I'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

I watched the video. Along with a few other of his recent appearances. It's hard to shake the feeling that Mearls is on some sort of half apology tour half shill-my-game tour, as if he was never on board with the direction of 5e all along.

Also, "I find your lack of avatar disturbing" (Vader voice).

When I flipped through the 2024 PHB recently, curious to see if 5.5E really was as backwards-compatible as WotC claims, reading about "Weapon Masteries" was the moment I said, "No thank you." If I ever DM 5E again, it will be the 2014 rulebooks only -- no bloated crunch for me! Hearing Mearls criticize that element of 5.5E and singling it out as a design mistake (though he never actually uses that word) was great.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

I watched it. Hell, I lived the early part of the story. I like that Mike is now (mostly) free to talk about this stuff without Mr. Potato Head involved.

Quote from: Zalman on February 26, 2025, 11:44:41 AMI watched the video. Along with a few other of his recent appearances. It's hard to shake the feeling that Mearls is on some sort of half apology tour half shill-my-game tour, as if he was never on board with the direction of 5e all along.

Also, "I find your lack of avatar disturbing" (Vader voice).

He hasn't worked on D&D for 5 years. The game has strayed very far from what was designed between 2011 - 2014. I'm sure Mike hasn't been pleased with the direction of the brand, but wasn't allowed to speak about publicly if he wanted to continue being employed.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

Old news. We've been bitching about these topics for years.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

Yeah I have to get my Honey Dipper Dan image of Will Saso from Mad TV, it was and is the funniest thing Will Saso will ever put out in his life.  Don't watch the skit on an upset stomach, you'll shit yourself laughing.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 26, 2025, 01:56:21 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

Old news. We've been bitching about these topics for years.

Yeah but this is the first time you get to hear from the last of WotC's sane designers speak out.

I disagree on Mike saying they are trying to keep the 3.5E and add new users for 5E.  When I look at 5E, all I see is 2E + 3.5E monster stats & saves.  Its a mix of those two systems + advantage to simplify everything.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 01:57:35 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on February 26, 2025, 10:49:27 AMI'm surprised no one watched the video or commented.  It's a very good interview and gives an idea of the inside working of WotC.  If you read between the lines, this is my take:

-D&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers
-D&D believes its lore is problematic so they jettisoned lore and only going off mechanics for updates
-You don't jettison your existing customers and then get new customers, it doesn't work
-D&D is not culturally relevant.  In the past, when D&D was up the market was up and when D&D was down the market is down.  Now, D&D is down but the market is up showing a decoupling to D&D.

Yeah I have to get my Honey Dipper Dan image of Will Saso from Mad TV, it was and is the funniest thing Will Saso will ever put out in his life.  Don't watch the skit on an upset stomach, you'll shit yourself laughing.

The first half of 5E included lore and decent books, the modules were generally weak.  He also allowed 3rd party licensing of older content.  The reason why 5E was successful was Mearls fighting to keep the content relevant to everyone and not making a game that only appealed to Seattle and Sodomites (S&S).  Mearls made sure to keep it D&D. 

It was during the 2020 race riots that Mearls was fired over Zak S, it gave the race marxists carte blanche to destroy D&D as a franchise.

However you feel about Mearls or 5e, it is a good interview that gives insights into everyone at WotC's thought processes.

Quote from: Zalman on February 26, 2025, 11:44:41 AMI watched the video. Along with a few other of his recent appearances. It's hard to shake the feeling that Mearls is on some sort of half apology tour half shill-my-game tour, as if he was never on board with the direction of 5e all along.

Also, "I find your lack of avatar disturbing" (Vader voice).

That's unfair to him. He's not apologizing for anything and he has no reason to. He's not the one running the game now and he was obviously on board with the direction when he was the lead designer a decade ago. It was his direction.

Also everyone and their grandma is making a 5e clone/5e spinoff/D&D alternative. If anyone has a right to iterate on it, he does, given he led the creation of the edition in the first place. He made his own version of 3rd edition (Iron Heroes) back in the 2000s while he was still working on 3e/d20 system for WotC back then. Who cares?

QuoteD&D doesn't like its current customers and wants new customers

I mean, it's been years now since "white people can't leave soon enough", right?

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 26, 2025, 01:56:21 PMOld news. We've been bitching about these topics for years.

No kidding. There is literally nothing new he revealed we didn't already know. Hell we knew it when it was happening. Confirmation bias is no replacement for what you see with your own eyes... but for so many people it's become some kind of dopamine hit that's transcended the hobby itself.

I'm not one of them. But I get it. For many D&D is that pet mammoth that decided to wallow into the tar-pit. Then the the WotC Sabretooth tiger jumped on its back looking for a free meal and now they're both stuck and sinking into the inevitable.

We're all standing at the shore watching them go down. Some feel helpless to save it. Others know she had a bunch of calves that need tending to - time to let her go and take care of her babies. And fuck that sabretooth tiger. He gets what he deserves.

5.5E doesn't seem to be selling well, based on Mearls's interpretation of the latest Hasbro earnings report. That wouldn't surprise me. Not many people want to learn new rules that are not different enough from the old ones to be interesting, but just different enough to be annoying.

IMO, 5.5E was a mistake that should have never happened. A re-organized PHB with an improved layout would have been fine. But changing just enough rules to break backward compatibility was a bad idea that will end up biting WotC in the behind.