As others have said in this thread Hasbro appears to have absolutely no understanding of the community.
I have literally run hundreds of tables. I am constantly trying to bring new blood into the game. I survived the GenCons where everyone was an old man. I never want to go back to that, lol.
The largest market I see currently is 20 somethings pre children. If they wanted to play MMO they would go play an MMO, and many of them do. They don't come to my table to play MMO, they come to have some social interaction and slay some monsters. To create memories.
They have matured in an online world. Like most folks that play D&D, they are very intelligent and very weary of deceptions.
Hasbro you are going to have a hell of a time gaining trust again.
Dnd beyond was the largest seller(profit wise) of dnd content even in books. Netting people into a reoccurring membership is gold in the eyes of wotc/hasbro that's why they bought them out. They make more money from digital products than physical. No print costs, warehousing or shipping. So yea, they outsold the dnd website before being bought out. That's how large companies grow is to buy out competitors. Dnd simply makes more money if people bought books directly from them. Most shops don't make a lot off dnd books they pay 40-60% of the books price and shipping to them. Book price discount is based off the number of books bought, and you tend to eat your mistakes ie any unsold books are all on you no returns. They make it off all the extras people buy, dice, mini's and other ttrpg items.
And yes Nintendo is a competitor for Gamestop, digital games sold via the shops directly cut out Gamestop. They just happen to be friendly competitors. Having worked for Gamestop they make almost nothing off of systems but make most of their money on used products and side items. Nintendo and other companies make nothing from used item sales once again competing with Nintendo's digital and online store.
After watching D&D Shorts newest video, I would say that they are placing all their eggs in one basket with this new Unreal Engine VTT. It looks vey slick, but it looks like a game. I will say this again, if you believe that the D&D community is the same as an MMO community, you really are out of touch with the customer base. The majority of my players play an MMO also, but that's not what they want out of their D&D games. I understand that they are trying to create new customers, but you also need to retain current customer base.
They've already admitted they made a mistake. Why not wait and see what the actual OGL says before jumping ship? Or do you believe that when a mistake has been made, there is no way to rectify the situation? Must we cancel everyone and everything that makes a mistake, even if they attempt to make amends?
"We made a mistake" may be the grossest understatement in the history of statements. They were literally threatening to destroy the 3rd party D&D industry. How do people not seem to understand this??
The 3rd party industry is moving on. What we do at this point is basically moot. WotC can sign the ORC or One D&D will be mostly unsupported by 3PP.
And of course, they haven't attempted to make amends and they have no intention of doing so. We know this because their own employees keep telling us. I'm not sure what more you want.
Right? lol it's on par with someone murdering your whole family with an axe and then looking at you and giving a slight shrug and a "Eh, sorry about that bud." Like... Not exactly covering the damages here with your words, Wizards.
I find it interesting that there are forum people insisting that everyone should just shut up about the whole OGL thing over and over again, yet they don't even have reasons on why we should be accepting any kind of change from the current OGL outside of just... 'Well Wizards has the right to do it!'
That's not a very good reason to literally decimate the trust in your entire fanbase IMO. But I don't typically set a 100$ bill on fire to light a cigarette either, maybe I just don't have the YOLO mentality that these people do.
Exactly ~ if I wanted to be playing a video game, I'd be playing a video game. If I want to play D&D, I play D&D. This whole 'Oh wow it's soooOoOo hard to tell what's a video game and what's a vtt!' nonsense that Wizards is trying to pull is absolute baloney to me. Who on earth can't tell the difference between a video game and a vtt?
I'll give Wizards a hint; if you need a Dungeon Master to run the story and progress things, that's D&D. If you don't, then that's a video game. Wow, so complex! Like... The whole point of D&D is that it's a social game, made by a group of people sharing an experience together. That is not in any way a video game. You can have all the animations and tools and whatever else to make a video game and it will sit there and do NOTHING without the Dungeon Master to tell a story; that's not a video game made by a company, that's a person using tools to tell a story, and those tools just happen to be digital and can have animations. There's no way you could ever tell me that's a video game.
A video game has a set engine that has a story already in it, like a playthrough story, or some kind of engine that runs without someone else being the decision engine, aka the DM. The DM is basically the video game engine, which means you cannot in good conscience say that you're confused by what is and isn't a video game.
And secondly you're absolutely right, the market of people who play MMO's and D&D may overlap but they're not identically the same, and they are also simply... different activities. I also enjoy gardening and playing with my cats; but you couldn't replace gardening with playing with my cats, becuse they are both different experiences that give me different joys, and the same is true for D&D and video games. Playing WoW and playing D&D are some of my fondest gaming memories and they are 100% different in every regard.
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As others have said in this thread Hasbro appears to have absolutely no understanding of the community.
I have literally run hundreds of tables. I am constantly trying to bring new blood into the game. I survived the GenCons where everyone was an old man. I never want to go back to that, lol.
The largest market I see currently is 20 somethings pre children. If they wanted to play MMO they would go play an MMO, and many of them do. They don't come to my table to play MMO, they come to have some social interaction and slay some monsters. To create memories.
They have matured in an online world. Like most folks that play D&D, they are very intelligent and very weary of deceptions.
Hasbro you are going to have a hell of a time gaining trust again.
Dnd beyond was the largest seller(profit wise) of dnd content even in books. Netting people into a reoccurring membership is gold in the eyes of wotc/hasbro that's why they bought them out. They make more money from digital products than physical. No print costs, warehousing or shipping. So yea, they outsold the dnd website before being bought out. That's how large companies grow is to buy out competitors. Dnd simply makes more money if people bought books directly from them. Most shops don't make a lot off dnd books they pay 40-60% of the books price and shipping to them. Book price discount is based off the number of books bought, and you tend to eat your mistakes ie any unsold books are all on you no returns. They make it off all the extras people buy, dice, mini's and other ttrpg items.
And yes Nintendo is a competitor for Gamestop, digital games sold via the shops directly cut out Gamestop. They just happen to be friendly competitors. Having worked for Gamestop they make almost nothing off of systems but make most of their money on used products and side items. Nintendo and other companies make nothing from used item sales once again competing with Nintendo's digital and online store.
After watching D&D Shorts newest video, I would say that they are placing all their eggs in one basket with this new Unreal Engine VTT. It looks vey slick, but it looks like a game. I will say this again, if you believe that the D&D community is the same as an MMO community, you really are out of touch with the customer base. The majority of my players play an MMO also, but that's not what they want out of their D&D games. I understand that they are trying to create new customers, but you also need to retain current customer base.
Right? lol it's on par with someone murdering your whole family with an axe and then looking at you and giving a slight shrug and a "Eh, sorry about that bud." Like... Not exactly covering the damages here with your words, Wizards.
I find it interesting that there are forum people insisting that everyone should just shut up about the whole OGL thing over and over again, yet they don't even have reasons on why we should be accepting any kind of change from the current OGL outside of just... 'Well Wizards has the right to do it!'
That's not a very good reason to literally decimate the trust in your entire fanbase IMO. But I don't typically set a 100$ bill on fire to light a cigarette either, maybe I just don't have the YOLO mentality that these people do.
Exactly ~ if I wanted to be playing a video game, I'd be playing a video game. If I want to play D&D, I play D&D. This whole 'Oh wow it's soooOoOo hard to tell what's a video game and what's a vtt!' nonsense that Wizards is trying to pull is absolute baloney to me. Who on earth can't tell the difference between a video game and a vtt?
I'll give Wizards a hint; if you need a Dungeon Master to run the story and progress things, that's D&D. If you don't, then that's a video game. Wow, so complex! Like... The whole point of D&D is that it's a social game, made by a group of people sharing an experience together. That is not in any way a video game. You can have all the animations and tools and whatever else to make a video game and it will sit there and do NOTHING without the Dungeon Master to tell a story; that's not a video game made by a company, that's a person using tools to tell a story, and those tools just happen to be digital and can have animations. There's no way you could ever tell me that's a video game.
A video game has a set engine that has a story already in it, like a playthrough story, or some kind of engine that runs without someone else being the decision engine, aka the DM. The DM is basically the video game engine, which means you cannot in good conscience say that you're confused by what is and isn't a video game.
And secondly you're absolutely right, the market of people who play MMO's and D&D may overlap but they're not identically the same, and they are also simply... different activities. I also enjoy gardening and playing with my cats; but you couldn't replace gardening with playing with my cats, becuse they are both different experiences that give me different joys, and the same is true for D&D and video games. Playing WoW and playing D&D are some of my fondest gaming memories and they are 100% different in every regard.