https://x.com/Dexerto/status/1862232004005126183

It could be a troll by Elon, but this  is how Elon's purchase of Twitter/X began.

It could save D&D if it happens.

I'll believe it when I see it

Quote from: jeff37923 on November 28, 2024, 06:40:35 PMhttps://x.com/Dexerto/status/1862232004005126183

It could be a troll by Elon, but this  is how Elon's purchase of Twitter/X began.

It could save D&D if it happens.

It would probably cost a lot less than Twitter did. And it's not just D&D, it's got all sorts of properties that could be saved.

I guarantee this, given what happened with his son, the only Trans you'd ever see in Elon's Hasbro would be the Transformers.

I would think MSNBC would be more likely.

Hasbro owns more IPs than they know what to do with, or even know that they own. The Transformers multiverse, the D&D multiverse, the Magic multiverse, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Alternity...

It's ridiculous. Hasbro isn't even monetizing a fraction of what they own. In a just world, the IPs they don't care about would enter public domain rather than rotting in obscurity.

Hasbro is sitting on a goldmine of IPs that could compete with pretty much every video game IP that exists. Forget D&D letting you make a competitor to Dragon Age. Kromosome and CyberRave provide a competitor to Cyberpunk 2077, Star Frontiers and Star*Drive provide a competitor to Mass Effect, Urban Arcana provides a competitor to Bloodlines, Gamma World provides a competitor to Fallout...

And instead of monetizing any of that, they hired a former Bioware employee to make an original untested IP that has... *checks notes*... talking bears? Who the fuck is running this company? Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to spend money on an original IP when they already own dozens that haven't been used in decades? I'm surprised they even okayed an original IP when usually these companies are so averse to new IPs. The only way that reasoning makes sense is if they genuinely don't know they own several scifi IPs that haven't been published in decades.

Again, this is ridiculous. If companies aren't monetizing their IPs, then they should lose ownership so that fans can do something with it.

Hasbro owns chunks of the Marvel Universe that Marvel hasn't been able to make use of in decades. Stuff that became foundational elements of the setting. And it's just being let rot. Stuff like Micronauts and Rom Spaceknight.

It was my personal hope that out of this mess Hasbro has become, that Disney would buy them. So they can mine the IPs that have just been left to rot for decades.

So no. Elon Musk buying Hasbro isn't an outcome I would like. Because it would be more of the same. IPs being wasted and going fallow as Hasbro does nothing with them.

What exactly would Elon do with and D&D as a brand/product?

As much as I like him I actually don't care for his business practices (subscription heated seats in his overpriced shitty cars for example, or naming Twitter X...)

So I'm a little worried he goes the full digital route like Hasbro would have gone, just better (meaning more plebs buy it cause it's "good", but forever locks main brand D&D into DRM digital hell)

In truth I don't understand what is the obsession is with main brand given the OSR and better versions of it exist under different names.

 same reason people hate watching things or enjoy The Boys I guess?  it's the thing to hate or the thing to do I guess?

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 28, 2024, 08:26:33 PMHasbro owns more IPs than they know what to do with, or even know that they own. The Transformers multiverse, the D&D multiverse, the Magic multiverse, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Alternity...

It's ridiculous. Hasbro isn't even monetizing a fraction of what they own. In a just world, the IPs they don't care about would enter public domain rather than rotting in obscurity.

Hasbro is sitting on a goldmine of IPs that could compete with pretty much every video game IP that exists. Forget D&D letting you make a competitor to Dragon Age. Kromosome and CyberRave provide a competitor to Cyberpunk 2077, Star Frontiers and Star*Drive provide a competitor to Mass Effect, Urban Arcana provides a competitor to Bloodlines, Gamma World provides a competitor to Fallout...

And instead of monetizing any of that, they hired a former Bioware employee to make an original untested IP that has... *checks notes*... talking bears? Who the fuck is running this company? Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to spend money on an original IP when they already own dozens that haven't been used in decades? I'm surprised they even okayed an original IP when usually these companies are so averse to new IPs. The only way that reasoning makes sense is if they genuinely don't know they own several scifi IPs that haven't been published in decades.

Again, this is ridiculous. If companies aren't monetizing their IPs, then they should lose ownership so that fans can do something with it.

It's probably because the shot callers are ideologically driven and they got burned a couple times in the past years. The big complaint about a lot of new stuff from old IPs is that they completely ignore and sometimes slander the old material. The people at Hasbro saw this and learned the wrong lesson. They are unable to honor the spirit of the IP because the old material was *insert category of bigot here*. So, instead, they create new things that are unburdened by what has been. Of course, the problem with the new, corporate driven, IPs is that the creators are probably the kind of people who think brutalist style is the peak of architecture and worship at the altar of the HR department.

Can speak with a small measure of inside knowledge about Hasbro (and a bit more regarding WOTC)...

They are wildly incompetent and have no idea what they're doing at this point with a huge chunk of their IPs and have even actively tried to downplay a number of them. A primary example is GI Joe which Hasbro has been fumbling for decades which could be a goldmine especially since the rise of the FPS as a primary genre of video game.

They are a company lacking in all agility and have no capability to judge their audience. Success within Hasbro is almost always due to the passion of an individual or small team working on an IP...and if it gets too big it invariably leads to company leadership bungling it by having it taken over and mismanaged. Hasbro has also had hilarious damage done to it by the total collapse of Star Wars toys...which is, of course, quite funny since that failure was caused by Star wars own self-inflicted idiotic suicide via 'modern audience syndrome'.

WOTC, meanwhile, has been a dumpsterfire for YEARS. Recent changes to MTG for example including the ludicrous milking of classic cards and now a shift to 100% licensed sets replacing a full half of their set releases is because WOTC and MTG specifically are not doing anywhere near as well as people want to believe (including people internally). WOTC is desperate to make cash because they are drowning in product they can't sell.

WOTC is entirely ideologically captured and has been for quite a while with them running off the people that had genuine talent years ago. They have been coasting by on other peoples work for well over a decade. Internally, they are honestly more of a cult than a company at this point. To them losing money is eternally blamed on 'bigots' and 'hate campaigns' so, and I mean this entirely seriously, they almost seem to enjoy losing money because it allows them to act with righteous indignation at how good they must be because loss of money is directly equated to rejection by fascists. Failure is largely their metric for ideological purity and ideological purity is a bigger success metric for them internally than actual success.

I am not kidding about this. Their internal cope is so twisted and so all-consuming that they interpret all loss of revenue through this lens , justifying it because they are standing up for their progressive beliefs. The company is an insane asylum.

I think that the chances of Elon buying Hasbro have increased because of his "How much is Hasbro?" tweet. Hard to say what exactly he'd do with it. Given Elon's idea of "AI gaming", he'd probably continue with the 3D VTT thing, but I think he'd also show more respect for the printed game, which would get dewokeified.

Quote from: Rhymer88 on November 29, 2024, 02:01:30 AMI think that the chances of Elon buying Hasbro have increased because of his "How much is Hasbro?" tweet. Hard to say what exactly he'd do with it. Given Elon's idea of "AI gaming", he'd probably continue with the 3D VTT thing, but I think he'd also show more respect for the printed game, which would get dewokeified.

Politics is downstream from culture. The freaks of the entertainment industry were pushing trans/DEI crap into the heads of the mentally ill long before major politicians started picking up the cause.

What Hasbro, with all its IPs ostensibly targeted at kids while many are still beloved by adults, is a vehicle for impacting the culture and thereby the politics.

My hunch is Elon wouldn't even need to fire most of WotC, just the thought of working for the 'Right Hand of Orange Hitler' would drive nearly all of them to performative resignations.

Then it's just a matter of bringing in people who genuinely love D&D and Magic and GIJoe and so on.

Yeah, hire people who are actually fans of the IPs and know what Hasbro owns.

Like, they could easily do crossover events to advertise different IPs they own. Make something like Sliders: have Starscream and Thrustinator show up in Sigil and go through various portals searching for Cybertron. Each episode can be used to advertise a different Hasbro IP and gauge interest. In one episode they might fight Strahd from Ravenloft, in another they might fight a horde of klicks and kroaths from Star*Drive, in another they might fight Artificer robots from Bug Hunters... the possibilities are endless.

But I don't want to sign up for Twitter/X to play my D&D! And any Cyber D&D will probably gouge the finish of my pretty dining room table!

If Elon buys Hasbro, I see the D&D brand getting "Blueskied"--i.e., just like liberals are abandoning x/Twitter and joining BlueSky, I see someone else (like Piazo) getting those.

That may not be a bad thing, though...Twitter/X is now more balanced, and D&D could also become more balanced.

Quote from: Rhymer88 on November 29, 2024, 02:01:30 AMI think that the chances of Elon buying Hasbro have increased because of his "How much is Hasbro?" tweet. Hard to say what exactly he'd do with it. Given Elon's idea of "AI gaming", he'd probably continue with the 3D VTT thing, but I think he'd also show more respect for the printed game, which would get dewokeified.

I have no idea what he'd do, but if that was the course, would it be all that bad?  Run with the brand on digital while selling reprints of the good versions of the game as "D&D"?  It's not the best that can be done with it, but it's a lot better than anything we've had out of the owners lately.