Tag: #CreatorRelationsTeam

Wizards of the Coast Content Creator Summit.

I’m sure a speak for a large crowd of gamers who didn’t need an all-expenses-paid trip to my living room to figure it out. We don’t need WotC or their take on D&D any more. I’ve pretty much given up on Wizards of the Coast. They can go rot with whatever official titles come next. There are very few things they will ever do or say to win my trust back.

Please allow me to better clarify my position on this.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with WotC calling a Creator Summit. There’s no grudge or beef with the attendees of said event. Actually, I’m wicked jealous, to be honest. But, good for them. I’ve made it a point since starting this site to praise the success of others as long as no harm was done.

I admire a lot of folx in the YouTube arena. I could list probably twenty people who I respect and admire greatly. I’m not going to single anyone out, however.

I admire a lot of people, but I don’t always agree with them.

Someone pointed out on Twitter that a lot of the “Content Creators” being invited to the summit don’t actually write much of anything, with a few exceptions. I see a lot of endorsements and sponsors on the channels of various Content Creators. Again, all good.

They all work very hard at what they do. I’m not sure how “Influencer” became sort of a negative term, but it describes what they do so much better. YouTube videos, social media posts, liaising with various other writers, creators and corporate types are just part of their daily agenda. Anyone who has ever edited a YouTube video can probably tell you it’s not as easy as it sounds.

So, yes. Great for the people going to get wined and dined by Wizards of the Coast. Is it the best approach by WotC? That remains to be seen. Make no mistake, this is a (smart) Public Relations move. WotC isn’t paying for good previews/reviews. However, I kinda suspect that’s what the corporate overlords are expecting out of all this.

Here comes one of my theories.

What if, maybe, just possibly, this has been planned all along? It’s almost Machiavellian in its conception. IF/F the OGL debacle was manufactured, then some of the subsequent PR maneuvering would be intended to build more support for the new video game, err…Virtual TableTop using the Unreal Engine. (Just like Fortnite, *cough.*) Even if the OGL disaster hadn’t occurred, my educated guess is this was already in the works.

Wizards’ various teams have been plotting and scheming. Sometimes Team A has no idea (supposedly) what Team B is doing. The Hasbro overlords’ teams sometimes do things the WotC teams have no idea are happening. It’s all about the franchise, the lifestyle brand, these days.

Content? Not in the gaming sense of the word. Mark my words- what goes into the books is tertiary or even irrelevant to selling the brand. Advertising, promotion, and selling merchandise are super important to WotC. Books? Pfft! “Do we sell those?” they ask. They need “Content Creators” to promote the brand. They don’t need actual game content.

Remember, One D&D was already pretty much in the bag before they even announced it. WotC’s focus has nothing to do with the game itself at this point. They’re entire effort is going into marketing, merchandising, and virtual space. Screw the game. They just want money because they own the name and they have a dim view of the fans.

Someone highly respected by the community mentioned “gatekeeping.”

In my heart of hearts, I almost wish Linda Codega was wrong about gatekeeping, but I know they’re right. That snarky comment Kyle Brink made about “old white guys (like him) can’t flee the hobby fast enough” might be the new standard in gatekeeping for D&D. The new “cool kids” are turning away the section of the fanbase that launched the entire TTRPG industry.

As others have commented, WotC “left us” the SRD 5.1 and the OGL. WotC doesn’t see editions. They see dollar signs. All of us old codgers and Grognards can play the older editions of the game or pretty much do anything we want in the old sandbox. The new faces of D&D are coming, and chances are there won’t be one old white guy with a bald head and a long beard anywhere among them.

Hasbro/WotC want tons of sales of merchandise, action figures, D&D lamps and gimmicky transformable d20s. They’re banking on the Honor Among Thieves sales and views to propel D&D into the future much the same way Star Wars took off back in the 1970s. Getting a bunch of YouTubers onboard with the new VTT and kicking all of the old white guys to the curb are just another phase of the marketing plan.

The way I see it…

We’re headed into a new era. This new era will be pretty much free of official WotC publications. There plenty of companies out there in the #TTRPGIndustry who will take our money. If WotC wants to blow a pile of money on bringing a bunch of YouTubers in to try to coax more people back over to One D&D, and the video game masquerading as a VTT, good for them.

The brain trust at Hasbro/WotC has forgotten the hundreds of YouTubers they didn’t invite. The old guys like Erik Tenkar and The Dungeon Delver probably never make the list. Why? WotC doesn’t want honest opinions. They want public relations.

WotC wants YouTubers to go on the air and sing the praises of One D&D and the shiny new VTT. They want the microtransactions that work so well for video game companies. They weren’t lying when they said they want to monetize the players. Remember, we’re dealing with WotC execs that think D&D is a video game and nothing more.

Again, there’s really nothing terribly wrong about what WotC is doing. Yeah, they want to make money. I think other TTRPG fans and I would rather they went about things differently, but we’re not their crowd any more.

I can name dozens of other fantasy TTRPGs that can easily be mistaken for D&D. These other titles are eventually going to completely replace D&D. Let WotC do whatever the heck they want to do. Good luck with One D&D.

I’m sure a speak for a large crowd of gamers who didn’t need an all-expenses-paid trip to my living room to figure it out. We don’t need WotC or their take on D&D any more. I’ve pretty much given up on Wizards of the Coast. They can go rot with whatever official titles come next. There are very few things they will ever do or say to win my trust back.

Update: As of March 10, I have not received any word from Wizards of the Coast on the best way to contact them. Obviously they want the fans’ opinions so badly that there’s no way to contact them. I call bullsh🦆t on their whole operation at this point. I really get the impression no one in those offices wants to be my friend.

Thanks for reading this far. You rock. I appreciate you. I like having online friends. Keep on gaming your way.

Wizards of the Coast Invites Creators.

The OGL Scandal of 2023 continues as Bob World Builder gets an email invitation to the first ever Content Creator Summit; a gathering of elite, cherry-picked YouTubers who talk about D&D. They get to hang out at WotC HQ, meet with the team, and eat on the company’s dime. Woot! Who wouldn’t want to go?

On March 8th, Bob World Builder received an invitation to the first ever “Content Creator Summit.”

Here’s Bob’s video in case you are wondering.

I gotta say, I’m pretty jealous. I mean, who doesn’t love to be wined and dined by a large corporation? Who wouldn’t want to go and hobnob with the D&D creative staff and/or the “Creator Relations Team” as they’re now calling it? Bob is right. The chance is too awesome to pass up.

I’m sure Bob won’t be the only one. Ginny Di is no stranger to WotC HQ. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other Kyle Brink interviewers get to go. I suspect Guy from How to Be a Great GM will be there given he’s basically on WotC’s payroll already. There will probably be a few other guests we don’t know about yet. Good for them, eh?

If WotC truly wants to get to know the whole community, they’re still not trying hard enough.

Obviously I’m just a guy with a blog. I have a small, but loveable number of readers. (*I love you all.) I’m pretty sure if Wizards decided they wanted to fly me out to Washington where I’ve always wanted to visit, put me up in a nice hotel, fed me, and let me hang out? I wouldn’t have to think twice. My suitcase is already packed. I’d even start a YouTube channel just for them.

We all know it’s not likely to happen. It’s kind of a shame they’re only limiting themselves to YouTubers so far. Does WotC know their fanbase extends beyond YouTube and Twitter? Obviously they never read my blog. (Prove me wrong. I DARE you!) In fact, my guess is they ignore the blogosphere and the hundreds of articles written about them the same way they pretty much ignore conventions.

If they were doing everything right, the Creator Summit would be completely superfluous and unnecessary.

I’ll echo the sentiment of a few others. If WotC was still sending a team to conventions and mingling with us peasants, they wouldn’t have to wonder what the TTRPG community thinks of them and some of their nonsense. People are dreadfully honest at conventions sometimes. WotC might actually *gasp* hear something “negative” about what they’re doing. (I think I just heard half of Kyle Brink’s team pee their pants in fright just now.)

Honestly, I don’t handle criticism well, either. I get it. For a dude with kind of a big ego, I really am pretty fragile and sensitive when it comes to criticism. Gonna have that chat with my therapist later again today. So I get it that WotC doesn’t want to hear the critiques of thousands of fans.

On the other hand, WotC is a large, faceless, unfeeling corporate entity under the thumb of an even larger, scummier corporation. We don’t really see much of a human face on anything they do despite the dozens of names in the credits. They’re only as good as the McPropaganda Kyle Brink is told to spew by the PR people. (Yeah, someone has to pick on Kyle a little. Mercer can tell you I’m a big softie, though. LOL!)

WotC can handle a bad review. They aren’t going to go belly up if a sourcebook or adventure flops. (All three core books selling like it was 4E all over again might be bad?) It’s like WotC has no concept of what it was like when they were starting out. This new team of leaders seems pretty daft when it comes to the history of their own products, much less the history of the hobby. Tis truly sad.

I’d run D&D in a castle if WotC asked.

I’d contribute to their books. Heck, if they want to send me a check, I’ll never speak about them again if that’s what they wanted. And mind you, I’m the guy that completely holds contempt and loathing for large corporations. I guess I can dream. I’ve said many times how cool it would be to actually work on official D&D content. Or any game, really.

Seriously. I want to be a game designer when I grow up. Please, pay me to write cool stuff for your game. Any roleplaying game, really. No joking. I’d love to have paid projects, convention visits, give interviews, write magazine articles, and so on. They’d probably have to tranquilize me and drag me out of the office at night. Security would have to boot me out of the hotel at the end of conventions.

Isn’t that sort of the definition of “dedicated fan?” Isn’t that sorta what being a content creator for D&D is all about? Honestly I haven’t published anything on DMsGuild or DriveThruRPG yet. In fact I’m not printed anywhere yet. I’m too fussy about my own work and there are attachment issues. (Talking to therapist about OCD and attachment disorder. 😅) It’s going to happen someday, though.

Am I any less dedicated? No. Am I any less of a content creator? No. Trust me, my filing cabinets, folders, and Word files attest to my content creation efforts.

WotC doesn’t get it. There are thousands, maybe over a million fans out there that actually do appreciate them and want to see them do well. We wouldn’t be critical of their efforts if we didn’t care and just wanted them to fail. WotC execs and designers would know that if they’d come down out of their corporate tower and mingled with non-corporate people for a change. But D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink says he actually plays the game, so they must have some sort of clue what they’re doing. Right?

I’m going to send WotC an email.

Will it get anywhere or be seen by anyone before it gets deleted? Not holding my breath, but I’ll keep you posted. I want Wizards of the Coast to understand that they need to speak with more than just a cherry-picked cadre of YouTubers who are going to probably going to tell them what they want to hear. It’s readily apparent there are plenty of people in the corporate office who believe the WotC narrative. How about inviting some truly objective non-YouTube fans?

Where’s the rest of the “community,” WotC? Legit question. I want to know. Who else has Kyle Brink spoken to outside of YouTube? Anybody?

I promise I’ll be nice. I have gone this whole article without saying one four/five letter word or calling anyone specific by my nicknames for them. It’s been a challenge, but I made it.

Wish me luck. Thanks for stopping by. More on this situation as it develops.

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