I don't subscribe to go-woke go broke, but the 5e handbook has a lifetime of sales. Its stupid to point as D&D as going broke because of wokeness, or as evidence of wokeness paying the bills. Because the 5e handbook isn't really woke. Its a crap game system (always was) but its not woke.
This is the correct answer. Other than a single “you can be whatever you want to be paragraph” the 5e Player’s Handbook is pretty much Woke-free.
It’d be just as valid an argument to say it’s up in the rankings now because people who’ve heard what a woke shitshow OneD&D is turning into want to pick up some extra copies of the last non-woke edition before it’s banished to the outer darkness by the current woke cultists promising to throw multiple sensitivity readers at everything and a willingness to change anything that doesn’t comply before its too late.
One D&D is repeating many of the same mistakes that happened with 4E; a focus on digital tools with a subscription model (it was going to have a virtual tabletop at launch too), an attempt to drop the OGL/SRD for a separate license that marginalized 3rd party support, etc… all while heading into an economic downturn severe enough to impact discretionary spending.
Woke will just be an extra nail in the coffin, but it’s got plenty of other fatal wounds already.
Honestly I have to agree. Same with the Pathfinder 1st edition books, aside from the odd paragraph in an adventure path which nobody cares about, they are pretty much woke free. That is why I bought all the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books, and Pathfinder 1st edition books, in printed copy. So I know they won't be able to mess with those.
I do belief in the "go woke go broke" theory, as things really started to go south for WOTC when they allowed these woke cultists to gain more and more influence, to the point that they will now severely alter the game's content. Removing the racial based ability score increases, which were added in the first place because they are different species (duh!), was a big line they crossed. Even though there were already rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that allowed you to do change the ability score increases of your race (which is your species), even if it was not thematic.
The reason why these companies "somehow" survive for so long is because they get money from taxpayers through the ESG ratings. Basically, they get money if they make sure there are as few white people (or men in positions of power with pride) as possible, preferably by race swapping existing white characters. Which is why we now see God of War Ragnarok having Loki's canonical future wife be black, or have the boar guy who flirts with thor's wife be black. That, and they also use it as a shield against criticism of poor gameplay. Here is a video someone made about that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZpuDc3YvLgThat said, ESG ratings and the money it gets you can only go so far.