From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd
[Hey, kyonshi, where are you? This is your sort of
thing, not mine! ;-)]
It's not really D&D related but, c'mon, it's fun to hate on WOTC!
Especially since we can also use this as an opportunity to hate on
MTG!*
But the gist of it is that WOTC is getting hauled over the fire by
Hasbro shareholders for how it's been manipulating MTG sales to make
up for weaknesses in other areas.** Mostly along the lines of "you
keep pumping out so much trash that it devalues the entire product
line." That WOTC (and uber-owner Hasbro) are exceeding consumer demand
and are only doing this to make short-term gains even if it costs the
company in the long run. Which --given the huge increase in number of
MTG product releases-- is hard to deny, although it is surprising any shareholders actually /care/ about the long-term health of a company.
Usually they're all for anything that temporarily spikes the share
price.
An interesting revelation is Hasbro's own 'parachute strategy', which
relies on profits from MTG to make up for any shortfalls elsewhere in
Hasbro. Star Wars toys not selling? Release another MTG pack! Can't
figure out how to make a profit on D&D? MTG will make up the slack.
The kids don't want Transformers anymore? Surely they'll spend all
that extra cash on MTG cards! A strategy which saw its ultimate
realization in a thousand-dollar '30th anniversary set'. Who knew MTG
was so crucial to Hasbro's continued survival?
But fans haven't been happy about any of this. It's all been getting
too expensive (not just with the individual prices, but the sheer
volume), and it's turning people off the hobby, getting them to spend
their money elsewhere. And it's not like the quality of the goods are
getting better.
You know what this all reminds me of? TSR in the 90s, where their
solution to their financial problems was just to sell more tat
regardless of whether customers wanted any of it or not. Now, sure,
the result of this strategy was some excellent settings --Ravenloft,
Dark Sun, Spelljammer-- but there also was a lot of awful cruft.
Often, the only way --especially pre-Internet-- to keep up with it all
was to buy everything and hope you'd be able to sieve off the shit. Of
course, most people didn't have the money, time or inclination to
follow that strategy, and after getting burned a few times by stuff
like the "D&D Trading Cards" or "Magic Encylopedia", they instead
started looking towards other product lines. TSR stumbled along for a
few more years, but it never regained its footing until it got
purchased by... Wizards of the Coast.
History rhymes, I guess.
* WOTC: Wizards of the Coast, current publishers of D&D
MTG: Magic the Gathering, the popular trading card game that
'real' gamers know is inferior to D&D ;-)
** article is articled here in this article.
https://www.ign.com/articles/lawsuit-claims-hasbro-misled-investors-regarding-sales-of-controversial-magic-the-gathering-anniversary-set
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