Boycott D&D? #dnd #hasbro

#hasbro
#dnd

[SergioLeRoux]

Actually the logic checks out:


If I support your work, and your boss's boss's boss is just going to fire you anyway, he just keeps the money I paid to support your work and instead I just supported your bosses.

[justmonica]

I mean yeah, you should. Give your money to any of the other great creator's in the space- other companies that treat their employees well. Paixo or Chaosium or what have you. Their employees equally deserve to be supported and you won't be propping up a company willing to do all the nonsense Hasbro has done recently.

[ashtongaskill]

I have a limited gaming budget and I'll keep happily spending it on non WotC products where my funding goes in much higher percentages to the people actually making the things I care about. WotC has been having an amazing year and despite record sales are still being laid off, giving WotC money does not support the WotC employees.

[GlacialScion]

This a totally backwards way to look at it. You could use this logic to justify financially supporting any company. The fact that Hasbro pays people is not a good reason for me to give Hasbro money.

[frt_salad]

mindsets like this is why no good change is happening in this industries and exploitation of workers like this is still happening all the time

[Ironbearjones]

If you're still supporting Hasbro and WotC after the OGL incident in January, the layoffs DEFINITERLY aren't moving the needle. Trying to justify it just sounds weird.

[BittyVids]

I’m still boycotting from the last blow up.

[mickthelick]

The primary concern of CEOs and shareholders is profits. If Hasbro/WoTC's actions lead to reduced profits or boycotts, they might reconsider their business practices. Otherwise, they'll likely continue as is or even intensify their strategies, as seen with the OGL situation. Although this may have contributed to the recent layoffs, the TTRPG market remains strong and players will simply shift to other systems like Pathfinder, MCDM, DC20, or Daggerheart, developed by companies that seem to better understand and value the community. The OGL fiasco highlighted the resilience and unity of this community. If the community moves away from WoTC products, they'll support others, increasing the demand for game developers and designers elsewhere. Personally, boycotting WoTC could be the best thing for the future of TTRPGs.

[JosephLRutledge]

Except the product hasn't been quality in ages

[milesarmstrong]

"no the reason I buy this cotton is that if Don't, the people picking is that the people picking that cotten might be told they are doing a bad job."

[morganpetros]

The problem here is that you either don't understand or are *CHOOSING* not to understand the reasons for boycotting Hasbro and WorC. I, frankly, have not purchased a D&D product since ... was it May or June that WotC, *NOT HASBRO, * sent *ARMED PINKERTON THUGS TO A MtG COLLECTOR'S HOME* for the "crime" of showing off cards *THE COMPANY HAD SENT HIM?* Anyway, I have not purchased anything from WotC since that time. I will not give my money to a company that treats its customer base with such disrespect. The OGL fiasco was bad enough; the idiotic "content creator meet & greet" was worse. But dispatching armed cretins is simply beyond the pale. Even if I thought the new game was going in the right direction (I don't; 5e was "3e for Dummies" and the new game, from what I've seen, is 5e for Morons), I will not give my money to a company that so disrespects its own customers. But since I *DON'T* "like the work the creators are doing" since they've apparently decided that creative work is best done by committee ... and AI ... the choice was easy for me. I will never support Hasblow or WotC again, PERIOD.

D&D has been a mediocrity of a game for a long time now, and I see no reason to give my hard-earned money to a bunch of corporate scumbags who *REPEATEDLY REFUSE TO LEARN THEIR LESSON DESPITE THE COMMUNITY'S REPEATED EFFORTS TO TEACH IT TO THEM.* So I sympathize with the creators who've lost (and will lose) their jobs, but as far as I'm concerned, the sooner Hasblow and WotC go under, the healthier the gaming community will be.

[BTG]

You know when the Wii:U failed to deliver on its sales targets Satoru Iwata took a pay cut personally rather than punish those under him for decisions he was ultimately responsible for making. That's leadership. The executive level of WotC planned layoffs at least six months in advance. While it's never a good time to lose your job it's especially a hard hit around the holiday season and immediately after when consumer spending peaks for the year given the culture of gift giving many if not the majority of the population partake in.

After the many scandals WotC has incurred over the years I'm glad they are getting some pushback from the consumer for passing the costs of their failures onto their employees.

[anthony-hido]

This is a stupid take, because that 20x removed C suite only cares about money. Just like when people raged against OGL openly and it changed, withdrawing money always gets results.

[sportybrian]

Boycotts are a conversation with shareholders... an individual employee would never feel the effect of what most likely would just be a delay in buying products.

[Alfrebaut]

For me, it's not a boycott, I just haven't directly financially supported WotC at all since Magic 30. So many of their decisions since have reinforced my stance on it, and moving to playing mostly Pathfinder has made it a lot easier to do that as well. If they keep doing stuff like the OGL debacle, releasing products like Spelljammer, releasing a book with AI "art", etc., then it's barely a choice to not support them.

[jamesnicholas]

But at the same time to keep buying stuff and even start to buy more of their stuff means they will take it that their methods and "changes" are working so they will continue to move the way they were.

Boycotts I feel are nessicary if you want to see change. Unfortunately are part of boycotts is the uppers in the company resisting and will eventually change or lose/stop the DnD side of the company.

Difficult choice indeed

[paulmerritt]

Dear Treantmonk,
I understand you have an emotional investment in the game that is Dungeons & Dragons. I guess a question I have for you, is this: Do you have a financial investment in Hasbro?
If you don't, maybe you should.
Personally speaking, your interest in the company and how it does business is rather intense to witness in your content. I think it is fair to say that if you have this much emotional investment in Hasbro, you should perhaps double down and buy Stock. Not for the sake of making a quick buck, but for the sake stewardship of the company and the Franchise assets it owns. I understand that you alone might not be able to invest enough in this regard, but there are quite a few of you YouTubers who have DnD as a common topic and interest.
Perhaps as a consortium or group or even cartel, you and your colleagues can get Hasbro back on track in managing the brand you so clearly do love.
Please understand, I offer this post with complete sincerity. I really do enjoy your content. And, I tend to think that while DnD is a fun game it appears that profits are becoming more of the driver than genuine improvement to the game.
That said, I have no where near the passion you have expressed and presented in your recent videos.
I have you have a great day, and that you'll consider taking a more active role in regards to Hasbro and DnD.

[jonathanfaulkner]

For the sake of argument, let’s assume boycotting is not the answer. Then what is? Should we keep supporting the creators on the D&D team, all the while slowly initiating a mass exodus to other systems like Pathfinder, thus creating exponential growth in those companies to allow them to eventually poach talent from Hasbro?

[yumanai]

I think this is a flawed view because the boots on the ground aren't going to feel a difference in their salary if we boycott because those people doing the good work don't get a cut of the back end.
Do you really want to continue to support WotC / Hasbro when the first people to benefit from that support will be corporate? I'm pretty sick of how they're treating the community also.

[ComradeVenus]

Theres a misunderstanding here: The workers at WOTC who actually put in the labor and create are paid by their boss, not by you.

It does not matter if you support a product or not, as the people who work on them have already been paid and won't see a dime out of the profits. Boycotting Hasbro would not be punishing the employees, but rather the CEOs, which are the ones who are responsible for the layoffs and attempting the OGL changes.

The CEOs are the ones who see the profits from the products that are being sold. Boycotting, therefore, is the only language they understand as it directly affects them.