What has actually changed on DDB that has you fearful? Honestly, I don’t like some of Amazon’s business practices, but that never bled over into my DDB experience or enjoyment.
One of the key buy-in points for me was the Amazon > Twitch > Curse > DDB lineage as there was a measure of stability and security and longevity in being associated with such a large corporate chain. Fandom doesn't have any of that, which now makes the concerns of people who worried about how long DDB will be around, and thus how much return on their investment they'll see, quite a bit more legitimate.
On the flip side, being a part of Amazon wasn’t any more stable at all, just different. Sure Amazon the trillion dollar behemoth will be around for quite a while and is stable, but the relatively tiny Curse was such a very small piece of it, that even very small decisions and whims at the top level could devastate it overnight. If Amazon execs decide to cut costs or "re-focus on core businesses", it doesn’t matter how DDB itself is doing, an exec changing a single line in a spreadsheet can cascade down to Curse being shut down, profitable or not.
A recent example is GM deciding to focus attention towards some of their products and away from others. Now several towns have their entire economies likely to collapse. When businesses that large change direction, the downstream impact is overwhelming (good and bad).
Which isn't to say that partnering up with a small company is any more stable. It's just the instabilities are often different. With small companies, even temporary market swings can be devastating since they aren't as diversified and don't have as much financial momentum. But with gigantic corporations, most decisions are blunt, brutal instruments that affect successful and unsuccessful alike (i.e. they are FAR more likely to pass down decrees like "X% cut in costs across the board" than nuanced "Curse is doing well, so let’s give them more support, but Biz Y isn’t, so let’s eliminate that.")
Any belief that Curse was stable by being part of Amazon was an illusion. There’s always been instability, and all Curse can do is provide the best products they can and try to be as profitable as possible. Leaving Amazon doesn’t make it any more or less stable, just facing different challenges.
I guess my only concern is that Fandom seems to have bought Curse for Gamepedia. Hopefully DnD Beyond doesn't get lost and forgotten.
I believe it appeared more likely that it was getting 'lost and forgotten' with Twitch/Amazon, as they were such huge companies and weren't terribly involved with D&D Beyond. I would imagine that Fandom will have more attention and resources available to help D&D Beyond grow as needed.
It is unlikely Curse/D&D Beyond would have been forgotten both Curse and D&D Beyond have chunks of their aspects within Twitch and its streaming community (where I tend to see the stronger link is for Amazon as a whole).
Likewise for Amazon they may not care much about Curse or D&D Beyond but they likely would care about irritating a company like Wizards of the Coast, who are quite well known within the physical and digital RPG industry and even other related industries, that any bad results are likely to have a solid impact on the whole for Amazon. Keep in mind for Amazon a few million dollars here and there likely doesn't raise much past a blip because they are a trillion dollar company, a company with much lower pool of wealth will mean is a much larger blip unable to be ignored.
I doubt Fandom will have as much of a hands off approach to Curse as Amazon seems to have had. Though lets hope they do to D&D Beyond.
Is the new random annoying "Curse is now part of Fandom and that's just great!" pop-up indicative of experiences to come now that this is really a thing?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
These words have never been said outright, but the general vibe I seem to be picking up from what has been said is that Fandom understands the bad reputation that the Wikia brand had, and is taking steps to correct that perception. That might be one of the motivators behind the name change, although I can't say for sure.
Adam said in the dev update that this is less like new "overlords" stepping in and changing things, and more of a new partnership. If Fandom is really trying to correct their course, this makes a lot of sense.
Also, you have to consider that DDB is proving to be a viable product, and it makes little sense to buy something that works and risk breaking it by making too many changes.
I know this is all wishful thinking on top of speculation, but I'm choosing to remain positive until I'm given an objective reason not to be.
Is the new random annoying "Curse is now part of Fandom and that's just great!" pop-up indicative of experiences to come now that this is really a thing?
Is it random?
I only had it pop up once on each device and haven't seen it since.
Is the new random annoying "Curse is now part of Fandom and that's just great!" pop-up indicative of experiences to come now that this is really a thing?
Is it random?
I only had it pop up once on each device and haven't seen it since.
On the flip side, being a part of Amazon wasn’t any more stable at all, just different. Sure Amazon the trillion dollar behemoth will be around for quite a while and is stable, but the relatively tiny Curse was such a very small piece of it, that even very small decisions and whims at the top level could devastate it overnight. If Amazon execs decide to cut costs or "re-focus on core businesses", it doesn’t matter how DDB itself is doing, an exec changing a single line in a spreadsheet can cascade down to Curse being shut down, profitable or not.
A recent example is GM deciding to focus attention towards some of their products and away from others. Now several towns have their entire economies likely to collapse. When businesses that large change direction, the downstream impact is overwhelming (good and bad).
Which isn't to say that partnering up with a small company is any more stable. It's just the instabilities are often different. With small companies, even temporary market swings can be devastating since they aren't as diversified and don't have as much financial momentum. But with gigantic corporations, most decisions are blunt, brutal instruments that affect successful and unsuccessful alike (i.e. they are FAR more likely to pass down decrees like "X% cut in costs across the board" than nuanced "Curse is doing well, so let’s give them more support, but Biz Y isn’t, so let’s eliminate that.")
Any belief that Curse was stable by being part of Amazon was an illusion. There’s always been instability, and all Curse can do is provide the best products they can and try to be as profitable as possible. Leaving Amazon doesn’t make it any more or less stable, just facing different challenges.
What will this mean for critical role sponsorship? Will dndbeyond continue sponsoring the show?
The DDB Product Leader said in the stream that DDB will continue to sponsor Critical Role. There is no reason to think otherwise.
I guess my only concern is that Fandom seems to have bought Curse for Gamepedia. Hopefully DnD Beyond doesn't get lost and forgotten.
I believe it appeared more likely that it was getting 'lost and forgotten' with Twitch/Amazon, as they were such huge companies and weren't terribly involved with D&D Beyond. I would imagine that Fandom will have more attention and resources available to help D&D Beyond grow as needed.
Just my guesstimate though.
Anyone have a bullet points synopsis of what Adam said on the stream? It’ll be a while before I can sit down for that long to watch it.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
It is unlikely Curse/D&D Beyond would have been forgotten both Curse and D&D Beyond have chunks of their aspects within Twitch and its streaming community (where I tend to see the stronger link is for Amazon as a whole).
Likewise for Amazon they may not care much about Curse or D&D Beyond but they likely would care about irritating a company like Wizards of the Coast, who are quite well known within the physical and digital RPG industry and even other related industries, that any bad results are likely to have a solid impact on the whole for Amazon.
Keep in mind for Amazon a few million dollars here and there likely doesn't raise much past a blip because they are a trillion dollar company, a company with much lower pool of wealth will mean is a much larger blip unable to be ignored.
I doubt Fandom will have as much of a hands off approach to Curse as Amazon seems to have had. Though lets hope they do to D&D Beyond.
- Loswaith
This certainly does make me question the recent purchase I've made.
Is the new random annoying "Curse is now part of Fandom and that's just great!" pop-up indicative of experiences to come now that this is really a thing?
These words have never been said outright, but the general vibe I seem to be picking up from what has been said is that Fandom understands the bad reputation that the Wikia brand had, and is taking steps to correct that perception. That might be one of the motivators behind the name change, although I can't say for sure.
Adam said in the dev update that this is less like new "overlords" stepping in and changing things, and more of a new partnership. If Fandom is really trying to correct their course, this makes a lot of sense.
Also, you have to consider that DDB is proving to be a viable product, and it makes little sense to buy something that works and risk breaking it by making too many changes.
I know this is all wishful thinking on top of speculation, but I'm choosing to remain positive until I'm given an objective reason not to be.
Is it random?
I only had it pop up once on each device and haven't seen it since.
It may not be as random as I originally thought, but it still has not gone unnoticed and unappreciated.