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An Open Letter To Wizards
Dear Wizards,
As long as I can remember, RPGs have been a part of my life. Like many other people, for me when RPGs come up in a conversation, there is one particular game which must be mentioned by name: Dungeons and Dragons.
The last few years have been hard. The Transformers, Silver Surfer, Spider-man 3, Alien Versus Predator 2 just to name a few especially rough patches. As time goes on, it feels like more and more treasures from my childhood are being dug up and defiled.
But through it all, there has been Dungeons and Dragons. When I embarrassed myself in public? DnD didn’t care. After my hotel reservation in Philadelpia was lost, and I had no-where to stay? DnD was there. DnD has always been there.
But now, I’m starting to get worried. It feels like you don’t care about DnD anymore. You’re moving all the content online, talking about subscription fees, you’re cutting away at the OGL, and worst of all, you’re making it near impossible to get any news about DnD. More and more of us don’t bother to go to you for information anymore because you keep making us watch videos and listen to podcasts instead of just answering us.
Even though everyone is going over to Morris’ house, DnD is still invited to the party. DnD has always been there, and always will be. But I’m scared, Wizards, because I feel like you don’t care. And everyone of those childhood memories I mentioned? They were all defiled by people who just didn’t care.
Please, Wizards. Re-assure me.
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6 Responses to “An Open Letter To Wizards”
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I won’t sign this letter Omnius, though I understand the feeling.
My version would be quite more curt and pragmatic.
Dear Wizard,
Please review your strategy with your PR team (or fire them) and announce openly that ENWorld is your official source of summarized written materia for those who prefer that mediuml.
Best regards
Chatty DM.
I think you are being unfair about Wizards not caring (if you define Wizards as including the R&D team developing 4e, I mean these guys blog about it no?)
But, you will probably get signatures on this, as it does echo a lot of the fear and uncertainty…
ChattyDm’s last blog post..New Search feature being playtested
Gotta agree with ChattyDM, You’ve a point on the poor PR choices they’ve made, but all the other stuff is pretty baseless…
They’re not cutting away OGL, they’re positioning themselves to make more of their products OGC and hence useful to 3rd parties, which was a big problem with third edition.
And complaining about the online content and subscription fees? Just ignore ‘em! They’re still putting out the same dead tree books you know and love. All that extra stuff is just that– extra stuff. Even the most complete luddite could enjoy D&D without so much as ever looking at a computer.
Asmor’s last blog post..Random Encounters: Two
I think I may have been unclear about what I meant to convey in this post, which is just my nervousness and desire to be re-assured.
When people talk about “extra” content that’s going to be kept online, I get nervous. It’s referred to as “bells and whistles” but is the game going to really be worth it without paying it? And how would I know anyway, due to the PR setup?
This is a complaint about a series of botches that make me nervous, and a request to be re-assured. Nothing more, and nothing less. If Wizards takes notice and actually responds or changes the way they handle things, that’s awesome. Unfortunately, I doubt the former will happen and as to the latter - we’ll see.
Won’t happen, dudes. Wizards aren’t listening to anyone but themselves right now, and spending far too much time trying to convince the rest of us that it’s all Just Great. Kinda like software companies do before the launch of a crappy-but-glossy product. **cough** Windows Vista **cough** I think you know what I’m saying here.
That said, while I don’t think much of their marketing practices right now, I do respect their Game Developer Credentials. Looking beyond the whole marketing/commercial/internet crud, there might *just* be a chance that’s there’s going to be a darned good version buried underneath.
Well, I can but hope, eh?
First it’s not wizards anymore, it’s Hasbro. The pr/communications problems stem from this. It’s no longer gamers talking with each other about their hobby. It’s a faceless corp talking *at* consumers.
Second they listen to $ not fans. They’re after the WoW market and if they alienate some/all of their existing customers to get it they don’t care cause that market is far larger than we ever were.
Thirds the books don’t make “enough” money. They are a loss-leader to get people to buy minis, accessories and now online subscriptions.
I full heartedly agree with what you are saying here. I love having online content to support my game, but I don’t want it to be necessary to my game, and then be forced to pay for it. It “probably” won’t be, but like njharman said: “First it’s not wizards anymore, it’s Hasbro”. That means that there are a lot bigger bottom lines that need met in order to be part of the bigger company.
I’ve got a big issue paying for online “extras”. If they are truly extra, bells and whistles, then you won’t be able to use them effectively without having the book or product. So why pay for them if they aren’t effective without the book or product?