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#downwiththewizards #longliveORC
Jan. 19th, 2023 09:51 pm- Okay, I wasn't planning on making a more in-depth post on this, but this keeps spiraling and getting wilder.
- Cancel your D&D Beyond subscriptions if you still are upset by the greedy dragons and their pet wizards. Also Magic the Gathering Arena. I would if I'd ever used either service.
- Racists, etc are a problem in the publishing space, but WotC and Hasbro could already go after them, and they're making it out to be a bigger problem than it is. They're still trying to make sure they can cancel anyone for anything, and I'm fine with it being a longer process in which they have to issue a DMCA or something, meaning that someone else can check that they're not just using it as an excuse to get rid of competitors they don't like.
- I don't tend to play D&D. I think I've done so once. But I still see a majority of them as important and valid. I didn't think my joking "Hero System" idle thought post the other week would be so relevant, but yeah--I really like Hero System, but also Call of Cthulhu is amazing and Mutants & Masterminds is another interesting take on the superhero genre. (What can I say, City of Heroes was big for me.) These adventurers deserve to have a space that is fun, an escape from the anxiety of our usual reality because let's be honest it's been an anxiety-inducing few years more now than ever and I don't see that changing anytime soon, so that's more important now than ever, and terrifying publishers, DMs, etc is not the way you go about this. Putting a ton of small third party publishers out of business, killing jobs and competition is not the way you go about this.
- From what I understand there is no way for a "morality clause" (and all of you worried about oh no, being moral is so terrible have the wrong priorities, it's more the possibility of witch hunts and wielding it incorrectly to go after people you simply don't like than treating people like actual human beings that you should be concerned about and the fact that you're not makes me concerned) to even work in the ORC license, since no publisher would own it and therefore not be able to exercise those rights.
- Going after the whole license might have been on purpose, or maybe not. I'm not sure they have a clue how many people have used it since. I didn't have a clue about KOTOR or Chaosium, for instance. But going after VTTs is heinous. Yes, they want a monopoly. "If you're going to play a TTRPG, it will be ours. If you play online, it will be ours. Play D&D or else." That's my decision. Not yours. And anti-competitive behavior drives me up the wall. I get why companies do it, but all it says to me is that they're not confident enough in their product that they think customers would freely choose it if they had a choice.
- Yes, non-disparagement clauses exist and yeah, you could totally get sued if you say something you're not supposed to on Twitter.
- I never thought my Ludlum phase would wind up being useful like this, but here goes: anonymous sources are anonymous for a reason. It does not make them less credible. Particularly if multiple people have vetted them. They remain anonymous because, well. In spy fiction they would get killed if their identity as a leaker was discovered. In this case I don't think Hasbro is hiring assassins to take them out, but they probably would get fired, which is equally bad. Even trained journalists will not out a source because a) why would you speak to a person if you knew they were just going to get you fired; that will just ensure no one ever trusts you to keep confidentiality ever again and b) that removes your ability to hear from the inside. You do yourself and them a disservice.
- Further: planted leaks to discredit people are common. Misunderstandings are common. Witnesses notoriously don't see the same things. It's possible, for instance, that someone was appalled by the fact that each survey didn't get read individually, not knowing that it's not common practice. Things could have changed. They could be lying for their own reasons. They could be lying on behalf of management. We don't know. Even if the details may have been wrong, this doesn't change the impression that several other people got without even having heard this: that even if they do plan on reading surveys, we may be at an impasse. "You're trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen." The terms the community specifically wants changed may (and probably are) the very terms that WotC and Hasbro are unwilling to change.
- It's up to you whether you forgive. I wouldn't. But definitely don't forget, because knowledge from the past better prepares you for the future.
- Don't threaten people. Except with taking your wallet elsewhere if you can't support the company. Threaten you'll vote with your wallet.
- Anyway, that's my considerably more than 2 cents.
