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WotC D&D Embraces Corporate Cancer: Chris Perkins & Cultural Consultants

Started by Jaeger, November 10, 2022, 06:26:06 PM

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nielspeterdejong

Quote from: Almost_Useless on November 13, 2022, 09:34:57 PM
Regardless of what they mean by those two words, this is where they officially lose me.  Woke Kommissars.

It really shouldn't be any kind of surprise at this point.  They've been steadily moving this way for years.  They've already had complaints about their "sensitivity readers" not being sensitive enough.  I just wrote it off to "well, that's who lives in Seattle".  But maps?  Maps have to go through multiple reviews for being appropriate?

If there's anything you wanted to pick up in the pdf catalog over at DMsGuild.com, get it now.

I am an avid non-woke Pathfinder 1st edition, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, and Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition player. Which content on DMsGuild would you recommend I'd get? I don't mind spending a bit on good stuff. By your words, I take it that you fear they will alter existing content?

S'mon

I'm sure they will only change 5e+ content; I can't see them going back to bowdlerize stuff from eg 1e, or even 3e and 4e. More likely they'd pull old stuff from sale completely.
Shadowdark Wilderlands (Fridays 2pm UK/9am EST)  https://smons.blogspot.com/2024/08/shadowdark.html
Open table game on Roll20, PM me to join! Current Start Level: 1

Omega

Quote from: tenbones on November 15, 2022, 02:49:46 PM
That's the whole point - they know their creative team is bankrupt. Going to D&D One's virtual model means the playerbase will create their own content... limited to the parameters of their application.

Why be creative when they can just cage the peasants in and provide them with the basic cardboard and water for them to churn out that easy-to-make gruel?

Graduates from the White Wolf school of game 'design'.

BoxCrayonTales

Quote from: Omega on November 16, 2022, 10:41:02 AM
Quote from: tenbones on November 15, 2022, 02:49:46 PM
That's the whole point - they know their creative team is bankrupt. Going to D&D One's virtual model means the playerbase will create their own content... limited to the parameters of their application.

Why be creative when they can just cage the peasants in and provide them with the basic cardboard and water for them to churn out that easy-to-make gruel?

Graduates from the White Wolf school of game 'design'.
Paradox has even applied to this formula to video games now, but even worse somehow. You can use their IP in your personal project you publish to itch.io, but subject to a bunch of restrictions like: you must adhere to the most recent iteration of canon (despite the changes being extremely controversial among fans), you can't use any canon characters (even tho that's pretty much the only thing fans like to discuss), you can't advertise your game as using their IP (so you don't actually benefit from the brand name recognition that would justify using the license in the first place), you have to pay a percentage of your profits as royalties, you can't invent any original ideas even if you can make them unobtrusively fit into canon, you can only make games about vampires and hunters at present because those are the only ones with rulebooks out yet, etc.

At this point, you're better off just inventing your own IP. There's absolutely nothing about Paradox's IP that would justify subjecting yourself to all these ridiculous self-sabotaging restrictions. You can very easily file off the serial numbers in a genre like urban fantasy because of all the public domain resources you can draw on. Just look at Bloodlust: Shadowhunter for an example: it feels sort of like a Bloodlines rip-off but uses an entirely original (albeit derivative) setting that Paradox doesn't seem to be able to sue out of existence.

Shrieking Banshee

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 02:29:23 PMParadox has even applied to this formula to video games now, but even worse somehow. You can use their IP in your personal project you publish to itch.io, but subject to a bunch of restrictions like: you must adhere to the most recent iteration of canon (despite the changes being extremely controversial among fans), you can't use any canon characters (even tho that's pretty much the only thing fans like to discuss), you can't advertise your game as using their IP (so you don't actually benefit from the brand name recognition that would justify using the license in the first place), you have to pay a percentage of your profits as royalties, you can't invent any original ideas even if you can make them unobtrusively fit into canon, you can only make games about vampires and hunters at present because those are the only ones with rulebooks out yet, etc.

Don't they make 4X/ simulator games? What do they have to do with Rulebooks and Vampires? Just because of their single bloodlines game?

BoxCrayonTales

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on November 16, 2022, 05:27:43 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 02:29:23 PMParadox has even applied to this formula to video games now, but even worse somehow. You can use their IP in your personal project you publish to itch.io, but subject to a bunch of restrictions like: you must adhere to the most recent iteration of canon (despite the changes being extremely controversial among fans), you can't use any canon characters (even tho that's pretty much the only thing fans like to discuss), you can't advertise your game as using their IP (so you don't actually benefit from the brand name recognition that would justify using the license in the first place), you have to pay a percentage of your profits as royalties, you can't invent any original ideas even if you can make them unobtrusively fit into canon, you can only make games about vampires and hunters at present because those are the only ones with rulebooks out yet, etc.

Don't they make 4X/ simulator games? What do they have to do with Rulebooks and Vampires? Just because of their single bloodlines game?
Yup. They bought White Wolf (which by this point is a shell company for their IPs) from CCP for millions just to make Bloodlines 2, and licensed the IP to other devs even more than GW licenses 40k. They even publicly entertained television spin-offs. It's all spectacularly backfired as the games have been generally mediocre, BL2 has been in development hell for years, and the tabletop revisions have torn the ttrpg fandom apart.

I have no clue why they thought it was a good idea to drop millions just to make a sequel to a cult classic crpg that they couldn't hope to replicate. They make 4X games.

Shrieking Banshee

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 06:35:43 PMYup. They bought White Wolf (which by this point is a shell company for their IPs) from CCP for millions just to make Bloodlines 2, and licensed the IP to other devs even more than GW licenses 40k.

There are more games then just Bloodlines?

Jeez. I didn't even known.

Even Pathfinder has had more success with videogames....I mean its 2 for 2 successful games, but that's more then bloodlines.

BoxCrayonTales

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on November 16, 2022, 07:29:03 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 06:35:43 PMYup. They bought White Wolf (which by this point is a shell company for their IPs) from CCP for millions just to make Bloodlines 2, and licensed the IP to other devs even more than GW licenses 40k.

There are more games then just Bloodlines?

Jeez. I didn't even known.

Even Pathfinder has had more success with videogames....I mean its 2 for 2 successful games, but that's more then bloodlines.
There was a Vampire: Redemption and a Hunter console game back in the early 2000s. Since 2017 Paradox has licensed out about a dozen new video games so far, mostly cheaply made text games. No real crpgs. These games have been generally mediocre.

The writing is pretentious af and lacks the tongue-in-cheek charm of Mitsoda's writing. If Paradox wanted to cash in on BL's cult success, then they're not trying to recapture the magic at all. They're setting themselves up for failure.

I'm pretty sure a single PF game has a larger budget than all of the Paradox games combined.

Mithgarthr

Quote from: Effete on November 11, 2022, 01:14:21 AM
That's great news for me!

I just started a consultant firm that instructs gaming companies how to treat white, European cultures with the care and respect it deserves. Eagerly anticipating a phone call... ...


Shrieking Banshee

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 09:38:18 PMI'm pretty sure a single PF game has a larger budget than all of the Paradox games combined.

Wow. What's interesting is that the PF game was supposed to be an MMO but that fell through but they salvaged it into a functional CRPG. Which did well enough to get DLC, a sequel, and DLC for that sequel.

So the fact that Paizo knows how to leverage their properties better then Paradox is really something.

Effete

Quote from: thedungeondelver on November 12, 2022, 02:26:54 PM
Man, I play 1e AD&D and occasionally OD&D because they're cool.  I can't fathom anyone finding enjoyment from 3e forward.  And yeah, I've played 3e, 3.5e, 5e, too.  I playtested the latter.  But the awful awful corporate culture now, just shitting up the game?  No way,  Wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole.

Ironically, smacking it with a 10-foot pole will reveal the pit trap for what it is.

BoxCrayonTales

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on November 17, 2022, 12:56:40 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 09:38:18 PMI'm pretty sure a single PF game has a larger budget than all of the Paradox games combined.

Wow. What's interesting is that the PF game was supposed to be an MMO but that fell through but they salvaged it into a functional CRPG. Which did well enough to get DLC, a sequel, and DLC for that sequel.

So the fact that Paizo knows how to leverage their properties better then Paradox is really something.
Perhaps. I don't have a business degree.

Medieval fantasy crpgs are a proven formula. Paizo simply needed to pick devs that were basically competent at their jobs.

There isn't a proven formula for "magic hidden in the modern world" beyond the Harry Potter games. For whatever reason it's just never been a popular genre for video games. Business like Paradox seem to flounder without a forerunner to imitate

Spinachcat

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on November 11, 2022, 06:17:24 AM
"While the D&D team is racially, ethnically, gender, and cognitively diverse,

Cognitively diverse?

Does that mean WotC has some employees who aren't drooling degenerate morons?

That would be a surprise.

Anon Adderlan

The changes to the #Hadozee were so specific and unnecessary that I'm all but convinced it was done to deliberately manufacture the need for these jobs. However with #Hasbro's financials in the toilet I'm not sure how long these jobs will last.

Quote from: Zelen on November 14, 2022, 07:50:05 AM
My former job had a presentation just a few months ago on this issue.

One of the key examples the woman presenter gave was about herself. She claimed to be dyslexic, and described the challenge of being dyslexic in her corporate HR email job, and how employers benefited from her "cognitive diversity" even if she takes longer to write an email and makes amateurish spelling errors.

Another example the woman presenter gave was (of course) about herself. She claimed to have a condition which caused her to perceive time differently. According to her, this is an issue that can lead to butting heads because people with this cognitive difference have trouble meeting deadlines. She encouraged managers to offer empathy and compassion, and suggested spreading out the workload among other employees if tasks weren't being completed on time.

This is the type of thing that you're much more likely to see at WOTC, under the banner of "cognitive diversity." The Theater-Kid Theocracy they're building is actively hostile to the kind of mathematical, impersonal Aspergers type that just wants to design the perfect system.

Indeed, and being able to spell and meet deadlines are kinda core competencies of corporate HR email.

My local #HomeDepo hires the 'cognitively diverse', and there's plenty of tasks for them to do there. However some of them 'work' the self-checkout, which is an unnecessary waste of everyone's time. I'm all for giving these folks opportunities, but not at the cost of productivity, especially my own. I blame my autism.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 14, 2022, 03:21:14 PM
Here's a quote from that article I mentioned a couple pages back:
QuoteLimited Mobility: Key words to notice include "shambling," "shuffling," "lurching," "lumbering," "limping," "hobbling," and "stumbling." Also watch for body parts that are dragged along as the monster moves.

Congratulations. You've just claimed that zombies are ableist because they shamble.

That site has always been particularly insufferable.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on November 16, 2022, 02:29:23 PM
Paradox has even applied to this formula to video games now, but even worse somehow. You can use their IP in your personal project you publish to itch.io, but subject to a bunch of restrictions like: you must adhere to the most recent iteration of canon (despite the changes being extremely controversial among fans), you can't use any canon characters (even tho that's pretty much the only thing fans like to discuss), you can't advertise your game as using their IP (so you don't actually benefit from the brand name recognition that would justify using the license in the first place), you have to pay a percentage of your profits as royalties, you can't invent any original ideas even if you can make them unobtrusively fit into canon, you can only make games about vampires and hunters at present because those are the only ones with rulebooks out yet, etc.

At this point, you're better off just inventing your own IP. There's absolutely nothing about Paradox's IP that would justify subjecting yourself to all these ridiculous self-sabotaging restrictions. You can very easily file off the serial numbers in a genre like urban fantasy because of all the public domain resources you can draw on. Just look at Bloodlust: Shadowhunter for an example: it feels sort of like a Bloodlines rip-off but uses an entirely original (albeit derivative) setting that Paradox doesn't seem to be able to sue out of existence.

The IP is effectively worthless at this point. The brand recognition carries no weight and the premise has nothing unique enough to be worth adopting anymore. They've made hunters, vampires, and werewolves as generic as possible. It's a shame #OnyxPath didn't get ahold of it.

tenbones

Nonsense. We need MORE Sensitivity Consultants.

Too much is never enough. There are people dying out there. And there are marginalized goblinoids being killed at the table and in the minds of the Wokescolds. Most consulting is clearly needed.

Let the fires burn!