Greetings!

Here, Professor DM discusses recent financial news concerning Hasbro and Chris Cocks, and brings the flamethrower against WOTC and 6E. His sarcasm and bristling contempt for the whole "Digital Direction" that WOTC is taking D&D is bold and on full display. And to think some people proclaimed that Professor DM was some kind of WOTC shill. Professor DM has for some time now moved his program away from WOTC. It is good to see.

And, well, Professor DM is also a big fan of SHADOWDARK. He also encourages people to play Shadowdark, and other independent RPG's that are not WOTC.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I enjoy most of his videos.  He was definitely fired up for this one!  I hope more and more of his followers ditch WotC and look for alternative games.

I've got all my older editions and other RPGs to play. Let them compete with the video game market. I think I know what the result will be.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on July 27, 2024, 12:36:34 AMI've got all my older editions and other RPGs to play. Let them compete with the video game market. I think I know what the result will be.

Just as the AAA side of it is collapsing... Perfect timing guys!

As usual he's a day late. I didn't see the Cocks quote and yet I predicted this exactly.

While it's good that many are letting the mass know what Wotc is up to most players like myself will simply go 🤷and keep playing whatever edition we are currently playing.

I mean, wouldn't Wotc removing themselves from the tabletop sphere be about the best possible outcome at this point?

Quote from: Abraxus on July 27, 2024, 10:59:57 AMWhile it's good that many are letting the mass know what Wotc is up to most players like myself will simply go 🤷and keep playing whatever edition we are currently playing.

And/or buying whatever the newest thing shows up on the shelves, so long as new stuff keeps showing up on the shelves...

Quote from: ForgottenF on July 27, 2024, 11:56:24 AMI mean, wouldn't Wotc removing themselves from the tabletop sphere be about the best possible outcome at this point?

For the hobby? Hell yeah! The ones who will suffer will be game store owners. With the wotc disciples all sitting home playing via computer and buying electronically, Games shops will need to really promote other tabltop games in the store such as skirmish miniatures games and board games. On the plus side, game shops will stop being packed full of hobby tourists.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on July 27, 2024, 10:08:31 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on July 27, 2024, 11:56:24 AMI mean, wouldn't Wotc removing themselves from the tabletop sphere be about the best possible outcome at this point?

For the hobby? Hell yeah! The ones who will suffer will be game store owners. With the wotc disciples all sitting home playing via computer and buying electronically, Games shops will need to really promote other tabltop games in the store such as skirmish miniatures games and board games. On the plus side, game shops will stop being packed full of hobby tourists.

Hobby Shops are now Collectible Card Vendors who offer tourneys.  And even then, its heavily biased towards magic for sales.  There is Pokemon, Heroscape and Yugioh for instance, but MTG is the main seller.

A lot of Hobby Shops offer D&D play as a courtesy because the guys buy their stuff from Amazon and just take up space more times than making a sale.  Better shops have started to charge a nominal fee for Adventurer's League or they sell food and drink to make up the difference, and I'm glad they do.

Getting back to the thread, if WotC goes full digital and ignores tabletop they will lose a funnel of kids who started playing because it was free, now its not free, its very expensive and those kids will go elsewhere.  WotC is killing its funnel of new players for short term gains.  They'd be smart to support both tabletop and digital.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 28, 2024, 11:37:49 PMGetting back to the thread, if WotC goes full digital and ignores tabletop they will lose a funnel of kids who started playing because it was free, now its not free, its very expensive and those kids will go elsewhere.  WotC is killing its funnel of new players for short term gains.  They'd be smart to support both tabletop and digital.

Losing players that spend no money now and may never do so isn't a guaranteed future loss. Pushing out projects aimed at them (as they have been doing) - that don't get bought - is more likely to cause short-term losses. So, it seems they're screwed either way.

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 28, 2024, 11:46:01 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 28, 2024, 11:37:49 PMGetting back to the thread, if WotC goes full digital and ignores tabletop they will lose a funnel of kids who started playing because it was free, now its not free, its very expensive and those kids will go elsewhere.  WotC is killing its funnel of new players for short term gains.  They'd be smart to support both tabletop and digital.

Losing players that spend no money now and may never do so isn't a guaranteed future loss. Pushing out projects aimed at them (as they have been doing) - that don't get bought - is more likely to cause short-term losses. So, it seems they're screwed either way.

It means they will age out with a smaller and smaller cohort of customers.  You need players playing the game including those who don't pay to play.  Without those players, there is no game in the first place.  Even those who borrow someone's PHB because they are poor.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 29, 2024, 12:41:52 AM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 28, 2024, 11:46:01 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 28, 2024, 11:37:49 PMGetting back to the thread, if WotC goes full digital and ignores tabletop they will lose a funnel of kids who started playing because it was free, now its not free, its very expensive and those kids will go elsewhere.  WotC is killing its funnel of new players for short term gains.  They'd be smart to support both tabletop and digital.

Losing players that spend no money now and may never do so isn't a guaranteed future loss. Pushing out projects aimed at them (as they have been doing) - that don't get bought - is more likely to cause short-term losses. So, it seems they're screwed either way.

It means they will age out with a smaller and smaller cohort of customers.  You need players playing the game including those who don't pay to play.  Without those players, there is no game in the first place.  Even those who borrow someone's PHB because they are poor.

Are they doing the thing where a DM can invite a certain number of non-paying players to access the game materials under the DM's (payed) account?

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 29, 2024, 01:14:03 AM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 29, 2024, 12:41:52 AM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 28, 2024, 11:46:01 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on July 28, 2024, 11:37:49 PMGetting back to the thread, if WotC goes full digital and ignores tabletop they will lose a funnel of kids who started playing because it was free, now its not free, its very expensive and those kids will go elsewhere.  WotC is killing its funnel of new players for short term gains.  They'd be smart to support both tabletop and digital.

Losing players that spend no money now and may never do so isn't a guaranteed future loss. Pushing out projects aimed at them (as they have been doing) - that don't get bought - is more likely to cause short-term losses. So, it seems they're screwed either way.

It means they will age out with a smaller and smaller cohort of customers.  You need players playing the game including those who don't pay to play.  Without those players, there is no game in the first place.  Even those who borrow someone's PHB because they are poor.

Are they doing the thing where a DM can invite a certain number of non-paying players to access the game materials under the DM's (payed) account?

I don't think we know enough about their virtual play model yet to know how they will charge. Considering how non-existent their playtest stuff was for DM content, the new edition seems to consider DM's as an afterthought. Not quite sure that they would rely on them as their main source of revenue.

I find that PDM sometimes enjoys the smell of his own farts too much, but this is not one of those videos. He makes a compelling case for WotC going full digital.

The comments section, both here and on his YouTube video, have a preponderance of old men yelling at clouds as well as young people yelling at capitalism.

WotC is a business. Businesses exist to make money. There are legitimate criticisms to raise about predatory monetization practices, but you can't fault the for trying to make a buck. The reality is D&D has been fully digital since 2000, but you couldn't make money that way back then. Most of the complaints about virtual tabletops are the exact same people making the exact same argument they lost 20 years ago about pdfs.