From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

I find it interesting how many Guardian articles specifically I find
when searching for DnD news.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/may/03/dungeons-and-dragons-wizards-of-the-coast

Stop trying to turn Dungeons & Dragons into a Marvel-esque cash cow rCo it wonrCOt work
Ed Power
Fri 3 May 2024 09.00 CEST

The way that Wizards of the Coast is treating this venerable game is
totally at odds with how its players see it

The words hit players of the worldrCOs favourite tabletop role playing
game like a magic missile straight to the heart. rCLDungeons & Dragons has never been more popular, and we have really great fans and engagement,rCY
said Cynthia Williams, former CEO of D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast,
in December 2022 at an rCLinvestor-focusedrCY web seminar. rCLBut the brand is really under-monetisedrCY.

In the run-up to D&DrCOs 50th birthday this year, the branded tat has
flowed with a vengeance. Amid the ongoing celebrations, WilliamsrCO
comments have acquired the ring of a terrible prophecy coming to
fruition in the tackiest way imaginable. D&D is rCLmonetisingrCY as never before, and it is terrible to behold.

Wizards of the Coast (part of the Hasbro toy empire) has unveiled a
Dungeon & Dragons Lego set rCo with a dragon-sized prize to match. It has
also announced a tie-in with the Converse sneakers brand, with designs inspired by the original D&D handbooks from half a century ago. These
products join an ever-expanding deluge of merchandise. Roll up, roll up
for your D&D breakfast bowls, table lamps, and Dragonfire Roast rCLsingle-origin coffeerCY.

Merch is a key component of 21st-century geekdom. Lego, sneakers and
table lamps are precisely the sort of products you would expect to
accompany, say, a new Avengers or Star Wars movie. It is part of what we
might call the rCLBaby Groot economyrCY.

But D&D isnrCOt Marvel. In trying to rCLmonetise the brandrCY, Wizards has made a terrible misjudgment. In that notorious web seminar, Williams
lamented that while Dungeon Masters rCo players who referee gaming
sessions rCo make up 20% of the user base, they account for the bulk of
the spending rCo ie they buy all of those expensive rule books. Joining
her on the call, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks outlined a plan to turn D&D into
a rCLfour-quadrantrCY brand rCLthat has similar awareness as say Lord of the Rings or Harry PotterrCY.

What neither appears to understand is that D&D can never be the next
Harry Potter. That is because D&D is not a franchise, lifestyle brand or
a marketing opportunity. It is a community of people who largely make up
their adventures for themselves. And you canrCOt monetise that. For all
the recent hoopla around the game, the D&D experience is essentially
unchanged since it first crawled out of the basement of co-creators Gary
Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974.

It is about pals coming together every week. They hang out, chuck dice,
and share the thrill of exploring an abandoned dwarf mine or rescuing a
cousin of one of the party from cultists camped in the woods outside
town. You canrCOt put a price on that. ItrCOs like trying to monetise friendship.

That new D&D Lego set is an example of how little Wizards and Hasbro understands its player base. At first pass, The rCLRed DragonrCOs TalerCY box seems full of promise. It features a brick fortress, a huge dragon, square-headed adventurers, and some iconic D&D monsters rCo including the Owlbear, Displacer beast and Beholder. There is even a tie-in adventure
that uses the included figures.

Oh wow, yourCOre thinking rCoD&D Lego. What a fantastic way to get kids into the hobby. The catch is that this luxury box costs -u314 rCo roughly the
cost of six D&D PlayerrCOs Handbooks.

WizardsrCO problem is that it has already burned through much of the
goodwill of its user base after a controversy last year over plans to
reverse a policy going back to 2000, taking away the freedom for
independent creators to use D&DrCOs rules however they saw fit. Leaked proposals showed that Wizards intended to demand a 25% royalty on the
income of creators with annual sales exceeding $750,000, and reserve the
right to re-use any content created under the licence. rCLBig gamingrCY was coming for the little guy.

That saga created a huge rift between publisher and players. Many in the community now perceive Wizards not as custodian of a game it acquired in
1997, but as capitalist necromancers trying to flog D&D for all it is worth.

There was an outcry, and Wizards climbed down. Twelve months later, the
50th anniversary of D&D is here, and it feels telling how Wizards is
marking it: with Lego and sneakers. Yes, commemorative books are on the
way rCo along with an updated rules set that Wizards has styled as rCLOne D&DrCY. But few were crying out for a new edition of D&D, and to many it
feels like a cash-generating exercise. (In its defence, Wizards has said
its rCLOne D&DrCY books will be backwards compatible with the rCLFifth EditionrCY everyone is currently playing.)

These are boom times for tabletop role playing. There has never been a
wider variety of games rCo from the folk-horror steampunk of Free LeaguerCOs Vaesen to rCLrules-lightrCY systems such as Mausritter or M||rk Borg. What
the publishers of these titles understand is that it takes time to
cultivate a player base and that the relationship is an ongoing one.

Contrast that with D&DrCOs cheesy merch onslaught, and you have to worry. Forget monetisation. The crucial currency in the tabletop hobby is
player goodwill. Amid a blizzard of junk, Wizards seems determined to sacrifice a 50-year legacy on the altar of unchecked corporate avarice.

Ed Power writes about role-playing and board games, music, films and TV.
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