I'd be looking to grow my company and protect/increase profits, including D&D. That's literally the first sentence of my job description, while still acknowledging that for long term success a lot of other things are generally required to make this happen, like a customer focus, good product development, employee satisfaction, etc.
The very first thing I'd ask myself, especially before I made any major business course corrections, is WHY my D&D products were generating so much profit for my company in the first place. Once I identified that, I would first make sure I protected it and second try to expand it.
It's my belief that D&D has been so successful in a large part BECAUSE of the current OGL. Given that belief, if I were a WotC Exec I would protect that OGL, or at least the spirit of it, and then try to expand it. I certainly wouldn't attack my own OGL, the very thing that let me grow so well in the first place, and I certainly wouldn't attack my customers or community members. That's just... silly.
The next thing I'd do is try to figure out what my broad base of customers want. For me as a recently returning customer to TTRPGs after a long time absence, I looked around for a game that looked the most interesting and best supported. There are a lot of good choices out there!!! D&D attracted me most because: I had played it before, the books are easily available, there is a lot of 3rd party support and community, DNDBeyond seemed like a well integrated site where I could buy books and build characters based off the available books in my campaigns, and I could still export my characters to other platforms depending on where my friends had things set up. I didn't find another game that has this plethora of primary and third party support. (And yes, I looked... although this might be changing soon.)
So anyway, I bought in for several hundred dollars worth of books... and now a big reason why I chose D&D is under attack by the very company that should be growing my chosen game. Again, silly.
Now to the point. If I were a WotC Exec, and I correctly identified my core business strengths, I would try to EXPAND my open customer base by enlisting others in a growing partnership. I already have DNDBeyond in my toolbox. Yes, some people attack it, but it's definitely a good tool and getting better. As a customer I've looked at other tools my friends use, but I still think DNDBeyond, especially with its integration to books in my campaigns, is flat out better. I don't like the layout of the mobile version character sheet as much as I like the website version, but that's just a software display change. I like the ability to search my books in the mobile app BETTER than the website version. Pros and cons. (Caveat - I'm an iPad/tablet user. It's where I read all my books these days.)
Here's where I think the money is. As a customer, I want a community engaged tabletop and marketplace. Graphics and special effects are nice, but that's not core. Core is a framework that presents my content quickly and clearly, and a marketplace where 3rd parties can make their content available, with WotC taking a small and well earned percentage for hosting... Character Creator meets VTT meets eBay marketplace meets Netflix subscriptions.
Think about it. How many of us have played in published adventures where the DM has to read up on every new room or area as we go? How many have DM'd a new game and not had time in advance to prep? What if all that information, including the layout of the rooms/areas and creatures, was easily electronically available as part of the published adventure and could be quickly pushed by the DM to a central VTT visible to everyone, and ALSO shared to player mobile devices? What if part of that push could include voices reading descriptions, sound effects, or scene specific music... all part of the published content? What if the DM could trigger a perception check, and on the mobile device of all characters that passed, they would get the additional information? We still need DMs because players almost always come up with things never planned for, but we make their job easier by having the bulk of information readily at their fingertips.
As a hosting company, if I do well with the above, my customer base is going to consume content at a VORACIOUS pace. There is no way I can keep up with that appetite, so I need help. Fortunately we have a huge base of invested content creators. I WANT them, and I want them creative and engaged... so I make the community very attractive to them. I provide a marketplace where they can create and sell their products, and likely with higher margins back to them than if they tried to go it alone. For those that do go it alone, more power to them. That just means the overall market grows, which is great for everyone. Perhaps in the future we might find another way we could partner.
I don't think I've seen anything about it, but as I've written the above I have become a TEENSY bit curious if Larian, currently working on Baldur's Gate 3, might be a viable partner in this business. I suspect this would be a great starting point for content display in my fledgling VTT community... as long as I didn't alienate them and as long as I could make it mutually attractive.
Anyway, that's where my head would be if I were a WotC Exec. If you took the time to read, thank you. Hopefully, if nothing else, the ideas intrigue.
Very interesting read. I'd certainly rather have you running the show than the (redacted) who considers even knowing and understanding DnD entirely irrelevant and that its users are just the same as mobile gamers and mmo players.
Hopefully the events of the last few weeks has begun to disabuse him of that notion
Being the CEO of Wizards of the Coast should be the easiest ride on planet earth... Quite literally all you have to do is go into a room full of creatives and tell them "have fun guys, make something good". That's it... BOOM.. millions.
Seriously, these CEO's are overthinking things.
Instead, what do we have. DnD Beyond is being abandoned in mass, Wizards of the Coast products, D&D included are being boycotted not to mention the movie and other entertainment offerings. All to do what exactly? Stifle 3rd party creatives that support the community?
Who the hell is actually winning right now? It's not the D&D community... It's not WotC or Hasbro... its not D&D. Who the hell is this bloody mess for?
I just don't get it.. of all the stupid shit I have watched this company do over the years, this situation they have created has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever witnessed.
I am encouraged by the recent actions of Hasbro/WotC, and I look forward to seeing how WotC leadership chooses to innovate and partner over the next few years.
One step down the path to recovery of trust might be to engage content creators now with how best to prepare for One D&D. A new rule set by itself is just that… community effort with limited benefit. A new rule set with a host of new content released about the same time… that’s a whole different thing and much more enticing.
If I were a content creator and I had the choice of going it alone, at my cost, or partnering with WotC to publish within their framework and with their mass marketing, that might be worth splitting some of the profits to me. Key factors in my decision would be: 1) does it lower my risk and increase the chance I will be successful, 2) is the split fair and likely to make me more than if I published on my own/some other way, and 3) do I have some sort of agreement with WotC that protects me from future Hasbro/WotC changes.
As a D&D player, I would love to see all this happen in coordination with VTT updates and releases, including WotC’s new one, Roll20, and Foundry. (Apologies if I omitted your favorite. These are all I personally know.) If we got a host of new content, ready to go in our choices of VTTs, that would certainly entice me. Even playing table top these are attractive. All the games I play in have associated graphics, sounds, music, maps, etc. We post them on discord, handouts, and texts. If we had a VTT that served our campaign instead, and already had that content available, that would jump start and enhance our tabletop sessions.
I’ll say it again. I am encouraged and excited for where Hasbro/WotC leadership could choose to take this… with a little vision, marketing, and courage.
I am encouraged by the recent actions of Hasbro/WotC, and I look forward to seeing how WotC leadership chooses to innovate and partner over the next few years.
One step down the path to recovery of trust might be to engage content creators now with how best to prepare for One D&D. A new rule set by itself is just that… community effort with limited benefit. A new rule set with a host of new content released about the same time… that’s a whole different thing and much more enticing.
If I were a content creator and I had the choice of going it alone, at my cost, or partnering with WotC to publish within their framework and with their mass marketing, that might be worth splitting some of the profits to me. Key factors in my decision would be: 1) does it lower my risk and increase the chance I will be successful, 2) is the split fair and likely to make me more than if I published on my own/some other way, and 3) do I have some sort of agreement with WotC that protects me from future Hasbro/WotC changes.
As a D&D player, I would love to see all this happen in coordination with VTT updates and releases, including WotC’s new one, Roll20, and Foundry. (Apologies if I omitted your favorite. These are all I personally know.) If we got a host of new content, ready to go in our choices of VTTs, that would certainly entice me. Even playing table top these are attractive. All the games I play in have associated graphics, sounds, music, maps, etc. We post them on discord, handouts, and texts. If we had a VTT that served our campaign instead, and already had that content available, that would jump start and enhance our tabletop sessions.
I’ll say it again. I am encouraged and excited for where Hasbro/WotC leadership could choose to take this… with a little vision, marketing, and courage.
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later that they would realize, holy crap this was a terrible plan and reverse course so I agree with you, its encouraging to see them admit their mistake, correct their course and try a better approach.
The VTT thing I don't really care about and I actually think its a mistake to presume that Online D&D is the future. They are working off information that is subjective based on a unique pairing of circumstances over the last couple of years. We had a pandemic and yes, this triggered a major push for online play globally in the market, but the reality of the situation is that Online play is a substitute people are willing to live with, not a replacement for the Table Top Hobby. To base the future on the assumption that people want to play D&D online I think is a mistake.
You are completely wrong since the first sentence. A CEO does not want to rise profits of the company on the long temr, but to increase them in the short/short-mid range ASAP to answer stakeholders pressure and his/her own bonus. That's why companies work in quarters, rarely thinking these exc years ahead).
Being the CEO of Wizards of the Coast should be the easiest ride on planet earth... Quite literally all you have to do is go into a room full of creatives and tell them "have fun guys, make something good". That's it... BOOM.. millions.
Seriously, these CEO's are overthinking things.
Instead, what do we have. DnD Beyond is being abandoned in mass, Wizards of the Coast products, D&D included are being boycotted not to mention the movie and other entertainment offerings. All to do what exactly? Stifle 3rd party creatives that support the community?
Who the hell is actually winning right now? It's not the D&D community... It's not WotC or Hasbro... its not D&D. Who the hell is this bloody mess for?
I just don't get it.. of all the stupid shit I have watched this company do over the years, this situation they have created has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever witnessed.
Agreed. If they hadn't crit-fumbled 1.1 they might have actually been able to get something closer to 1.2 like they actually wanted.
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I'd be looking to grow my company and protect/increase profits, including D&D. That's literally the first sentence of my job description, while still acknowledging that for long term success a lot of other things are generally required to make this happen, like a customer focus, good product development, employee satisfaction, etc.
The very first thing I'd ask myself, especially before I made any major business course corrections, is WHY my D&D products were generating so much profit for my company in the first place. Once I identified that, I would first make sure I protected it and second try to expand it.
It's my belief that D&D has been so successful in a large part BECAUSE of the current OGL. Given that belief, if I were a WotC Exec I would protect that OGL, or at least the spirit of it, and then try to expand it. I certainly wouldn't attack my own OGL, the very thing that let me grow so well in the first place, and I certainly wouldn't attack my customers or community members. That's just... silly.
The next thing I'd do is try to figure out what my broad base of customers want. For me as a recently returning customer to TTRPGs after a long time absence, I looked around for a game that looked the most interesting and best supported. There are a lot of good choices out there!!! D&D attracted me most because: I had played it before, the books are easily available, there is a lot of 3rd party support and community, DNDBeyond seemed like a well integrated site where I could buy books and build characters based off the available books in my campaigns, and I could still export my characters to other platforms depending on where my friends had things set up. I didn't find another game that has this plethora of primary and third party support. (And yes, I looked... although this might be changing soon.)
So anyway, I bought in for several hundred dollars worth of books... and now a big reason why I chose D&D is under attack by the very company that should be growing my chosen game. Again, silly.
Now to the point. If I were a WotC Exec, and I correctly identified my core business strengths, I would try to EXPAND my open customer base by enlisting others in a growing partnership. I already have DNDBeyond in my toolbox. Yes, some people attack it, but it's definitely a good tool and getting better. As a customer I've looked at other tools my friends use, but I still think DNDBeyond, especially with its integration to books in my campaigns, is flat out better. I don't like the layout of the mobile version character sheet as much as I like the website version, but that's just a software display change. I like the ability to search my books in the mobile app BETTER than the website version. Pros and cons. (Caveat - I'm an iPad/tablet user. It's where I read all my books these days.)
Here's where I think the money is. As a customer, I want a community engaged tabletop and marketplace. Graphics and special effects are nice, but that's not core. Core is a framework that presents my content quickly and clearly, and a marketplace where 3rd parties can make their content available, with WotC taking a small and well earned percentage for hosting... Character Creator meets VTT meets eBay marketplace meets Netflix subscriptions.
Think about it. How many of us have played in published adventures where the DM has to read up on every new room or area as we go? How many have DM'd a new game and not had time in advance to prep? What if all that information, including the layout of the rooms/areas and creatures, was easily electronically available as part of the published adventure and could be quickly pushed by the DM to a central VTT visible to everyone, and ALSO shared to player mobile devices? What if part of that push could include voices reading descriptions, sound effects, or scene specific music... all part of the published content? What if the DM could trigger a perception check, and on the mobile device of all characters that passed, they would get the additional information? We still need DMs because players almost always come up with things never planned for, but we make their job easier by having the bulk of information readily at their fingertips.
As a hosting company, if I do well with the above, my customer base is going to consume content at a VORACIOUS pace. There is no way I can keep up with that appetite, so I need help. Fortunately we have a huge base of invested content creators. I WANT them, and I want them creative and engaged... so I make the community very attractive to them. I provide a marketplace where they can create and sell their products, and likely with higher margins back to them than if they tried to go it alone. For those that do go it alone, more power to them. That just means the overall market grows, which is great for everyone. Perhaps in the future we might find another way we could partner.
I don't think I've seen anything about it, but as I've written the above I have become a TEENSY bit curious if Larian, currently working on Baldur's Gate 3, might be a viable partner in this business. I suspect this would be a great starting point for content display in my fledgling VTT community... as long as I didn't alienate them and as long as I could make it mutually attractive.
Anyway, that's where my head would be if I were a WotC Exec. If you took the time to read, thank you. Hopefully, if nothing else, the ideas intrigue.
Very interesting read. I'd certainly rather have you running the show than the (redacted) who considers even knowing and understanding DnD entirely irrelevant and that its users are just the same as mobile gamers and mmo players.
Hopefully the events of the last few weeks has begun to disabuse him of that notion
Being the CEO of Wizards of the Coast should be the easiest ride on planet earth... Quite literally all you have to do is go into a room full of creatives and tell them "have fun guys, make something good". That's it... BOOM.. millions.
Seriously, these CEO's are overthinking things.
Instead, what do we have. DnD Beyond is being abandoned in mass, Wizards of the Coast products, D&D included are being boycotted not to mention the movie and other entertainment offerings. All to do what exactly? Stifle 3rd party creatives that support the community?
Who the hell is actually winning right now? It's not the D&D community... It's not WotC or Hasbro... its not D&D. Who the hell is this bloody mess for?
I just don't get it.. of all the stupid shit I have watched this company do over the years, this situation they have created has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever witnessed.
I am encouraged by the recent actions of Hasbro/WotC, and I look forward to seeing how WotC leadership chooses to innovate and partner over the next few years.
One step down the path to recovery of trust might be to engage content creators now with how best to prepare for One D&D. A new rule set by itself is just that… community effort with limited benefit. A new rule set with a host of new content released about the same time… that’s a whole different thing and much more enticing.
If I were a content creator and I had the choice of going it alone, at my cost, or partnering with WotC to publish within their framework and with their mass marketing, that might be worth splitting some of the profits to me. Key factors in my decision would be: 1) does it lower my risk and increase the chance I will be successful, 2) is the split fair and likely to make me more than if I published on my own/some other way, and 3) do I have some sort of agreement with WotC that protects me from future Hasbro/WotC changes.
As a D&D player, I would love to see all this happen in coordination with VTT updates and releases, including WotC’s new one, Roll20, and Foundry. (Apologies if I omitted your favorite. These are all I personally know.) If we got a host of new content, ready to go in our choices of VTTs, that would certainly entice me. Even playing table top these are attractive. All the games I play in have associated graphics, sounds, music, maps, etc. We post them on discord, handouts, and texts. If we had a VTT that served our campaign instead, and already had that content available, that would jump start and enhance our tabletop sessions.
I’ll say it again. I am encouraged and excited for where Hasbro/WotC leadership could choose to take this… with a little vision, marketing, and courage.
I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later that they would realize, holy crap this was a terrible plan and reverse course so I agree with you, its encouraging to see them admit their mistake, correct their course and try a better approach.
The VTT thing I don't really care about and I actually think its a mistake to presume that Online D&D is the future. They are working off information that is subjective based on a unique pairing of circumstances over the last couple of years. We had a pandemic and yes, this triggered a major push for online play globally in the market, but the reality of the situation is that Online play is a substitute people are willing to live with, not a replacement for the Table Top Hobby. To base the future on the assumption that people want to play D&D online I think is a mistake.
You are completely wrong since the first sentence. A CEO does not want to rise profits of the company on the long temr, but to increase them in the short/short-mid range ASAP to answer stakeholders pressure and his/her own bonus. That's why companies work in quarters, rarely thinking these exc years ahead).
I’m just really happy that WotC gave in and agreed to everything we (the D&D fans) wanted with respect to the OGL.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Agreed. If they hadn't crit-fumbled 1.1 they might have actually been able to get something closer to 1.2 like they actually wanted.