because they're doing it in a more broadly acceptable manner than WotC, who are trying to literally steal everything from the content creators that have given them their lifeblood for the last 20 years. For shame.
1) I was going by ICv2, who did include big box stores in their analysis. It's the best data we as outsiders can access.
2) If you're right, and WotC never actually dipped below #1, that only reinforces my point. This backlash is significant, and deserved, but financially represents a blip at best at the end of the day.