#he should not own hasbro or WOTC

[talkingontheinternet]

haven't read tags but just wanna yap

Did you hear Elon wants to buy Hasbro?

[theoutcastrogue]

According to EN World (I mean I wouldn't know and couldn't possibly be bothered) the author of this tweet is "former gaming executive turned culture warrior Mark Hern".

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons is a WotC book that just came out for the game's 50th anniversary, and the passages are from "the foreword written by Jon Peterson, one of the foremost historians about Dungeons & Dragons and who also collaborated with Wizards of the Coast on the book".

Elon Musk, famous idiot, immediately piped in supporting the tweet

and obviously fuck Musk and fuck the "culture warriors", here's how I see it (without having read the book, but I'm confident my guesses are educated enough).

This book is promotional material. The good part is that it brings to light primary documents, which are invaluable for research. The bad part is that it's promotional material, like everything that comes out of WotC. No one should trust a fucking brand (silence, brand) to tell its own story. I've read some of Jon Peterson's previous work, and I thought he's an excellent researcher but only moderately able to pick up the prejudices baked in the hobby. Gets some of it, misses a lot. I'm guessing his criticism came about by WotC's own request, and would not be printed if their PR team (and legal team, probably) didn't approve it. And I'm gonna note that said criticism, while in the right direction (to be clear, the basic stance of "this was shitty, but erasing it from history and pretending it didn't exist doesn't help; what helps is acknowledging the shittiness" is absolutely correct), is very light and very careful. The history of D&D needs STRONGER criticism, which will never happen in a WotC publication.

And what I'd like to see is a comprehensive critical history of D&D, which I don't think exists yet. We have EITHER involved and well-researched but largely uncritical histories, even when they delve deep into the cultural environment that made D&D's birth possible, OR works that explore a single topic or focus on a handful of problematic™ elements. AFAIK. If I'm missing something, by all means, let me know! Here's my bibliography so far (not including papers, which can be VERY critical):

David M. Ewalt, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It (Scribner, 2013)

Jon Peterson, Playing at the World: A history of simulating wars, people and fantastic adventures, from chess to role-playing games (Unreason Press, 2012)

Michael J. Tresca, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games (McFarland, 2011)

Jennifer Grouling Cover, The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-playing Games (McFarland, 2010)

Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity (McFarland, 2010)

Joseph P. Laycock, Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (University of California Press, 2015)

Ashley ML Brown, Sexuality in Role-Playing Games (Routledge, 2015)

and the promos

30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons (WotC, 2006)

Michael Witwer et al, Art & Arcana: A Visual History (Ten Speed Press, 2018)

Michael Witwer, Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons (Bloomsbury, 2015) [not a promo per se, but fully a eulogy]

[mumms-the-word]

tbh i'm actually kind of pissed at larian. regardless of if it's sticking it to hasbro or not, they're leaving the game in a potentially awful state and not delivering on promises they made, like the upper city. You also have SWEN talking about shit that could have been like ketheric's recruitment and what not, which stirs the pot even more and makes me angry. Like stop talking about it. we're already upset enough.

These are all very valid critiques, anon! I have many thoughts but I’ll put everything under the cut since I got a little long-winded because I’m passionate about video games in general.

I do play a bit of Devil’s Advocate here but please note I am not attacking you personally or trying to direct any hate towards anybody at all! This ask honestly gave me space to vent some thoughts I’ve had for months about this game. I did my best to offer nuanced perspectives and acknowledge my own biases. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, including their own disappointments and praises for Larian, Swen, the actors, and all involved in the making/maintaining (or lack thereof) of BG3.

TLDR: We shouldn’t put Larian on a pedestal as the Best Studio Ever, but we don’t have to grab our pitchforks and say they’re the worst studio ever either. If BG3 is a disappointment it might be because Larian flew a little too close to the sun trying to squeeze 80% of a functional D&D experience into a digital video game package, when (in my opinion) those two game genres are almost inherently designed to not mesh well, disappointing one fan while satisfying another.

———

Point #1, Idk how much Larian is sticking it to Hasbro but Hasbro IS a greedy corporation who has no idea how to make video games and I very highly suspect they’ve been making demands of Larian’s team that are impossible to meet without destroying the work ethic (and health/mental health/financial stability, etc) of Larian’s team. Hasbro just sees dollar signs. Larian isn’t necessarily as interested in milking BG3 for all it’s worth.

If they were, we’d be paying for Upper City in a DLC, and we’re not. Instead they’re choosing to pivot to a fresh new project that isn’t beholden to Hasbro or the demands of WOTC. Does it feel like they’re abandoning the game? Yeah, kinda. But if Swen says that his team looked visibly relieved to move on to something new, that gives me warning bells. Not against Swen, but about the crunch standard of games industries as a whole and possibly against Hasbro or WOTC. I’d much rather his team take care of their very human selves than grind themselves to ultimate burnout working on a game that is functionally complete, if buggy in places and not satisfying for some players because they didn’t get the content they wanted.

There is no perfect game, after all.

And honestly I’d say the same of any AAA studio too. I am consistently frustrated with game studios firing whole departments for the sake of retaining profits and treating their employees like content robots. Games should not be made at the expense of anyone’s physical or mental health, but unfortunately that’s The Industry Standard. (And personally I think Larian or at least Swen is uncomfortable with that.)

(Also I think people forget that making a game the size of BG3 requires the talents and hard work of hundreds of people. Larian was working with, what, 400 people? And that was after they hired like 250+ to even rise to the challenge of making BG3. Who are we even pointing the finger at for all these issues? Swen? He’s one man.)

Should they have promised something they couldn’t deliver? No. But also, I have no idea what issues led them to cutting the content, either. What’s done is done.

BG3 will be an obsolete game in a year or soon anyway, not because Larian isn’t working on it anymore, but because the games industry is just So. Freaking. Big. and pumps out thousands of games a year. Like, I hate to say it, but people are already dropping BG3 for other games like Dragon’s Dogma 2 because DD2 is shiny, new, and has a bonkers character creator.

And there’s nothing wrong with that! We’re not built to play (or work on) a narrative-focused game for 5-7 years, regardless of what any die-hard Destiny fan tells you (note: multiplayers without narrative get a pass purely because the focus isn’t on the narrative, but on collaborative play).

If a game is no longer fun to play, move on and find something that scratches your itch. Go back and play old games! There are so many things out there to explore. I have a To Be Played pile literally right now, a backlog of games I haven’t tried out yet. I’m sure many others do too.

Point #2 (and here I could be wrong, if I’m not already wrong in my opinions above), but they’re not entirely abandoning the game like…at the drop of a hat. They’re still promising at least a handful of hotfixes and at least one more patch with new evil epilogue endings (among other things).

Does that get us Upper City? Likely not. Does that add enough content to give Wyll a more well-rounded storyline, elevate all the romances to Astarion levels of cutscenes and dialogue, and finish Karlach’s questline with an actual solution for her heart? Also likely not. Is it precious to be mad about these losses? No! Be mad!! Wyll deserves justice!!!

I’d love to explore Upper City. I’m a huge advocate for Wyll getting more/better representation. If I could save Karlach without throwing her into Avernus I would in a HEARTBEAT. But these things aren’t in the game, and they likely won’t be. Larian made decisions to meet a (self-imposed? Hasbro imposed? Industry-relevant?) deadline that are ultimately disappointing. We can absolutely acknowledge that we’re disappointed.

But I don’t necessarily think Larian is just being lazy about these decisions, though. At the end of the day we have no idea what contracts Larian is under, what hell the developers have been through, either from the game industry, Hasbro, rabid fans, or excessively cruel critics, or what technical/gameplay/scheduling/financial issues they ran into at various parts of development.

Like the Ketheric thing (Point #3). Was it bad PR to bring up that Ketheric was a “kill your darlings” decision late in development around the same time you’re openly promoting the end of your relationship with BG3? Yeah. Totally. But I’m not surprised they had to cut something like that. Games, movies, books do that all the time. How many deleted scenes from movies have we seen where it could have changed the whole narrative (maybe even made it better) if it had just stayed in? I can think of a handful. It sucks, but trust me, it hurts the writers and developers way more to cut content they’ve poured money and time and heart and soul into than it hurts us, the players who would never know the wiser if they hadn’t said anything.

But also, the game is ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. On PC you have to have 150GB free just to install it. Can you imagine how big it would be if they had shoved everything they wanted into it, even if they had delayed the game a while to make it happen? 150GB is a lot.

For perspective, that puts it on par with a very, very, VERY tiny sector of PC games at about the same level (or higher) of GB requirements, including Red Dead Redemption 2 (a fantastic open world game that still holds up in 2024), Microsoft Flight Simulator (which requires 150GB because it’s literally just flying through high quality renders of actual Earth), Forspoken (everyone says all the GB went to graphics here and I believe them), Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (which only has about 50 hours of playable content, allegedly), basically any VR game, and ARK: Survival Evolved which comes in at a whopping 400 GB mostly because of DLC. In other words, games that big get that big either because of graphics or like a hundred DLCs.

BG3 manages to fit in gorgeous cinematics, a super complex spell-combat system, a more or less streamlined video game build for complex D&D combat rules and mechanics, 10 potential companions, 8 romances among those companions, several large maps to explore, and branching narratives that would take you days to read every scrap of dialogue for (I’ve downloaded the datamined files for Patch6, and there are whole leagues of dialogue, encounters, and bits that are in the game, unbugged, that most of us pass by because we don’t explore enough). You want to know where most of the GB goes? It goes towards sustaining a D&D combat/narrative structure that was originally never built with video game constraints in mind.

Do you know how many conditions/status effects there are in the game? Over 1100. 1100+ unique descriptions and titles for conditions that debuff or buff your character or your enemies, granting hundreds of actual gameplay affects. Do you know how many spells there are across the 12 playable classes and all unique spells for enemies and allies? Like 400, if we’re getting picky and splitting hairs over stuff like Rolan’s Magic Missile being different than the usual Magic Missile or if we’re splitting out something like Disguise Self into its 32 different variations. Each spell needs a different icon, a different graphic effect, and it needs to do the right kind of damage and cause the right kind of condition or effect, some of which are immediate, others which linger.

We can speak with dead with hundreds of characters. That’s a lot of dialogue. We can talk to ANY named NPC. That’s a lot of dialogue! We can talk to any animal, with or without speak with animals enabled. That’s a lot of dialogue!!

A single playthrough where I try to explore as much as possible takes me 150 hours or more. I have 500 hours in this game and I’ve only got 4 characters and I’ve only finished 2 of them. This game is mind-bogglingly big. Even if it’s not the biggest game in history ever, or even the biggest game by the time of its release, its BIG.

The biggest critique I would have here is one that I’ve had since I first started playing the game, and it’s that D&D systems and video games don’t mesh comfortably well. I think that Larian got distracted trying to make the ultimate D&D experience, catering to a demographic that is known to ignore plot and pursue shenanigans, and Larian felt the need to build in a lot of shenanigans.

I think they got a little overzealous about it, and that’s where we have missing content, and a lot of fluff that isn’t always plot-relevant. If the game feels unfinished, it’s because Larian started too many threads, and while there are endings to all of those threads, many of them feel rushed or unsatisfactory. Why do they feel unsatisfactory? Because we’re offered so much freedom early on, only to be pulled back into the much more limited narrative constraints of a video game at the end. Because the game has to end eventually, unlike a D&D campaign which could go on or explore many other possibilities. But by act 3 in a 150 GB game, we’re running out of time and space.

And yes that’s disappointing as hell and Larian could and arguably SHOULD have made different decisions on what to focus on.

But ultimately, you just can’t fit a full-on, any-choice-goes D&D experience in a game that needs to be packaged neatly enough to run on most PCs or consoles, and Larian was ambitious as hell to try. Contrary to popular belief, I think they did pretty freaking well given the challenge, and no, it isn’t perfect, and no, to confess to my own bias, I don’t have the same complicated history with the game that early access or release day players have because I bought the game like 2 months after it was out and patched twice. But they’ve clearly built a game that people love so much they’re upset there isn’t more of it, or at least upset it isn’t the best it can be.

But sometimes we have to be realistic too. I can only imagine how many more bugs or render issues we’d get if they did try to shove in Upper City at this point. Games can only be so big before they start to become too much for the systems that try to run them and I don’t want the games industry veering towards making games an elitist hobby for only the rich and elite who can afford expensive rigs and $100 games.

(And also, I’m not at all upset that for $70 bucks I got 500 hours of gameplay and I’m not 100% sick of it yet. When EA and Activision are getting players to pay hundreds in micro transactions and DLC and dangling extra maps and new missions behind paywalls? Bish, please, I’m good. You want to talk about an unfinished experience? Dragon Age: Inquisition made us pay for our epilogue content as a DLC. At least Larian built theirs in for free from the start.)

Anyway.

All that said, I’m sure if Larian could turn back the clock and start over, they’d make different decisions about what to keep, cut, and refine. But we’re here now.

If I want to see anything from Larian right now, it’s a dedication to fix ongoing bugs that make the game unplayable or that block the narratives that they have built so that they play correctly (like with the Minthara romance). IDEALLY I’d like to see them add more content for companions other than Astarion, to equalize the romance experiences, but I’m not holding my breath (again, considering things like game development, actor schedules, contracts, etc).

While I’m sad about the permanent loss of stuff like the Upper City and disappointed by all the rushed questlines, I’d rather them fix the bugs that make the game un-fun to play and bow out gracefully once they’re sure the game won’t need constant supervision.

Besides, they’re working on cross-platform mod support, and mods are gonna add and mess with the game for many years to come, so we can pivot to support them instead while Larian works on its next game (and hopefully learns from its mistakes with BG3).

[smokeybrandreviews]

Stay Out the Kitchen

I am absolutely captivated by what Larian has created with Baldur’s Gate 3. Just, flat-out, dumbfounded by what this smallish studio was able to do with seven years and pure passion for the project. Now, I am aware that Larian is not a small studio. They have several hits under their belt and enough clout to wrest the DnD license away from the notoriously stingy Wizards of the Coast, but let’s be real; They ain’t EA. Larian took one hundred million dollars, and developed a whole ass masterpiece. I’ve not been so enamored with a game since the first time I played Mass Effect 2. Literally the same emotions. I can see myself putting thousands of hours into this world, that’s how deep it is. That’s how fun it is to play. That’s how rich these characters are. I love Karlach as much as I love Tali and that sh*t is a lot. Like, a lot-a lot. You have to be at the top of your game in terms of writing and performance to deliver such an emotional resonance with my jaded ass. I legitimately care about these characters and the lives they lead, lives I control to a certain extent. All of this out of a studio with no shareholder backing or corporate f*ckery. That’s why Larian is bowing out of BG4, WotC and Hasbro want to go about with their f*ckery. Larian, the little studio that could, dropped the best game of last year, and when the Brinks truck rolled up with the Corpo notes, they said “No”. They get to keep their creative soul and develop whatever projects they want, all because Larian turned down that blood money. Which is why I’m so f*cking concerned about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

I mentioned Mass Effect 2 being one of the quintessential moments in my gaming life. That’s very true. At the time, Bioware had delivered unto me the best Star Wars game, ever, in the form of Knights of the Old Republic. On the strength of Lord Revan's Misadventures, I was hooked on whatever this studio decided to do next. Interestingly enough, that was their BG3. KotOR killed and, when Lucasarts came a knocking for a sequel, Bioware gave them the hard passed, instead starting work on Mass Effect. Some years later, before EA got their blood money into them, they dropped Dragon Age: Origins and, I think, Dragon Age 2? I own both of those games, beat them both, but I didn’t care about the franchise until Inquisition. The first, full EA tainted Dragon Age title. I played the hell out of it but never felt fulfilled. This listlessness got me to revisit those older games and, for my tastes, they are better. In terms of narrative and overall plot, they are far superior. That said, DA: I does a better job of pathos and character development. I mean, it doesn’t, I just really like romancing Cassandra. She’s adorable. In all honesty, though, Dragon Age: Inquisition is kind of tedious to play. The open world format could be overwhelming at times and you can easily miss essential sh*t mad easy. There are laughable difficulty spikes just randomly on maps. The f*cking Giants just strolling around on any stage will absolutely wreck your sh*t until you are stupidly over leveled for the area. My biggest gripe, though? Corypheus. As a main antagonist, he’s a nothingburger and really drags the game down. Ultimately, I like playing DA: I. I have hundreds of hours in that game. It’s not as good as the first two and a lot of that has to do with EA ruining Bioware for a decade, which is why I am sweating bullets about Veilguard.

From what I’ve heard, what I’ve seen in those trailers, DA: V looks fun. “Looks” is a kind of a misnomer in terms of actual visuals because, while I got over it fairly quickly, the fandom has denounced the art direction of this game. Cries of “Fortnite” have rang through the troves fans and they’re right. This game looks nothing like its predecessors, nothing like a Dark Fantasy title should, and it’s leaving so much to be desired. Those who have gotten a hands-on with it say the combat is mad deep and delivers unexpected mechanics to exploit but I am weary. EA is pretty much tightening the noose around Bioware with this goofy ass title which had to restart production in the middle of development, twice. Once, because EA finally laid to rest the Frostbite engine mandate, and another to literally retool the entire narrative. This game started out as Dragon Age: Dread Wolf and now is something completely different. This isn’t the game we were promised. It’s an entirely new experience, one that has cost, at the very least, a hundred million dollars, and taken a decade to bring to life. And will probably be absolutely terrible in all the places people who play these types of games, will hate. I’ll hold my judgment until I actually play the thing, mostly because I don’t want Bioware to get nixed by EA for bungled sales, but Larian they are not. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and half of them want live services. That means the dish in the oven is going to end up being overcooked and burnt. Larian could never.

[ultraflavour]

D&D Youtube is going to get real weird in 2024

I saw a kind of interesting video from the YouTube channel Treantmonk's Temple a little while back. I want to talk about it a little bit.

Without getting too much into it, the premise of the video is thus: It doesn't make sense to boycott D&D in retaliation for the layoffs, because if people stop buying Wizards products, it will lead to more layoffs.

I've already gone into why I think this is flawed reasoning in my previous post on this topic. But what's more interesting to me here is that this highlights a conundrum that every D&D YouTuber must be dealing with right now: that a weakening D&D brand is bad news if your own brand is tied to that game.

That anxiety was spelled out almost perfectly by the "Indestructible Boy Who Cried AI." His account on Twitter is private right now thanks to his little oopsie, but a very helpful Twitter user screenshotted this take:

Indestructible Boy here is railing at Wizards to delay the release of the Revised Core Rulebooks because he's anxious that a half-baked release in 2024 might cause "another 4E situation." And thus we arrive at the heart of the issue.

There is a certain breed of Brand Loyalist who sees the possibility of D&D becoming uncool again, and will do anything to stop it. Why, they might even go so far as to accuse Wizards of cutting corners on the book by using AI art!

Wouldn't these accusations hurt D&D's brand though? Maybe, but what would hurt D&D's brand even more would be a not-so-well-received Core Rulebook refresh in 2024 giving people yet another reason to abandon the game for newer, more exciting products.

Of course, the possibility of D&D losing all of its cultural cachet from one poor release is laughably small. It's an absolute powerhouse, and likely will continue to be.

However. What Indestructible Boy actually said was another 4E situation. A situation where, despite industry insiders agreeing that 4th Edition sold more books, it was Pathfinder that is widely agreed to have "won" that generation.

The Horror Scenario for D&D YouTubers

The thing I advocated for before was that the D&D community should redirect their spending toward rival products. This would spur competition in the TTRPG industry, create jobs for recently laid-off Wizards employees to fall back on, and give people more of an excuse to see what they've been missing in the broader TTRPG landscape. Plus, it incentivizes Hasbro to increase their investment in the D&D print team to repair their market position.

But if you're a D&D YouTuber, that scenario is an absolute nightmare. D&D might never slip to #2 in the polls, but it's also extremely possible that it loses its status as the "Majority game" if its rivals manage to grab a significant chunk of its player-base.

If the Revised Core Rulebooks turn out to be underwhelming, as the Indestructible Boy seems to fear it might, then D&D risks once again becoming uncool. And that is the apocalypse scenario that the D&D Brand Warriors would rather avoid.

The YouTuber's Dilemma

So now, if you're an online personality who has primarily covered D&D 5th Edition up until this point, you have to make a choice. Do you:

Continue to be a primarily D&D-based channel and hope that your commitment to the brand pays off in the long run?

Pivot to producing more genre-agnostic content, before you know where the chips are going to fall?

Use your platform to subtly bury D&D's burgeoning competition?

I don't actually know what the answer is here, honestly. Using your platform to promote games that your channel is not traditionally known for might be risky. But at the same time, if it turns out that the era of the "D&D Hegemony" is coming to a close, then handcuffing yourself to the railing might backfire if the ship starts going down.

And speaking of #3...

They Protec, But they also Attac

This is another video that I find utterly fascinating because it also presupposes the idea that if Daggerheart can't outsell D&D, then it's doomed to fail.

There's a term for this: Fantasy or D&D Heartbreaker. It's the idea that if your RPG doesn't have a shot at being #1, it shouldn't even bother trying. It assumes that the fans will always choose the market leader when it comes time to decide where to spend their gaming dollars and their time. The "losers," aka the "Heartbreakers" just end up collecting dust on the "unloved games shelf" at the local hobby store.

But the idea that your game is a failure if it can't "beat" D&D also reinforces the "One Game to Rule Them All" paradigm that many D&D YouTubers benefit greatly from. And this is where we see that there is a massive conflict of interest.

Here's another video from the Roll For Combat channel featuring Baron de Ropp where he spells it out much more plainly:

At about the 1:45 mark in the video, Baron says this: "In order to prevent the hobby itself from imploding, there has to be that one central pillar that everybody kind of gravitates to. Because otherwise, if you don't have that, the only thing that sticks around are the hardcores."

I don't want to seem like I'm dunking on Baron specifically, but he definitely seems to care a lot about that "Central Pillar" existing.

I have taken to calling this the "Election model" of TTRPGs, where even if there are more than a couple of candidates for the role of "President," only one of them can win. Whichever RPG is the "President" is the one that will receive the vast majority of coverage, and also the "Default" choice whenever the question of "What game are we playing next" comes up.

The "4E Situation" but Worse

I don't think the real fear is that D&D suddenly loses all of its brand awareness because of a couple of scandals. It's that D&D goes back to being "Just another game" like it was during the 90s. It used to be just as likely that your table was running something like Shadowrun, or Rifts, or Vampire: The Masquerade, or any number of other games.

In that "Fractured Landscape" scenario, it becomes very difficult for a YouTuber to make videos that appeal to the majority of the TTRPG audience, if you can't make assumptions about their playing habits. The safest bet continues to be D&D, since it will always have a thumb on the scale thanks to its cultural awareness.

But if the "4E situation" happens, it also means that D&D is no longer the default game that everyone is assumed to be playing. Your content is increasingly targeted towards beginners and casual fans, while the "Hardcores" have split off and are playing other games. The D&D-playing audience is divided, and that's the audience that these YouTubers depend on.

"Reasoned Criticism"

I don't know what the solution is here. What I do believe is that there will increasingly be a conflict of interest between Youtubers covering new upcoming games, and their need to protect the D&D brand which their own online presence depends on.

What I absolutely do not want to see are videos like the one I posted above, where people with primarily D&D-oriented content take a little sidebar to bury the competition. If you have a channel whose bread and butter is videos like "The Top 5 Multiclass options for Lizardfolk Druids," I don't want to see a video called "Why Fabula Ultima is mid, actually!" with a stock photo of some generically attractive person giving a big shrug.

Even if you're not paid directly by Hasbro to promote D&D, you benefit from doing it just the same, thanks to SEO and Algorithm placement on Youtube. So you don't have to disclose that you're being paid (because you're not) but you absolutely are making money off of the D&D brand, and that makes any talk about other RPGs, especially negative talk, a conflict of interest.

Well, anyways

The question of whether to stay committed to D&D as a brand, or diversify, is a legitimately difficult question that I don't think anyone has a real solid answer to.

A lot depends on how well the Revised Core Rulebooks are received in 2024. There are going to be big questions to answer with regards to what system to choose going forward: Stay on 5E? Switch to 5.5? And what about Tales of the Valiant? Then there's upcoming public playtests from both Daggerheart and the MCDM RPG.

How players choose to spend their money will significantly affect the D&D YouTube landscape. Those personalities will have to choose whether to dig their heels in on D&D, or diversify. Neither option seems safe at this point.

However, what we should absolutely not tolerate is any attempt by D&D personalities to "nudge" the TTRPG industry back into the loving arms of their chosen brand, away from its upcoming competitors.

If you are a person who's handcuffed your brand to the ship called "Dungeons & Dragons," you cannot be trusted to be objective about the TTRPG industry as a whole. Not until you have made the effort to talk about games outside of the D20 Fantasy sphere without the intention of dismissing them outright.

[totallytubularific]

I think its so funny that Elon Musk is like "I'm going to buy D&D" like Hasbro would give up that cash cow.

Like, functionally, he wouldn't have to acquire Hasbro to do it, he would have to acquire Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary. However, Wizards of the Coast is a fucking cash cow. Hasbro simply would not give that up, and I know this because 1. D&D is a cash cow, the books are expensive as hell and they do love to print new ones, but also 2. WotC owns Magic the Gathering, which is the biggest money pit a consumer can throw themselves in, and I should know, because I just watched most of my friends throw $160 dollars at a deck because its got cool pictures on it.

(Also he can't outright buy Hasbro anyway, it's not for sale, and he'd have to make an offer worth like hundreds of billions of dollars that he doesn't have liquid)

[smokeybrand]

Stay Out the Kitchen

I am absolutely captivated by what Larian has created with Baldur’s Gate 3. Just, flat-out, dumbfounded by what this smallish studio was able to do with seven years and pure passion for the project. Now, I am aware that Larian is not a small studio. They have several hits under their belt and enough clout to wrest the DnD license away from the notoriously stingy Wizards of the Coast, but let’s be real; They ain’t EA. Larian took one hundred million dollars, and developed a whole ass masterpiece. I’ve not been so enamored with a game since the first time I played Mass Effect 2. Literally the same emotions. I can see myself putting thousands of hours into this world, that’s how deep it is. That’s how fun it is to play. That’s how rich these characters are. I love Karlach as much as I love Tali and that sh*t is a lot. Like, a lot-a lot. You have to be at the top of your game in terms of writing and performance to deliver such an emotional resonance with my jaded ass. I legitimately care about these characters and the lives they lead, lives I control to a certain extent. All of this out of a studio with no shareholder backing or corporate f*ckery. That’s why Larian is bowing out of BG4, WotC and Hasbro want to go about with their f*ckery. Larian, the little studio that could, dropped the best game of last year, and when the Brinks truck rolled up with the Corpo notes, they said “No”. They get to keep their creative soul and develop whatever projects they want, all because Larian turned down that blood money. Which is why I’m so f*cking concerned about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

I mentioned Mass Effect 2 being one of the quintessential moments in my gaming life. That’s very true. At the time, Bioware had delivered unto me the best Star Wars game, ever, in the form of Knights of the Old Republic. On the strength of Lord Revan's Misadventures, I was hooked on whatever this studio decided to do next. Interestingly enough, that was their BG3. KotOR killed and, when Lucasarts came a knocking for a sequel, Bioware gave them the hard passed, instead starting work on Mass Effect. Some years later, before EA got their blood money into them, they dropped Dragon Age: Origins and, I think, Dragon Age 2? I own both of those games, beat them both, but I didn’t care about the franchise until Inquisition. The first, full EA tainted Dragon Age title. I played the hell out of it but never felt fulfilled. This listlessness got me to revisit those older games and, for my tastes, they are better. In terms of narrative and overall plot, they are far superior. That said, DA: I does a better job of pathos and character development. I mean, it doesn’t, I just really like romancing Cassandra. She’s adorable. In all honesty, though, Dragon Age: Inquisition is kind of tedious to play. The open world format could be overwhelming at times and you can easily miss essential sh*t mad easy. There are laughable difficulty spikes just randomly on maps. The f*cking Giants just strolling around on any stage will absolutely wreck your sh*t until you are stupidly over leveled for the area. My biggest gripe, though? Corypheus. As a main antagonist, he’s a nothingburger and really drags the game down. Ultimately, I like playing DA: I. I have hundreds of hours in that game. It’s not as good as the first two and a lot of that has to do with EA ruining Bioware for a decade, which is why I am sweating bullets about Veilguard.

From what I’ve heard, what I’ve seen in those trailers, DA: V looks fun. “Looks” is a kind of a misnomer in terms of actual visuals because, while I got over it fairly quickly, the fandom has denounced the art direction of this game. Cries of “Fortnite” have rang through the troves fans and they’re right. This game looks nothing like its predecessors, nothing like a Dark Fantasy title should, and it’s leaving so much to be desired. Those who have gotten a hands-on with it say the combat is mad deep and delivers unexpected mechanics to exploit but I am weary. EA is pretty much tightening the noose around Bioware with this goofy ass title which had to restart production in the middle of development, twice. Once, because EA finally laid to rest the Frostbite engine mandate, and another to literally retool the entire narrative. This game started out as Dragon Age: Dread Wolf and now is something completely different. This isn’t the game we were promised. It’s an entirely new experience, one that has cost, at the very least, a hundred million dollars, and taken a decade to bring to life. And will probably be absolutely terrible in all the places people who play these types of games, will hate. I’ll hold my judgment until I actually play the thing, mostly because I don’t want Bioware to get nixed by EA for bungled sales, but Larian they are not. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and half of them want live services. That means the dish in the oven is going to end up being overcooked and burnt. Larian could never.

[pigeonplaneswalker]

I only started playing Magic recently but I'm not giving up on it because of fucking SpongeBob. Yes, Hasbro is a sellout company and most likely pulling strings but Secret Lairs and cards based on properties have been a thing for years, it's not "becoming Fortnite" as fast as people say it is. Jurassic World cards were available in Ixalan packs and Transformers in Brother's War. Plenty of people I've played with have the Fallout Mothman precon (myself included). Did anyone complain when Post Malone got his own cards? I sure hope not because that's fucking stupid considering he's a huge MTG fan so it makes sense.

Foundations comes out in November so you'll be set until 2029 for Standard and if you play Commander literally just play with the cards you have, if UB bothers you so much rule 0 with your play group. I'm sick and tired of all this in fighting in a community for a card game. What happened to just having fun? Arguing and drama are the reason why WOTC owns Commander now. The harassment that occurred during the whole Mana Crypt/Jeweled Lotus ban controversy should have never happened and I'm disappointed in everyone who was involved.

If you want to quit the game because of Spider-Man and SpongeBob, be my guest, but don't disparage the whole game because of it.

Currently the top thread at r/MagicTGC

I am genuinely amazed the cardboard-crack addicts have put up with the absolute sellout of their thing until now. I mean, the shitshow WotC is putting on has some people over there singing the praises of GW as if they were saints. They most definetly are not - but how messed up does the situation have to be to get this sort of reaction from people?

[teal-deer]

Torment: Tides of Numenera -- some impressions and things

from a player who played Planescape: Torment, but knows jack shit about Numenera beyond “dying earth science fantasy!”

I backed Torment: Tides of Numenera a looong time ago and now I am playing it. I will try to avoid spoielrs but I guess, minor spoilers ahead. 1. This shit is catnip. It's the first time in... jesus christ, almost 10 years that I've looked up at a clock while playing ANY game and gone "It's 3:00 AM? What? How!? WHY" 2. NONE OF THESE COMPANIONS ARE A TALKING SKULL. OR AS ENDEARING AS A TALKING SKULL. F A I L. 3. On the flip side, I found an alien who was looking at porn, and it/they (alien has no gender as we know it, and I do not know this alien's pronouns. It? seems right? In this odd case?) was like "Haha so, I was actually banished because I violated some social norms related to my own species methods of reproduction, so now I study other species' methods of reproduction!" and I'm like TELL ME MORE and it was like "Well OKAY IF YOU'rE SURE... are you sure" and I'm like YES and so it did, incl. explaining human reproduction to me before going "I'm pretty sure all the previous was lies told to me as a prank :\ HOWEVER I got invited to an orgy so HOPEFULLY I CAN HAVE A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT SOON :D" and I was SUPER UPSET bc there WAS NO DIALOGUE OPTION to go "WELL BUDDY I COULD DEMONSTRATE ;) " esp bc the game goes on AT LENGTH about how the dude has these really impressive prosthetic hands that bend at impossible angles like dang anyway InExile I'm v disappoint that I can't fuck the alien but v happy that talking to the alien about fucking gave me exp Also, later, a robot was like "I wanna have babies :( "And I was able to bust into that alien's room like "gUESS WHAT MY FRIEND, A ROBOT WANTS TO HAVE BABIES" and it was like "HOLY SHIT REALLY !? my grant ran out" and I'm like, IM AN ADVENTURRR I HAVE MONEY" and it was like "FUCK YEAH LETS HAVE ROBOT BABIES" so we had robot babies A+ game 4. I can't be bothered to learn character names so here's the companions in the game so far a. Squarejaw McManpain: Jesus fuck I couldn't give less of a fuck about your beef with the guy piloting my meatsack previously. Please shut up. Christ. b. Ojou Laugh: Is at least actually an interesting person, even though I'm 90% sure she wants to vivisect me c. The Load: I let this child into my party and I cannot park her and every time I try she throws a fucking fit, and she's useless. Why. But my bleeding soft heart, I cannot leave her. d. ADVENTURMANG: Oh god he has a really fucked up story I think, please poor man please let me get the crazy robots out of your brain. e. Rule 63 Elric: Is very attractive. Can we date? I agree that Adventuremang needs to leave you alone and you should def kill him if he touches you. f. Obligatory Jerk With a Heart of Something, Probably: BOOOOOOOOOOORING STEREOTYPE WHY ARE YOU IN THE GAME EVEN 5. NONE OF THEM ARE A TALKING SKULL or a GITHZERAI or a CELIBATE SUCCUBUS tho so WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT 6. There are a lot of Ps:T references tho. Game be like "Get this Brass Sphere out of your skull! It has a Cage symbol in it :V" Game be like, "This random NPC has an obsession with Doors, Arches, and other Portals of All Kinds! Game be like, "Let these nice people vivisect you" okay "wow have a nice reward!" okay Game be like, "this dude has 3 in his name" me: /squints at Conclusion: /GRABS WotC BY THE THROAT /SLOWLY PUTS THEM DOWN y'all are ok sometimes /GRABS HASBRO BY THE THROAT INSTEAD LET THESE FUCKERS RELEASE ANOTHER PLANESCAPE GAME YOU UTTER MORONS YOU FUCKS LET THEM HAVE FULL CREATIVE CONTROL AND LET US FUCK THE ALIENS STOP BEING A BUNCH OF HAND-WRINGING MORAL GUARDIAN HACKS JESUS CHRIST MY LARP ALREADY USES YOUR NERF PRODUCTS TO FUCKING MURDER THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTEHR FUCK YOU AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA /mercilessly throttles Hasbro, in the hopes that when they die, they enter a realm of self-reflection, level up a few times, and come back somewhat enlightened 

7.  The Tides symbol is not as aesthetically pleasing as the Torment symbol 

8. Ps:T fans:   were there any numerical codes that were significant in that game? T:ToN has a huuuge section where you can enter random 4-digit codes with numbers 1-5 to access various tombs. Most of them seem to only have random names of Kickstarter backers, but I am wondering if there may be an Easter Egg hidden in there, somewhere. I already tried 3333. 

9. the Ninth World is more aesthetically pleasing than Sigil in some ways, but I can’t tell how much of that is actually design and how much of that was a graphical limitation. The game doesn’t feel that much more advanced than Ps:T, frankly, to the point that I feel like a graphical update of P:sT wouldn’t be that hard. 

...

/goes back to throttling Hasbro   

[dracolupus628]

I agree, you should submit complaints to the form they post, but don't stop posting about their errors publicly!

Edit- even though DndShorts is not a reliable channel, Hasbro's investors aren't going to see anything submitted to the form they are making. Even if they use that to help certain aspects, the only reason we are getting WotC to roll back their attempts to screw us over is because their investors are pressuring them. So, keep this discussion in the open.

Edit 2- I removed the portion of this post proliferating DndShorts's content. I am unsure as to how reliable he is, and several people have given me good arguments that he is not the best source of information on this topic. However, I still believe that we should continue to post publicly about these issues.

We can only play nice after they prove unequivocally that they are actually caring about us as fans, not as wallets.

Other notes I have- I don't think I trust them that they won't come after the publishers of VTTs. If they are trying to host their own, this whole debacle was caused by then trying to eliminate their competition, and VTTs are a prime source of that (especially given the other leaks regarding future plans for dndbeyond). And they never claimed to own our fan content- the ogl 1.1 said they had a permanent, limitless licence to use it or reproduce it for their benefit without even telling us. That's the issue.

So in short, continue to post about this on all the social media sites. Continue to tell your friends. And most of all, continue to boycot WotC. Do not purchase their books, do not subscribe to dndbeyond, and unsubscribe if you still haven't. Remember, you will continue to have access to your paid content until your current billing period ends.

A few more OGL updates:

The important takeaways here are:

WoTC has said they will have a comment period in which they will take survey responses lasting no fewer than two weeks after the OGL is officially made available for comment, prior to or on this coming Friday, January 20, 2023. (I would encourage using this; please note that when you send the equivalent of anon hate to companies, they assume you are not a potential customer but rather a foaming-at-the-mouth weirdo and will disregard what you have to say. I mean, you can do what you want, and I can't guarantee what will happen as I do not work for WoTC in any capacity, but I have worked customer service, and the screaming haters get ignored as being nutjobs. You know what talks loudest is, of course, canceled subscriptions if you're still unhappy.)

This clarifies a lot of things that were never up for the chopping block, but which were frequently mentioned in rumors, which I think is good to have. Namely: actual play, things like minis/maps, and contracted D&D-related work are not under the OGL anyway and never were, and can continue; anyone still bringing those up is actively fearmongering and can be ignored.

Material published under the OGL 1.0a is still fine as is; this only applies going forward. It is not revoked for past materials.

VTTs are unaffected; see point 2 re: people still bringing them up.

Most crucially, there will be no registration or royalties, nor ownership of material made under the OGL. This was I think the most worrying part.

Obviously, this is a statement and not the draft, so if the draft lacks these provisions, give 'em (polite but firm) hell, unsubscribe, etc.

A couple of other things to note just in general:

Mark Hulmes has a really thoughtful video about everything (made prior to this last announcement) that I highly recommend skimming through at the very least; I think he covers the personal/emotional aspects a lot of players and actual players may be experiencing.

Never be afraid to ask people for sources for non-anecdotal information. If they can't provide them, consider what that says about their information.

I think a lot of the things other companies have promised - either new licenses for their materials, or new systems - sound great! They are also, at this time, unpublished. Do be aware and skeptical when people are giving them endless benefit of the doubt as saviors of the TTRPG. They may be as good as they sound! They also might never materialize; or they might be inexpensive and great for players (who are willing to leave D&D, anyway) but will leave small 3rd party publishers high and dry. SRDs simply aren't feasible for smaller publishers, who rely on the income from every purchase. If you've said you're concerned for 3rd party publishers, why not put your money where your mouth is and buy some OGL 1.0a-based materials?

[ultramaga]

Leftists: Dismantle your States now! Decolonise back to Britain, you white bastards! China: Could you please tell them to build the gas chambers for you before they go? Leftists: Also build us the gas chambers we need, you white bastards! China: Now just step in while we seal up the doors ... Leftists: Utopia!  Utopia!  Utopia!

Leftism is the world’s biggest suicide cult. They have no idea how brief their lives would be if they ever succeeded.

Recently, Hasbro’s WotC branch decided that wypipo had to be purged from Dungeons and Dragons. 

After a month of pissing on their own player base, then announcing it was all a big misunderstanding and they just wanna give us a hug, they finally just splashed the petrol and went dancing with lighters into the fumes.  And I see that everywhere I go in Australia now. Big signs telling us we are walking on stolen land, that will be paid for by taxpayers because the councils are run by Leftists who want us dead. The ABC Australia - the one paid for by compulsion, you will be arrested if you don’t pay for its subversive propaganda - spent the whole day calling for the destruction of Australia and the establishment of a black supremacist state - with the typical intersectionalist hierarchy, of course. Whitey might be allowed to clean toilets with their tongues or something.  And meanwhile, China is building massive bases in the ocean in preparation for a land invasion. They are openly threatening invasion, that is when they are not, you know, killing people with impunity. And the shit they pulled with the spy balloons shows that with Biden in power, they have nothing to fear from America any more. Why not invade Taiwan? Then Australia? What would America have to say about it?

Leftists disarmed Australia. We were always a small nation, but we punched above our weight because a lot of the country boys were trained in firearms.  But Leftists hate it when people can fight back. The State is the Mother, The State is the Father. So only The State should be allowed weapons. But The State is tiny and run by people who will bail at the first sign of trouble, hopping onto their jets to safer waters, or selling out the rest of us to act as quislings for new masters. The bipartisan embrace of totalitarianism during the pandemic panic was shocking to see. No major party spoke out in favour of freedom.  Hardly surprising. Thirty years ago, I spoke to a labor party representative called Peter Garrett. He told me it was the official stance of his organisation that human rights were irrelevant. Then I went to a party with the rich, the people in the financial sector who actually run the show. They told me privately that the rulers of the world do not give a shit about countries; patriotism is for the little people. They see a love of one’s nation as idiotic, and they only exist for themselves. They would gladly sell us out to the Chinese for thirty pieces of silver - plus GST, of course.

Dear White People...