I swear to God: if I hated D&D as some sort of Satanic witchery plot and then somehow managed to be in the decision-making process over at WotC, I’m not sure what I’d do differently to wreck the long-term prospects of the game.
[I will note that there are people who are arguing that this isn’t actually a big deal. My personal opinion? From what I can see: WotC would like to get out of the book business, and into the licensed software business. They’re also betting that the future of TTRPGs is going to be primarily digital. I’m not so sure that it is.]
Meh. When Hasbro bought out WOTC in the 90s I was about the only gamer in our area who welcomed it because I figured you could count on Soulless Corporations to understand the concept of Not Slaying The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs and to provide necessary Adult Supervision to Plucky Gamers who didn’t. Looks like I was wrong. 😓
That was the 90s before DEI took over. It made sense *then*.
The stupid, it burns.
I’d already noticed the introductory box had disappeared from retail stores before the movie hit streaming.
Granted, the bookstores suck, and the publishers are pushing product that sucks. I used to visit several times a month, Now, maybe a couple times a year. At most.
(When Larry Correia released the first book of his Forgotten Warrior series, I went to the local B&N to grab a copy. And it wasn’t up front, or on the shelves. Since he had a *huge* fandom locally, I figured they’d sold through before I was able to get there. Went back a couple of times over the next week, before waiting in line to ask when they’d be getting more copies. Turns out, they were still in the back of the store, in boxes. They hadn’t bothered to stock them.
And it’s gotten much worse, since.
I’d like to support a company that actually employs locals, but…)
Apparently B&N has wised up but I can’t speak to whether that trickled down to your local shop.
I have no dog in this fight. To me, Dungeons and Dragons is still AD&D. Gary Gygax still reigns supreme, as far as I’m concerned. The current crop of designers work in his shadow.