Stop trying to turn Dungeons & Dragons into a Marvel-esque cash cow it wont work

[Spalls Hurgenson]

Here's something to read:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/may/03/dungeons-and-dragons-wizards-of-the-coast

Not that long of an article, but here's the short of it if you're
lazy:

Hasbro doesn't understand the D&D player base and is making a mistake
trying to over-monetize the D&D hobby. It will never be as huge a
market as Marvel or Star Wars because the game requires people to do
more than just consume media or toys. Playing D&D requires effort -
both on the part of the DM and the players - and the market of people
who are willing to do that will always be small. But Hasbro thinks
that if they shove enough tat in people's faces, D&D will somehow
metamorphose into this immense media empire. But it won't; it will
just alienate the fans, and tarnish the value of the brand.


All of which sounds fairly familiar... but I guess it bears repeating
(especially if it's better written than anything I've said and is
posted in a forum that may be ever-so-slightly larger than the twenty
or so readers here on rec.games.frp.dnd ;-P

[Kyonshi]

Post by Spalls Hurgenson
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/may/03/dungeons-and-dragons-wizards-of-the-coast
Not that long of an article, but here's the short of it if you're
Hasbro doesn't understand the D&D player base and is making a mistake
trying to over-monetize the D&D hobby. It will never be as huge a
market as Marvel or Star Wars because the game requires people to do
more than just consume media or toys. Playing D&D requires effort -
both on the part of the DM and the players - and the market of people
who are willing to do that will always be small. But Hasbro thinks
that if they shove enough tat in people's faces, D&D will somehow
metamorphose into this immense media empire. But it won't; it will
just alienate the fans, and tarnish the value of the brand.
All of which sounds fairly familiar... but I guess it bears repeating
(especially if it's better written than anything I've said and is
posted in a forum that may be ever-so-slightly larger than the twenty
or so readers here on rec.games.frp.dnd ;-P

It's hardly only us that have the same thoughts.
There is a disconnect with what players and GMs want, and what Hasbro
wants to sell people. The whole game, and by extension the whole hobby,
is being dragged down by the IP hanging around the game's neck.

Uhm... does that make sense?

I think it really would need to become a folk game, like what it started
out as. There was a bit of a move towards that in the very beginning,
before the whole brand of Dungeons and Dragons took over everything.

Maybe one would need to refer to the style of games as something else.
Dungeon games, or so. (but that has it's own connotations)