Quote from: Grognard GM on February 01, 2024, 06:38:28 PM

Explain to me how the IP's could get worse than Trans-Transformers, gay Transformers, all-gurl-boss GI Joe, Quick Kick beating Snake-Eyes like a dog for DARING to do martial arts without magic blood, Visionaries vs Transformers where Leoric is African and the Darkling Lords are lead by a danger hair version of Virulina?

Aw, TANJ!  I bought mybrother the TFs vs Visionaries comicfor Christmas, not knowing!  He hasn't read it yet.  I'll leave the surprise for him.

Should have known better since it's a Hasbro IP.

I was a HUGE TF collector with one-of-a-kind items that would amaze you.  But I stopped my nearly 40-year hobby over a year ago.

Quote from: jhkim on February 01, 2024, 07:56:56 PM

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on February 01, 2024, 07:12:03 PM

Quote from: rytrasmi on January 31, 2024, 11:54:23 AM
I don't see how Chinese censorship could apply to a Tencent-owned studio in Norway or Belgium making video games under license. Case study: Conan Exiles is about as un-woke as you can get. Two character models: ripped male, hot female. Cock and boob size sliders. Slavery as a core game mechanic. Races loosely based on real-world stereotype. Basically all of Howard without apology. All the things that WotC has been scrubbing from D&D for years now.

That's some new information I didn't know, but it's good to know. I was running off the assumption that they're close to the Chinese government, working off of what I know about other corporations like MiHoYo. Not saying I'd want to see D&D get sold to a Chinese company for the reason that I'd be nervous what the government would do, but it's interesting to hear they own Conan Exiles.

I haven't played any of these - but from what I see, Conan Exiles was released in 2018 by Funcom. Funcom wasn't acquired by Tencent until 2020. So Tencent had no say in the development of Conan Exiles.

Here's an article I see on it. I'm not endorsing the article - just putting it up for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/15/china-video-game-censorship-tencent-netease-blizzard

It's not like they shipped a box of floppies in 2018 and moved on to other things. Like many games these days it is under continuous development with DLC etc..Do you even Steam bro?

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

  They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse. 

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 03:31:24 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse.

How about when they start pushing to normalize pedophilia"minor attraction" with a heroic mission to rescue a child from the family who won't let their eight year son become a girl and be the plaything of Klaus/Soros expy (who is the heroic patron hiring the PCs).

I feel the urge to go to Reconciliation just for typing that, but if you think they won't get there, you need to remember that there is no bottom to their mental illness and depravity.

At this point, the best thing for official D&D is for it to die while it still has an iota of goodwill left and before it's gangrene spreads enough to make normal people want to burn down the entire hobby.

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 03:31:24 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

  They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse.

Then you lack imagination.

Quote from: Chris24601 on February 03, 2024, 04:02:26 PM

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 03:31:24 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse.

How about when they start pushing to normalize pedophilia"minor attraction" with a heroic mission to rescue a child from the family who won't let their eight year son become a girl and be the plaything of Klaus/Soros expy (who is the heroic patron hiring the PCs).

I feel the urge to go to Reconciliation just for typing that, but if you think they won't get there, you need to remember that there is no bottom to their mental illness and depravity.

At this point, the best thing for official D&D is for it to die while it still has an iota of goodwill left and before it's gangrene spreads enough to make normal people want to burn down the entire hobby.

  Thing is I think that is EXACTLY what gay prom is really about anyway...so like I said it can not get any worse for me. 

Quote from: Mistwell on February 03, 2024, 07:20:13 PM

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 03:31:24 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

  They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse.

Then you lack imagination.

  I do not imagine it getting worse than trying to cook up grooming scenarios for underage kids.  I suppose if I dig down really deep I could imagine more horrific...but there is a point I am simply not interested in finding the grossest turd in the sewer.

Quote from: Brad on February 02, 2024, 06:51:57 AM
EVERY Chinese company is owned, either directly or indirectly, by the CCP/Chinese government. I found this out the hard way when looking into manufacturing data for a project I was working on doing my PhD (some sort of custom motherboard). It's literally impossible to do business in China without dealing with the government in some capacity. The fact nearly every private business is owned wholly by a city/province/whatever is a crafty strategy they use to mitigate legal issues. Getting a Chinese company to make something is actually very, very easy if you have enough money to grease the wheels. If they fuck you over, though (like stealing IP which they most certainly will), you would need to get the State department involved (or whatever it is in your country) because of how the layers of control are organized.

IANAL so take this with a grain of salt, but over the course of a year a bunch of us trying to setup manufacturing ran into the same issues.

Some years ago was part of a group that kept track of a company who was having some stuff manufactured in China. By the end if it it was a mess on multiple levels and the company lost reputation because of it. People were finding the TEST models in boxes for example. And they cut so many corners the second run pieces were often badly fit in a toy that relied on its fittings.

Also FFG way back stated they always had to over-order by 50% parts when manufacturing in China because of the high defective ratio.

And a few years ago there was a span where docks and storage in China were extorting extra fees by holding up shipping.

Supposedly people still make a profit doing business with China... somehow.

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 10:20:38 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 03, 2024, 07:20:13 PM

Quote from: oggsmash on February 03, 2024, 03:31:24 PM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2024, 02:47:15 PM

Quote from: Grognard GM on January 31, 2024, 01:16:34 PM
Frankly, Hasbro have mis-managed their licenses so terribly for almost 20 years now, that a foreign company is at worst equally bad, at best a source of hope.

Ah yes, famous last words, "It couldn't possibly get worse."

Oh yes. Yes it so very much could. Your lack of imagination concerning how it could get worse is a tad surprising. If this were an in-game scenario I bet you could dream up 100 different ways it could get worse.

  They are printing books with gay prom in there.  So for ME it can not get worse.

Then you lack imagination.

  I do not imagine it getting worse than trying to cook up grooming scenarios for underage kids.  I suppose if I dig down really deep I could imagine more horrific...but there is a point I am simply not interested in finding the grossest turd in the sewer.

It could do it with F.A.T.A.L. rules.

Quote from: Omega on February 03, 2024, 10:41:02 PM

Quote from: Brad on February 02, 2024, 06:51:57 AM
EVERY Chinese company is owned, either directly or indirectly, by the CCP/Chinese government. I found this out the hard way when looking into manufacturing data for a project I was working on doing my PhD (some sort of custom motherboard). It's literally impossible to do business in China without dealing with the government in some capacity. The fact nearly every private business is owned wholly by a city/province/whatever is a crafty strategy they use to mitigate legal issues. Getting a Chinese company to make something is actually very, very easy if you have enough money to grease the wheels. If they fuck you over, though (like stealing IP which they most certainly will), you would need to get the State department involved (or whatever it is in your country) because of how the layers of control are organized.

IANAL so take this with a grain of salt, but over the course of a year a bunch of us trying to setup manufacturing ran into the same issues.

Some years ago was part of a group that kept track of a company who was having some stuff manufactured in China. By the end if it it was a mess on multiple levels and the company lost reputation because of it. People were finding the TEST models in boxes for example. And they cut so many corners the second run pieces were often badly fit in a toy that relied on its fittings.

Also FFG way back stated they always had to over-order by 50% parts when manufacturing in China because of the high defective ratio.

And a few years ago there was a span where docks and storage in China were extorting extra fees by holding up shipping.

Supposedly people still make a profit doing business with China... somehow.

I import from China some stuff (we make a lot in the US but import the cheapest stuff). We find about 8% flaws. Yes, one year we saw docks held up. Fortunately we had a great broker and didn't pay anything extra to get our stuff out but just used their reputation to get through, but I would bet others did.

Even with the enormous, truly outrageous tariffs, it still makes sense to do it. We couldn't compete on the low end stuff otherwise. And I was very fortunate to land on a factory that's relatively ethical. But that was hard to do, and there is no financial reward for doing it other than personal reward of not feeling completely gross. Though in some sense there is a financial reward because I've seen workers leave for the New Years at another factory that treated their employees like crap and most of their employees simply never returned to work.

Quote from: Brad on February 02, 2024, 06:51:57 AM

Quote from: 1stLevelWizard on February 01, 2024, 07:12:03 PM
I was running off the assumption that they're close to the Chinese government

Anyway, at this point the D&D brand is meaningless to me beyond the generic name for RPGs. Everyone knows what D&D is, and if you say you're "playing D&D" when you're actually playing Runequest, that's good enough for a normie.

If you live anywhere in the South:
"Give me a coke."
"Okay, what kind?"
"Oh, do you have Sprite?"

Same different now as far as I'm concerned. Fuck WotC, and RIP D&D.

Pretty much. D&D will live on regardless of the status of WotC, and I agree that it's better if people stop worrying about the financial security of the company. They don't have the best interests of the hobby at heart. My only real concern with D&D dying off is the availability of the classic books in POD format. I'm a grognard when it comes to digital books, and I don't like having laptops around the table.

Quote from: Omega on February 03, 2024, 10:41:02 PM
Also FFG way back stated they always had to over-order by 50% parts when manufacturing in China because of the high defective ratio.

I know someone who is a senior engineer at a large company with factories in China, and he travels there frequently.  He told me there's only two Chinese words he needs for his business meetings.  I promptly forgot them, but they translate to "not good enough."  I learned in biz school that in the Chinese culture companies always compete on price first, then cut costs to try to still make a profit.  Thus the atrocious quality in many items.