The latest from WOTC in their list of self-inflicted wounds:
For those who have (rightfully) tuned out of Wizards' insanity, they announced a few days ago that they'd be "updating" the 2014 content to 2024 content on D&D Beyond; in most cases it was a matter of flagging stuff as legacy (like they did with Volo's and whatnot when Mordenkainen's came out.) In the case of magic items and spells, which would get that update whether you liked it or not. No legacy tags. Fuck you, this is 2024 content now.
And, uh, well... Everyone Disliked That.
Cue another shitstorm for WOTC. People were not amused. The past few days have been nothing but another OGL-esque ragefest. (Rightly so.)
A few hours ago, they posted this:
"
Last week we released a Changelog detailing how players would experience the 2024 Core Rulebooks on D&D Beyond. We heard your feedback loud and clear and thank you for speaking up.
Our excitement around the 2024 Core Rulebooks led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content. We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play. Taking your feedback to heart, here’s what we’re going to do:
Players who only have access to the 2014 Player’s Handbook will maintain their character options, spells, and magical items in their character sheets. Players with access to the 2024 and 2014 digital Player’s Handbooks can select from both sources when creating new characters. Players will not need to rely on Homebrew to use their 2014 player options, including spells and magic items, as recommended in previous changelogs.
Please Note:
Players will continue to have access to their free, shared, and purchased items on D&D Beyond, with the ability to use previously acquired player options when creating characters and using character sheets.
We are not changing players’ current character sheets, except for relabeling and renaming. Examples include Races to Species, Inspiration to Heroic Inspiration, and Cast Spell to Magic.
We’re dedicated to making D&D Beyond the ultimate digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons, continuously enhancing the platform to ensure you can create, customize, and play your game just as you envision it. From your first one-shot to multi-year campaigns and everything in between, we're grateful to be on this journey with you.
- The D&D Studio"
Source: dndbeyond.com/posts/1806-2024-…
So yay. Once again the players' outrage brings us out on top.
You'd think at some point they'd just.. run out of rakes to step on.
Laren reshared this.
Cobra Mk III
in reply to Laren • • •I think their problem is monetization. Selling just the books is maybe not that good a business, and pushing more books will also easily lead into trouble (See: TSR in the Nineties and the D20 mass of books in the early 2000's.)
So they're stuck in a field of rakes trying to find out a way to increase revenue each year by big enough a percentage. If they wanted to make the best D&D products for playing the best ttprgs they'd do different things.
Laren
in reply to Cobra Mk III • • •@pare It's partially a problem of monetization, but it's also a content quality and quantity problem.
3.5 had a *plethora* of books. Wanna do forgotten realms? Here's a full sourcebook on it (a pretty good one, if I recall), and a pile of splat books and paperbacks for it, for example. Nowadays, you get one book, maybe two *if you're lucky.*
Granted, more books is not necessarily the way out, yes - but when even the current books make 'anemic' look good? Plus the AI art fiasco, the OGL fiasco, the whole Hadozee thing. And then part of their solution is to lay off a ton of their most senior, experienced people!
They may be stuck in a field of rakes, but. Bluntly? They put most of those rakes there themselves.
silverwizard
in reply to Laren • •Laren
in reply to silverwizard • • •@silverwizard @pare I dunno. I'll admit I miss the 3e days.
Maybe I just miss prestige classes.
Anyhow, I think the biggest fault in play is that Magic is practically subsidizing Hasbro, which is largely, to my understanding, getting the ass beaten off them in every other market. So they say, well, magic is making money hand over fist. Why can't D&D do that?
Nevermind that investors back in 2022 more or less told Hasbro that they're going too hard. Source: cnbc.com/amp/2022/12/08/hasbro…
Anyhow. Trying to capitalize on D&D like this feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of the game and the community behind it. D&D will never sell like MTG. Full stop. It's like comparing apples to iPads.
The sooner they figure this out, the better off the entire thing will be.
#dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg
Hasbro defends Magic: The Gathering strategy, says 'there is no evidence' cards are overprinted
Sarah Whitten (CNBC)silverwizard
in reply to Laren • •@Laren @Orz Yeah, it's wild.
I loved 3E but definitely hated it by its end, so that's probably my bias.
Mikko Karvonen
in reply to Laren • • •