Tabletop Community Watch

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

I should state that Wizards and Magic combined are losing out to Kobold Press in terms of earnings for such "stunning and brave" views as tired DEI talking point to earn a penny and social credit rating to burn a dollar and run away from said company with the penny. Their sales are eating shit and losing outright to third-party suppliers, and even Magic is getting rejected due to overprinting. I actually think Paizo's own stuff for 5e is actually outselling any of their most recent retarded garbage.

These motherfuckers are facing being divested by the company itself if 5.5 doesn't do gangbusters and they're being liquidated in favor of E20, no matter how much they bleat and honk in denial otherwise. I can state openly that Hasbro is essentially filching their contractors and giving them contracts with wording to that degree.

Also decent odds that "senior" is only senior by dint of not being purged for being too expensive, since Wizards is seen by Hasbro as the sped division; only fuck-ups and people they hate are thrown into there.

The problem is that, as Grummz points out in this tweet, the rot has settled in throughout the industry, so even if WOTC completely collapses, things won't get better. The SJWs have infiltrated every level of the industry. They control the storefronts and the distribution sites, so they can censor any game that doesn't toe the line the same way that Nexus Mods removes any game mods that aren't DEI friendly. Thus, only the woke games get any retail support, ensuring that only woke slop will continue to get produced. Conventions are even worse. At this point, even if D&D goes the way of the Dodo, it will only mean that a new woke slop company will take their place.

 

[Spangled Drongo]

Conventions are even worse.

Every single convention these days seems to have at least one stall selling merch with pride flags/pronoun pins (if you're straight you're shit outta luck, only the alphabet brigade gets to be special), con staff also sometimes get pronouns on their name tags. It really is just an overglorified fandom. I was a kid when I went to my first one and the closest thing to gender/sexuality shit back then was maybe a fujoshi artist selling gay art, but nothing loudly proclaiming what you identify as or who you like to fuck.

 

[Adamska]

What is E20?

Essential 20. Basically Hasbro's own d20 system they're making in a coked out desperation to make something that can allow them to shovel their IPs into book form.

Also all the retail "support" in the world doesn't matter if it just rots on the shelf. Magic cards are doing that right now due to overprinting spam. I mean yeah these sorts don't give a shit, comic books proved that, but it's still going to just murk the industry and make no one bother.

An audience of a thousand paypigs does not anything relevant make.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

The thing that did it for me was their mailbag unboxings, where the presumably most friendless people in the world would send them out of print wargaming sourcebooks and old, long discontinued miniatures, sometimes worth hundreds of pounds, to the seeming complete ambivalence of the pair. I can't tell you how many times some poor parasocial schmuck would send in, say, an old out of print metal dreadnought that I know for a fact goes for big money online, only for Snipe to go, "Ooh, him a chonky boi!!" and it to be promptly set down and ignored, because they have to unwrap the next valuable old Rogue Trader miniature sent in by the next sad bastard seemingly unaware of the existence of eBay.

Speaking of parasocial, I watched Midwit Minis painting a skaven Start Collecting box today and was really struck by this bit in particular. People have spoken before about how cloyingly unpleasant Guy is, but even by his usual standards, he's really slimy here.

"...People who're a bit sad, lonely and unpopular, who might want to pay me, Guy from Midwinter Minis, to be their pretend Internet friend who likes Warhammer, just like them!"

Nauseating. I genuinely gagged.

 

[Roy's Food Repair]

Speaking of parasocial, I watched Midwit Minis painting a skaven Start Collecting box today and was really struck by this bit in particular. People have spoken before about how cloyingly unpleasant Guy is, but even by his usual standards, he's really slimy here.

View attachment 5808941

"...People who're a bit sad, lonely and unpopular, who might want to pay me, Guy from Midwinter Minis, to be their pretend Internet friend who likes Warhammer, just like them!"

Nauseating. I genuinely gagged.

If only he could have given that "sense of belonging" to his wife and kids instead of simping for tranny pornographers.

 

[ZMOT]

I should state that Wizards and Magic combined are losing out to Kobold Press in terms of earnings for such "stunning and brave" views as tired DEI talking point to earn a penny and social credit rating to burn a dollar and run away from said company with the penny. Their sales are eating shit and losing outright to third-party suppliers, and even Magic is getting rejected due to overprinting. I actually think Paizo's own stuff for 5e is actually outselling any of their most recent retarded garbage.

These motherfuckers are facing being divested by the company itself if 5.5 doesn't do gangbusters and they're being liquidated in favor of E20, no matter how much they bleat and honk in denial otherwise. I can state openly that Hasbro is essentially filching their contractors and giving them contracts with wording to that degree.

Also decent odds that "senior" is only senior by dint of not being purged for being too expensive, since Wizards is seen by Hasbro as the sped division; only fuck-ups and people they hate are thrown into there.

dnd is still a strong brand, and iirc most of the recent layoffs where from other departments outside wizards.
sales don't mean that much without new content, which was sparse to begin with. not that it matters when they still get 50% from dmsguild, so why bother putting out content when people will literally do it for free and you still get paid. the rest is most likely dnd beyond shit way to many people buy into for some fucking reason.

feels like everyone is waiting for not!6e which will make a headlines either way, all the competing stuff people started after the OGL debacle last year won't be out for a while and certainly not to steal that spotlight. you can bet enough sheep will flock back to it just because of that (if they can afford it with the current economy that is).

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

Also all the retail "support" in the world doesn't matter if it just rots on the shelf. Magic cards are doing that right now due to overprinting spam

It's funny to see this in action, tbh. My LGS and big box stores in the area still have the LOTR crossover boxes collecting dust because everyone stopped giving a shit after the Ring got pulled and the Doctor Who decks aren't moving product either. Most of the purchasing I see is guys rooting through binders for cards they need from OOP sets. Meanwhile Pokémon is still doing brisk business and they can't keep that Disney TCG in stock to save their lives.

 

[ZMOT]

hey can't keep that Disney TCG in stock to save their lives

that I still don't get, I don't see anyone play it or even talk about it, but apparently it sells like crazy everywhere.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

If only he could have given that "sense of belonging" to his wife and kids instead of simping for tranny pornographers.

I wonder how many skeletons he has in his closet. There’s got to be a lot more drama going on especially with the type of parasocial relationships he encourages.

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

that I still don't get, I don't see anyone play it or even talk about it, but apparently it sells like crazy everywhere.

My LGS has been running draft nights for it every month, but I don't know how popular those are. My guess is that it's Disney adults and/or speculative investors fueling the craze. I was at a Target the other day and they must have just put out the product for the new expansion. There were five or six starter decks, maybe sixty individual packs, and some collector boxes on the shelf. I was there again today and the starter decks were the only thing left.

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

that I still don't get, I don't see anyone play it or even talk about it, but apparently it sells like crazy everywhere.

People will buy Disney anything just because, I saw merch that was buttons?..was it?...roughly in colors of Disney cheacters, and it flew cause it was official merch.

 

[Clanner Scum]

that I still don't get, I don't see anyone play it or even talk about it, but apparently it sells like crazy everywhere.

If you've got a kid in the age range, kitchen table Lorcana is a fun family activity.

 

[Ghostse]

I should state that Wizards and Magic combined are losing out to Kobold Press in terms of earnings for such "stunning and brave" views as tired DEI talking point to earn a penny and social credit rating to burn a dollar and run away from said company with the penny. Their sales are eating shit and losing outright to third-party suppliers, and even Magic is getting rejected due to overprinting. I actually think Paizo's own stuff for 5e is actually outselling any of their most recent retarded garbage.

Again, I wouldn't look at the first 2 quarters of 2023 when making any sort of trends guessing. WOTC took a huge punch to the dick fucking up with OGL, and everyone who wasn't WOTC got a huge windfall of performative purchasing.
Granted "Punching itself hard in the dick repeatedly" seems to be the new WOTC operating model.

 

[BlazikenLover]

Essential 20. Basically Hasbro's own d20 system they're making in a coked out desperation to make something that can allow them to shovel their IPs into book form.

Also all the retail "support" in the world doesn't matter if it just rots on the shelf. Magic cards are doing that right now due to overprinting spam. I mean yeah these sorts don't give a shit, comic books proved that, but it's still going to just murk the industry and make no one bother.

An audience of a thousand paypigs does not anything relevant make.

Huh, I recall hearing about hasbro making a power rangers TTRPG but I thought they would be using a D&D 5e derivative, that was at least 2 or 3 years ago though so am Surprised the project wasn't cancelled

 

[Adamska]

Huh, I recall hearing about hasbro making a power rangers TTRPG but I thought they would be using a D&D 5e derivative, that was at least 2 or 3 years ago though so am Surprised the project wasn't cancelled

That was likely considered, but what happened was they realized they needed to do more to make it work for their IPs. Well that and again, Hasbro considers Wizards the Foot Fetishist of their brand, and only send the speds, fuck-ups, and the disliked there to run it. Hilariously, the point of E20 is that it's supposed to be a universalist take for the system; they want it to be able to cover as diverse a range as GI Joe to My Little Pony.

From what I can tell, they're taking Wizards Contractors and trying to make their own system specifically because they saw the writing on the wall in terms of their viability. They know they're in the shit since they make their money on toys, and are likely going to divest what they don't want. So they're basically sucking up devs to make this thing.

It's not likely to succeed due to their desire to have one system for so many different settings, but they're trying.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

That was likely considered, but what happened was they realized they needed to do more to make it work for their IPs. Well that and again, Hasbro considers Wizards the Foot Fetishist of their brand, and only send the speds, fuck-ups, and the disliked there to run it. Hilariously, the point of E20 is that it's supposed to be a universalist take for the system; they want it to be able to cover as diverse a range as GI Joe to My Little Pony.

From what I can tell, they're taking Wizards Contractors and trying to make their own system specifically because they saw the writing on the wall in terms of their viability. They know they're in the shit since they make their money on toys, and are likely going to divest what they don't want. So they're basically sucking up devs to make this thing.

It's not likely to succeed due to their desire to have one system for so many different settings, but they're trying.

Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t WotC been the only profitable division of Hasbro until very recently?

 

[Ghostse]

Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t WotC been the only profitable division of Hasbro until very recently?

In 2022 they were the top division in profit IIRC, I don't believe only division in the black, but (IIRC) if you removed WOTC from the equation, all remaining divisions totaled would have reported a net loss. This lead to corpo meddling around October 2023 which led straight to them publicly punching themselves square in the dick with full force in January 2023.

Basically some loud board member wanted Hasbro to put their golden goose into its own separate farm where profits wouldn't be affected by the chickens not laying eggs after getting troon chemicals injected into them. To head this off, Hasbro decided they would make the goose's opening twice as big because that would mean that the eggs would be twice as large, and they'd show that loud mouth they knew how to run a company and leverage the golden goose to its fullest potential for profit.

This is not go as they planned.

edit: To be clear this is all of WotC not just D&D; the main earner being Magic: the gathering

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Huh, I recall hearing about hasbro making a power rangers TTRPG but I thought they would be using a D&D 5e derivative, that was at least 2 or 3 years ago though so am Surprised the project wasn't cancelled

I don't know if they're a Hasbro property or just using the rights but that would appear to be Essence 20 which is coming from Renegade Games. They've done Power Rangers and GI Joe/Transformers.

https://renegadegamestudios.com/blog/introducing-the-essence20-roleplaying-system/

Edit - I'm getting stuff purely from internet searches, this might have some details on how it works.

http://essence20.wikidot.com/

 

[Adamska]

Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t WotC been the only profitable division of Hasbro until very recently?

Barely. As in it broke even with some minor surplus before the OGL incident and burning money on IOT bullshit rather than just using another VTT fucked them. Magic was their moneymaker until they card spammed it to death, and that's actually why they keep trying to shove MTG down your throat with IP spam now.

They still considered Wizards as a whole autistic trash and shoved the dregs towards it even back then.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Basically some loud board member wanted Hasbro to put their golden goose into its own separate farm where profits wouldn't be affected by the chickens not laying eggs after getting troon chemicals injected into them. To head this off, Hasbro decided they would make the goose's opening twice as big because that would mean that the eggs would be twice as large, and they'd show that loud mouth they knew how to run a company and leverage the golden goose to its fullest potential for profit.

This is not go as they planned.

Christ on a cracker, that's got to be one of the most horrifying metaphors I've ever seen used here. Kudos.