Old Man Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 Eberron creator Keith Baker considering walking away from Eberron and WotC Cygnia and Scott Ruggels 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 26 Author Report Share Posted January 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 D&DBeyond founder expresses frustration with "walls being built around D&D garden", joins Paizo's ORC with TTRPG tool website demiplane.com Scott Ruggels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 26 Author Report Share Posted January 26 Trencher 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opal Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 I wonder if Hasbro coughed up for product placement on Stranger Things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 8 hours ago, Opal said: I wonder if Hasbro coughed up for product placement on Stranger Things? Hasbro does Stranger Things merchandise, but they could also charge the show for using their trademarked stuff like Vecna. There is some sort of contractual arrangement going on between them, so it seems much more complicated than just product placement. Opal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 27 Author Report Share Posted January 27 8 hours ago, Opal said: I wonder if Hasbro coughed up for product placement on Stranger Things? Not initially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 27 Author Report Share Posted January 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 27 Author Report Share Posted January 27 The boycott may be having its intended effect. : https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hasbro-to-lay-off-1000-staffers-1235310817/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 Might just be generally bad economy taking effect there, like in a lot of businesses. The recession is about a year old now, its tough on companies as well as regular folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said: The boycott may be having its intended effect. : https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hasbro-to-lay-off-1000-staffers-1235310817/ It's not the boycott. It's the rest of Hasbro's business. From the article (bolding mine): Quote Hasbro released preliminary earnings, reporting 2022 revenue down 9 percent for the year, and 17 percent in Q4. Only its Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming divisions saw their finances improve for the year, with Q4 revenues up 22 percent and 2022 revenues up 3 percent. Hasbro’s entertainment division saw its revenues decline 12 percent in Q4, and 17 percent in 2022. The article goes on to note: Quote The cost-cutting move also follows Hasbro having prevailed in a boardroom proxy battle against Alta Fox Management. The activist investor failed to get shareholders to back its call for Hasbro to spin off its gaming division to unlock shareholder value. Hasbro’s returned board reiterated that spinning off the gaming division was not required to realize greater shareholder value at the toy maker. Seeing off Alta Fox’s proxy battle challenge marked a victory for newly installed CEO Cocks amid the toy maker’s drive toward becoming a gaming powerhouse. This shareholder battle is probably where the idea that WotC and D&D was undermonetized came from. Scott Ruggels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 42 minutes ago, Ternaugh said: It's not the boycott. It's the rest of Hasbro's business. From the article (bolding mine): The article goes on to note: This shareholder battle is probably where the idea that WotC and D&D was undermonetized came from. That article and the one it links to are really depressing, since it sounds like neither management nor the shareholders have any idea wtf is going on with respect to their entire business, let alone TTRPGs. They have no explanation for why they are losing that much money when there's not even a recession? And their solution is to just jettison the "underperforming" divisions and quintuple WotC's profitability overnight? Also disturbing is the strategy of hooking kids on their IP young by "engaging" them at the age of two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 And WotC blinks: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1439-ogl-1-0a-creative-commons Quote These live survey results are clear. You want OGL 1.0a. You want irrevocability. You like Creative Commons. The feedback is in such high volume and its direction is so plain that we're acting now. We are leaving OGL 1.0a in place, as is. Untouched. We are also making the entire SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license. You choose which you prefer to use. This Creative Commons license makes the content freely available for any use. We don't control that license and cannot alter or revoke it. It's open and irrevocable in a way that doesn't require you to take our word for it. And its openness means there's no need for a VTT policy. Placing the SRD under a Creative Commons license is a one-way door. There's no going back. Our goal here is to deliver on what you wanted. Steve and Chris Goodwin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 It's a trap, get an axe... Duke Bushido, Old Man and Steve 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opal Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 And the door closes on the third and probably final opportunity to win mainstream name recognition for a non-D&D TTRPG outside the hobby. With only Pathfinder, an outright D&D clone having been glimpsed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 [ sorry. ,I was working,on a very unrefreshed window.] assault and Chris Goodwin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 2 hours ago, Ternaugh said: And WotC blinks: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1439-ogl-1-0a-creative-commons It will be interesting to see how the fans react. Lots of YouTube activity on this subject has been going on. On the OGL mess Hasbro had on their hands, I mean. I wonder if anyone will be fired over this. They blew their own face off with this stunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 This was from yesterday: Steve, Scott Ruggels and Chris Goodwin 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/pathfinder-call-of-cthulhu-rpgs-sell-out-dnd-ogl-backlash Old Man, Steve and Chris Goodwin 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 7 minutes ago, Cygnia said: https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/pathfinder-call-of-cthulhu-rpgs-sell-out-dnd-ogl-backlash Well, that’s gotta sting quite a bit. After blowing their own faces off with their stupid attempt to bully the RPG industry into compliance, followed quickly by tens of thousands of D&D account cancellations happening, the fans then go and buy record amounts of other RPGs instead. I wonder if someone’s getting fired over this? D&D is (was?) one of Hasbro’s biggest cash flow IPs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 I would be careful. What the survey says may not be what WOTC does. Trust has been broken, and I expect them to try something in the future. Duke Bushido 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opal Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 I wonder if they weren't pulling something else under the cover of this kerfluffle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Bushido Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 7 minutes ago, Opal said: I wonder if they weren't pulling something else under the cover of this kerfluffle? Doubt it. Though I am quiet certain that they would like you to believe they were that clever, as opposed to caught with their pants down and two counties away, and caught attempting to strong arm small time writers into surrendering their livelihood. The idea that this might be a brilliant smokescreen is akin to the "brilliance" of Coca-Cola's "New Coke Maneuver." Yeah, in the end, nostalgia and public outrage actually worked in Coca-Cola's favor (thiigg I will never pass up an opportunitjy to note that they switched to corn syrup anyway, even while telling the world that the peole demanded that they not do it, so they weren't going do do it). Now given that people are lining up by the thousands to participate in the surveys and join in the "conversation" and help to push the focus away from the fact that you dont send drafts out for signatures, all of which essentially is selling- well, whatever you want to call it: ret-con? about face? I prefer "blatant lies and and frenzied play born of desperation," but that might just be me. Tangentially, I think it would be hilarious to see Hasbro put Wizards up for sale as being "too troublesome to keep"- or better; too expensive to keep," but again, it may be just me. Scott Ruggels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 Enjoy the celebratory mood, But I still don[t trust them farther than I can throw them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said: Tangentially, I think it would be hilarious to see Hasbro put Wizards up for sale as being "too troublesome to keep"- or better; too expensive to keep," but again, it may be just me. It would be, but Hasbro isn't going to sell their only profitable division. Although after this disaster maybe it won't be profitable either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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