Wizards of the Coast and the OGL

 This is my response to this thread here. I was going to post it there but I took too long writing and got logged out or something.

These are my thoughts, written pretty much as I thought them.

So, why didn’t WotC look at the market, determine there was value in previous editions, and cater to those consumers?

WotC made the OGL to keep DnD alive and free from the corporate masters. Everyone seems to be in agreement about that.
That doesn’t mean that WotC couldn’t continue publishing official product for earlier editions. Or system neutral product. Or product for the current edition with conversion notes in the back. Before 3rd edition, they knew there were fans of 2nd edition that wouldn’t convert. They knew there were fans of 1st edition that wouldn’t convert. They knew there were fans of Basic/BECM/BX/whateverthefuck that wouldn’t convert.

That’s money. That’s money they willingly left on the table and turned their back on.

I mean, they tried to make money by what… pulling legal pdf copies of old product? Re-releasing the original books in crap-format for $300? Retconning and rewriting settings beloved by fans? Insulting the intelligence of DnD fans with the marketing of every new edition they’ve put out? Almost every thing they’ve done has pushed away customers towards competitors.

Honestly, what awesome must-have products has DnD of any edition put out in the last 20 years? Cause to me, it all seems like committee-written, bland, lowest common denominator, overpriced garbage. It’s the Black Eyed Peas of role playing games. The difference between a record company and Hasbro is that a record company uses the Black Eyed Peas’ commercial success to offset the smaller, more experimental, and groundbreaking artists they publish. Hasbro doesn’t do that. In fact, one could probably surmise that Hasbro uses more popular products to offset the cost of publishing DnD – which is really stupid, considering the previously stated, “committee-written, bland, lowest common denominator, overpriced garbage.”

It’s pretty obvious Hasbro cares mainly about the IP, not the product itself. If it did, WotC would have more than 3 full time employees in the DnD division. But that’s because there isn’t a whole lot of money to be made in RPGs. But with a classic brand, you can license out the IP for more financially lucrative endeavors like video games.

Author: everloss

I'm a dude that writes about stuff on the internet.

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