Quote from: Brad;1140233"Are you an experienced Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader (DE&I) who seeks to build fun, innovative organizations, where people can come to work and bring their whole selves?"

This whole thing is either an elaborate joke or civilization needs a hard reset.

This is awesome! If there is a single sentence which better encapsulates the vacuity of modern corporate culture, I can't think of it.

This could be the epitaph of Silicon Valley-style capitalism.

Quote from: Zalman;1140225For sure. Look who's hiring a new Senior Manager for just such endeavors! Whoever they put in that position is going to want/have to justify their fat salary.

Nice, this will only accelerate their destruction. Just you wait till all the poundemetoo accusations start flying, the racism/sexism/etc accusations, etc.

They will be so busy trying to be (and produce) the wokest of them all that their products will go to shit even faster.

The King is dead
Long Live The OSR!

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1140400Nice, this will only accelerate their destruction. Just you wait till all the poundemetoo accusations start flying, the racism/sexism/etc accusations, etc.

They will be so busy trying to be (and produce) the wokest of them all that their products will go to shit even faster.

The King is dead
Long Live The OSR!

LOL. Do you really think any of this will significantly impact WotC's ongoing success? D&D is more popular than ever. Maybe a blip, but that's all. The vast majority of the tens of millions of D&D players don't care about any of this and just want to roll dice.

Quote from: Mercurius;1140402D&D is more popular than ever.

Eh, that's really debatable. Its emperor of a much smaller pie (within its niche) with much smaller influence. The thing about Socjus is that it does not stop. If it doesn't see you as bothered, then it sees that as a failure.

I don't see it impacting prices....yet.

Quote from: Mercurius;1140402LOL. Do you really think any of this will significantly impact WotC's ongoing success? D&D is more popular than ever. Maybe a blip, but that's all. The vast majority of the tens of millions of D&D players don't care about any of this and just want to roll dice.

Yep, it won't kill them because droves of players saw that and decided to never play it again. It will kill them because they will start hiring because of wokeness and firing because of false allegations. Which will in turn make them unable to produce good material.

And the purity spiral has no bottom, it will keep on going until the company is destroyed.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1140410Yep, it won't kill them because droves of players saw that and decided to never play it again. It will kill them because they will start hiring because of wokeness and firing because of false allegations. Which will in turn make them unable to produce good material.

And the purity spiral has no bottom, it will keep on going until the company is destroyed.

I too am concerned with this, but evidently have more hope that there will be a re-balancing, and that the "purity spiral" will be checked by more and more voices who cherish creative freedom. The Harper's open letter is somewhat promising.

The next few years could be interesting and potentially rough, though. My guess is that WotC will publish revised core rulebooks in 2024 for the 50th anniversary, and spend the next few years trying out stuff to see how the community responds. Yes, most of it will be newish "woke versions" of old ideas, but I'm also guessing (hoping) that they won't go too overboard. The smart way forward for WotC would be to largely ignore extremists on either side of the spectrum, either those who want everything remade in a "woke' utopia (dystopia) or those clutching onto their OD&D and AD&D books with their cold, dead hands. The vast majority of players are somewhere in-between those extremes, despite what it looks like on certain online forums.

Greetings!

SHARK waves his copy of AD&D DMG at the baying mobs, "Bow down, bitches!"

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Mercurius;1140418I too am concerned with this, but evidently have more hope that there will be a re-balancing, and that the "purity spiral" will be checked by more and more voices who cherish creative freedom. The Harper's open letter is somewhat promising.

The next few years could be interesting and potentially rough, though. My guess is that WotC will publish revised core rulebooks in 2024 for the 50th anniversary, and spend the next few years trying out stuff to see how the community responds. Yes, most of it will be newish "woke versions" of old ideas, but I'm also guessing (hoping) that they won't go too overboard. The smart way forward for WotC would be to largely ignore extremists on either side of the spectrum, either those who want everything remade in a "woke' utopia (dystopia) or those clutching onto their OD&D and AD&D books with their cold, dead hands. The vast majority of players are somewhere in-between those extremes, despite what it looks like on certain online forums.

LOL, so the Grognards are now extremists? on par with the woke mob none the less...

Hope springs eternal, but hope isn't a plan.

And to crush your hopes... Just look at what they are doing to their other cash cow MtG.

Quote from: Mercurius;1140402LOL. Do you really think any of this will significantly impact WotC's ongoing success? D&D is more popular than ever. Maybe a blip, but that's all. The vast majority of the tens of millions of D&D players don't care about any of this and just want to roll dice.

They will start to care if/when the cult rhetotic seeps into the books enough to take notice. Which unfortunately will likely be far too late.

Quote from: Mercurius;1140418Yes, most of it will be newish "woke versions" of old ideas, but I'm also guessing (hoping) that they won't go too overboard.

The smart way forward for WotC would be to largely ignore extremists on either side of the spectrum, either those who want everything remade in a "woke' utopia (dystopia) or those clutching onto their OD&D and AD&D books with their cold, dead hands. The vast majority of players are somewhere in-between those extremes, despite what it looks like on certain online forums.

1: Its WOTC. They will go overboard because they are allready going overboard. How far overboard they go remains to be seen. But since its WOTC. Expect the worst.

2: Smart and WOTC are not words that go together.

Maybe Hasbro will sort them out if they fuck up MtG bad enough.

The real question is how will the creative industries - which the RPG businesses are a small part of -  and their clients respond to the Great Awokening.

Will the clients be ready or willing to shell their hard-earned dollars to acquire the new shit-dripping woke material, and pretend :

"Well, this brand new stuff looks like shit and it tastes likewise, but in fact... [ENGAGE THE POWER OF DENIAL/POST CHRISTIAN GUILT-TRIP!] it's a yummy yummy gum-bear ! Ho, I'm so happy to stuff myself with this shit... I mean, this rainbow-flavored gum bear !"

If that's the case it's the cultural Dark Ages for America, and a win for the SJWs fanatics. And round 2 of the Culture Wars will take place some years in the future, when the harsh reality of the Woke Utopia will have sunk into the masses.

If the new material takes a dive saleswise, and not only in RPGs but in Hollywood, and in YA literature, the corporations will reconsider their putative alliance with the forces of wokeness.

Only time will tell - and the spending habits of the masses (barring really ugly developments, like a new Civil War).

I'm not an American, but I sincerely wish you Yankees and Southerners and assorted entities will be able to sort this with your fellow citizens without bloodshed.

Or perhaps transgression will be marketable once more.  One of the upsides of censorship is that it takes creativity and intelligence to work around it.  We've gotten lazy in our vulgarity and despicableness.

Just found my old copy of Oriental Adventures! It was stashed away in another room. All busted up from age, though, with the side binding coming off at the bottom and the edges all worn out.

Also found my copy of Al-Qadim Arabian Adventures, which I thought I never got. I left it stored inside my City of Delights boxed set, so it's in much better condition. Can't say the same about the boxed set. Still, precious gems that will never see print again in our dystopian era.