Quote from: Omega;1050367WOTC has released several MTG to D&D setting booklets in PDF format now.

I know.

Quote from: Omega;1050367And another may be on its way in hardback print if the amazon listing is not a mistake or hoax.

This will be the point they cross the rubicon however.

The stock was up over 10% on the earning news. Now you are seeing profit taking.He also did not say that D&D would be an esport, he mentioned Twitch for D&D and esport for Magic linked to Arena. That has not stopped a bunch of articles and discussion. This is all from a Cramer Mad Money segment where you have little to no time you basically spout marketing talking points and hope Cramer does not ask you a too tough question. I have done a few live interviews on CNBC, it can be rough.

Quote from: Myrdin Potter;1050373The stock was up over 10% on the earning news. Now you are seeing profit taking.He also did not say that D&D would be an esport, he mentioned Twitch for D&D and esport for Magic linked to Arena.

That's good.

QuoteThat has not stopped a bunch of articles and discussion.

At this point, I assume 99% of what we hear on the interbutz is garbled information.

What would be interesting is if WOTC got into the streaming business and created a channel for showing groups playing modules, with commentary and animations and crap. Say, they show a group playing through Tomb of Horrors, and have a couple of grognards talking about their experiences, that kinda stuff.

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;1050364I see where they're going to go with this.

They're going to copy Blizzard's success with converting timed dungeon runs into a spectator event. ("Mythic Dungeon Invitational") Competitive dungeon running. Your team races another team through seperate instances of the same exact dungeon. Best time wins. Best of 3 early on, Best of 5 at the climax. Change things up by introducing and changing one of a set of modifiers ("Affixes" for WOW's take.) and loser picks the dungeon for the second and subsequent games in a series.

If you think I'm out of my mind, consider this: MDI has consistent quarterly live viewership between 10K and 20K viewers on Twitch. Views on YouTube, Mixer, etc. are not included. There is live color commentary and between-match host segments, featuring top players in the game's online community. Participation in Mythic Plus in WOW went up once the MDI began, as it demystified the entire feature for most players- and so made it familiar and easy to do.

D&D's chasing the trend here, and to its eventual detriment. This course should be abandoned immediately.

I think this is spot on. I'd add there might be some improvisational element for "scoring" but yeah - I think you're definitely on the right track.

Of course, this could just be the CEO being a jackass and not really understanding D&D isn't a computer game...

I very strongly suspect this is nothing at all.

He meant MtG Arena for the competitive esports, and was lumping revenue from people watching games on Twitch with that statement. Pretty sure that's all he meant. Not competitive D&D play, just Hasbro competing for eyeballs on watching games being played, which is an element of esports.  From a revenue standpoint, whether people are competing in the game or not is irrelevant - it's people watching games being played that's the crucial element for esports revenue.  Which is how you'd want to explain it to a business audience who likely knows nothing about D&D other than it's a game.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1050381What would be interesting is if WOTC got into the streaming business and created a channel for showing groups playing modules, with commentary and animations and crap. Say, they show a group playing through Tomb of Horrors, and have a couple of grognards talking about their experiences, that kinda stuff.

So basically WoTC putting forward their own in-house version of Critical Role? Maybe - but I wouldn't were I them. Any off-the-cuff ruling would be made "official" by many watchers, and if it wasn't good it would reflect badly on WoTC, while currently the many terrible D&D streams don't hurt them. (I don't watch Critical Role either - but it certainly benefits them.)

Quote from: Charon's Little Helper;1050411So basically WoTC putting forward their own in-house version of Critical Role? Maybe - but I wouldn't were I them. Any off-the-cuff ruling would be made "official" by many watchers, and if it wasn't good it would reflect badly on WoTC, while currently the many terrible D&D streams don't hurt them. (I don't watch Critical Role either - but it certainly benefits them.)

They already do this. Mearls even DMs sometimes, like he did for Stream of Many Eyes last month. He makes off the cuff rulings all the time and nothing bad has ever happened. Chris Perkins is DMing Dice Camera Action on a regular basis. There are 102 episodes.  They've even done crossovers with Acquisition Inc..   Which is ALSO DMed by Chris Perkins.

Apparently those quotes were taken out of context, and the article has been updated.

QuoteA spokesperson for Hasbro later clarified that while the strategy for building digital gaming capabilities for "Dungeons & Dragons" remains intact, the game has not yet been classified by the company as an esport because of its limited competitive scope.

And it does look like Hasbro is committed to crossing the streams when it comes to D&D and MTG.

Interesting. I wonder what made them change their mind at this point.

Quote from: Mistwell;1050413They already do this. Mearls even DMs sometimes, like he did for Stream of Many Eyes last month. He makes off the cuff rulings all the time and nothing bad has ever happened. Chris Perkins is DMing Dice Camera Action on a regular basis. There are 102 episodes.  They've even done crossovers with Acquisition Inc..   Which is ALSO DMed by Chris Perkins.

Fair 'nuff. Shows just how closely I watch the gaming streams.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1050294I have no idea how the heck Hasbro would turn D&D into an esports property.

The same way TSR turned D&D into a competitive tournament game.

Well, they tried to...

Quote from: Omega;1050367Hate to mercilessly burst your bubble... But WOTC has released several MTG to D&D setting booklets in PDF format now. The first, Innistrad, came out in 2016.  See the other thread for that. Latest two were Amonkhet and Ixalan. And another may be on its way in hardback print if the amazon listing is not a mistake or hoax.

And Zendikar, too.

Here's the thing though, the Planeshift PDF's are really nothing more than advertisements for their art books.  Which, if you bought the Zendikar one, like I did, the Planeshift document makes more sense.  It's pretty clever.

There is a competitive version of D&D called Conflict. I contributed to the first edition and got to participate in play tests. It was quite fun. So there is a rules system in place WOTC could partner with if they needed. I imagine competitive play would only be entertaining to watch though if they set up the presentation well and had naturally entertaining people playing.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1050419The same way TSR turned D&D into a competitive tournament game.

Well, they tried to...

The Fans of OD&D used to create a competitive tournament game not TSR. They just jumped on the bandwagon slightly later on.

See the Gen Con IX dungeon and the Gen Con X dungeon, Of Skulls and  Scrapfaggot Green both published by Judges Guild.

Correction Origins I had Tomb of Horrors run by Gygax and Gen Con VIII a Kalibruhn dungeon written by Rob Kuntz. However from what I understand the Gen Con IX is the first to have competitive scoring.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1050415Apparently those quotes were taken out of context, and the article has been updated.



And it does look like Hasbro is committed to crossing the streams when it comes to D&D and MTG.

Interesting. I wonder what made them change their mind at this point.

Probably the revenues and profits got good enough for D&D to pop up on Hasbro's radar.  This does seem like higher management is starting to notice a "smaller" brand line.

A competitive D&D computer game where the teams are rival bands of tomb-robbers -- all going into the same dungeon complex through different entrances -- could actually be really awesome if the devs used an old-school megadungeon mentality.  The objective isn't to "beat" the dungeon, but to get in and out alive in a certain amount of time, and each team's performance is evaluated to determine the winner.  Evaluation would largely be based on treasure gained, but also take into account monsters slain, traps overcome, party members lost, etc.  This would encourage creative strategies and tactics that don't all boil down to combat, and also risk-vs-reward strategies (as in old-school megadungeon play) about when to head down to the deeper levels.  It would be even more interesting if you could interact with dungeon denizens in non-combat ways -- maybe even bribe or convince the goblins to go attack the other teams.  Finally, there's also the possibility for the parties to encounter one another in the dungeon, lay traps for one another, and so on.  I'm not going to hold my breath, but if a game like that was created, I'd most likely tune in and watch (if I couldn't play myself!)