Companies that Understand D&D, and One that Doesn't...
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- Опубліковано 25 лис 2024
- On the heals of Cynthia Williams leaving WotC, I look back on some of the lows of her time at the head of the table, and two companies that really seem to be understanding the D&D brand better than Hasbro
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God, it's so refreshing to see somebody mention that Lego set in a positive light. Every Lego UA-camr I have seen has trashed it saying assorted nonsense like 'too bright and colorful', 'they changed the dragon color', 'it's childish', 'it looks like a toy'... I bought it, and I have to say that it may be my favorite Lego set period, bar none. Not a single Lego product I have ever purchased got my brain running like it did. As I completed every element of the set I was thinking 'oh that's a neat little encounter' which just got me to think of stuff that I could build myself. It is the PERFECT merging of two brands built on a core of creativity and expression. Lego didn't just get it right, they got perfection. When I was done building the set, I just wanted to play with it. That night I started making my own designs in Studio, which innevitably trailed off into my own brand of insanity. Then later, I invited a couple of friends over and we ran the module. It was FUN. I had fun playing with a Lego set for the first time since I was in middle school, rather than just getting a big impressive thing to stick on my shelf. They nailed it, and if Lego plays their cards right, this could rival Star Wars or Ninjago as one of their most successful lines. 10/10, no notes, perfection, those crazy Danes get D&D better than the people who own the IP.
Thanks for the comment. The complaint about the dragon's color is so silly. D&D fans know that Red (and Blue) are at the top of the evil dragon hierarchy, not to mention a nicely needed splash of color. I have to admit, I haven't built mine yet, but watched the creator interview on Tiago's channel... in fact, I think I'm going to do a series showcasing more lego elements and minifigs to add to your D&D... stay tuned
The issue at hand is that most if not all CEOs go to business school to learn to be "good at business".
Which in modern capitalism terms means chasing infinite growth at the cost of everything else.
So a CEO will do nothing but gut a company and run it into the ground, sell it for parts, and move on to the next company to do the same.
All while taking billion dollar paychecks.
Unless Hasbro puts in someone who isn't "good at business"... Someone who prioritizes quality in production, consumer enjoyment, and steady profits over increasing growth... Nothing will change.
There needs to be some kind of middle. In the Gygax era, they were proud that no body in upper management held business degrees... and that lead to a whole other set of issues
MBA graduate here. It's not about the CEO and what they want. They have a legal obligation to provide value for shareholders. In publicly traded companies, these shitty things do that. That's why family businesses are much better, even large ones - they tend to think long term, they value stability and reputation over Q2 results (while of course still needing to be profitable).
Publicly traded companies, without actual owners who care about the business, do to shit like this. As long as stock market is the way it is, nothing will change.
@@Tharrel This 100%+1. If WOTC was a private company this wouldn't have happened...well unlikely to have happened.
What you call "modern capitalism" is actually called the Neo-Liberal Mixed Model of Economics which is an offshoot of Market Socialism. While they try to push the idea as "capitalism with a dash of socialism", anyone who actually understands these two systems knows that's like trying to make matter with a dash of anti-matter. They mutually annihilate each other as they are 100% incompatible systems. Also pointless greed has always been an issue with the merchant class, hence why they're generally hated throughout history, it doesn't matter what economic system we're under. Hell, capitalism was actually an attempt to reign them in by trying to level the playing field and making them dependent on the people who buy their stuff rather then government hand out (to big to fail and bail outs are antithetical to capitalism as they basically force you to buy things you don't want by taking your tax money and using it buy things that don't benefit you... which is also an argument for getting rid of the "income" tax... must resit the urge to rant about how the money you make working isn't even legally income and you're being lied to about it.... and going back to the way taxing spelled out in the Constitution which would very quickly lead to 99% of out politicians getting recalled and kicked out by the electorate... hence why they hated it.).
@@TheRyujinLP Read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair for your libertarian utopian capitalist society. No thanks.
Actually, I regularly call 5e "3e for Dummies," so you really can't say *ALL* of us old grognards are unrelenting fans of that edition. That said, I *DID* go along with it as both a long-time player and DM ... until Wizards sent Pinkertons to threaten and harass a MtG UA-camr for showing off cards *THE COMPANY HAD SENT HIM.* Now I have moved on to other, better games like Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and Blades in the Dark, and I will *NEVER* spend so much as another dime on WotC products so long as WotC is owned by Hasblows. 😡
So, Pathfinder is for dummies. Thanks for the confirmation.
I had totally forgot about the Pinkertons... as I said, I'm not much of MtG person, so that story came and went in my radar... buy, yeah, another really BAD move on their part. You can only shot yourself in the foot so many times until you run out of feet!
Lol yeah. I don’t think 5e’s success has to do with its rules at all. I’d call it a stripped down 3e/4e pretending to be an OSR game, and succeeding at neither.
@@bamboozledgreatcrowd8982 It's pretty clear you read that wrong. I too to a look at 5th edition but it felt it was inferior to both 3/3.5 and Pathfinder. When one compares the business model of the two companies it's clear that Paizo is the one worth supporting.
People act like this is new behavior for WotC. I played D&D for forty years but left when WotC tried to kill the OGL way back when 4e came out. I left and I’ve been enjoying Pathfinder ever since.
WotC has been acting evil for almost two decades. They’ll never get another penny from me.
To be fair, Paizo (the folks behind Pathfinder) have had their own share of issues, but those were internal, hence the Paizo Workers Union.
More should watch this video. It takes all the bad and sad things that happened in the last two years and chose a hopeful side of it. It just takes understanding.
Thank you for the kind words.
As a lifelong lego fan. And a recent dnd fan. The lego set is special to me. I do NOT understand the hate for it. With people from both fandoms not understanding things that are obvious to the other and unwilling to listen.
The set is amazing and the story behind it is great
It's because the company that owns D&D are disgusting hypocrites that hate their fan base.
I agree to the extent that Hasbro doesn't care and doesn't really want to care, but they are like this with all of their lines. Look at all the hate from the toy community over Hasbro price gouging. Many people, like Chris P and Jeremy C have a great love of the game, but have to abide by corporate overseers, who in turn are slaves to generating profit for their stakeholders
I love it myself. In fact, I've used Lego, one way or another, in my D&D games for years... I even gave a talk about it at GenCon back in 2015
They resigned? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Yes, I don't know enough to use air-quotes, but I feel like I could...
Greed. Plain and simple.
Sad, but true
A cash Grab? No way.
Good video
I know, right...
Are you serious!? The LEGO D&D set is just a singy and dumbed down version of the winning fan-design for way to much money. And on top of that you even have to pay extra, if you want to get the print version of the adventure. Maybe this hits the taste of the D&D-Audience who got their last LEGO set as a kid, but as someone who is both a long time D&D player and a collector of LEGO I find this set ugly and outrageously overpriced!
Ideas sets rarely make good models. The part usage adjustment and license cost tends to make the price shoot up for what you get. But it does what people wanted very well and has a reasonable part count for the price. The collectable lego figures is a much better contribution but the 50th anniversary set is great for what it is.
I don't know if I'd call it dumb down... in fact, the official version has over 700 more pieces, and the price per piece count is .096 (US), which is actually in line with many license sets, especially considering the number of minifigs, new molds, new prints, etc. Not a fantastic deal (2024 Town Square for that), but not grossly overpriced in this new Lego pricing age