Suffering and success.
Hasbro being the worst, yet again
BG3’s only sin is having to be tied to the worst owner in tabletop gaming. Thank god Larian is independent.
I’ve been browsing older Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and the love that the authors put into those is amazing. It hurts to see D&D and the worlds I grew up loving destroyed by a soulless entity that cares only about profit.
If it’s at all of interest to you, there are a bunch of good novels set in the Forgotten Realms, too.
There’s a pretty great thread from just a few years ago on the Candlekeep forums where someone read through every single book and gave a brief review of them. I can’t remember their opinion in great detail, but the biggest authors (Ed Greenwood and Bob Salvatore) were relatively lowly rated, while Elaine Cunningham and Erin M. Evans consistently rated much more highly.
I’ve never read Cunningham myself, but I’ve read all of Evans’ FR novels and am a huge fan. Plan to read her non-FR novels once I’m finished with what I’m currently working through, if I can find a copy that’s not from the rainforest company.
…link? I need it.
Larian pls make a new series based on the Pathfinder ruleset. I think the success of BG3 has helped the mainstream to get used to DnD ruleset. Although Pathfinder is more complex, I think they have the chops to make it more accessible to the masses.
I thought the whole idea of Pathfinder was to simplify D&D. It’s more complex?
Pathfinder was created as an updated version of D&D 3.5, which was very complex. PF food streamline parts of it, but ended up just as complex at some point, mostly due to the massive variety of options available through splat books.
Meanwhile, D&D 5e was released to be much less complex by getting rid of stacking bonuses and the vast majority of math.
Parhfinder 2 (which I have not actually played yet) did not do that. They opted for streamlining the existing system by combining several similar subsystems into one (i.e. everything is a feat now). But the math is still there.
Eh, yes and no.
Pathfinder 1e was pretty much just straight-up continuing D&D 3.5e, but with some tweaks. Pathfinder 2e overhauled a lot of stuff, often simplifying things, but still pretty complex.
Compared to D&D 5e, Pathfinder has more rules, but those rules often make things easier, or (IMO) get you more return for the effort. So, for example: The feat list is bigger and more complicated, but in practice, it means you only need to look at a handful of them when you level up, which is easier (and the rules give you guidelines for swapping things out if you don’t like them). The monk has more decisions to make with stances and attack types, but that’s… kind of what you want with a monk to make combat interesting. There are rules for boats, and holy shit how does 5e not have rules for boats.
The last example might sound silly, but it’s part of what convinced me to switch. It’s an annoying omission in and of itself, but also speaks to a broader pattern of 5e just not supporting Dungeon Masters, letting them fix the either broken or incomplete rules, or else take the blame for them. Pathfinder actually supports
DungeonGame Masters, as though their time, effort, and fun were just as valuable as anyone else’s. /rantPathfinder 2e is what I’d play if I wanted something like 5e, but runs differently. If I wanted something similar, I’d pick something else, but that’s a longer, even more off topic discussion to go into unprompted. :P
Pathfinder was to get around WotC dropping D&D 3.5. Paizo was started by veteran D&D writers to sell adventures, which they still do as adventure paths, rather than a system. When WotC updated to 4e, meaning no more print books that Paizo could reference in their adventures, Pathfinder was a way to print new 3.5e PHBs and Monster Manuals.
Paizo didn’t initially change much in PF1e. There were a few balance tweaks. The books were better laid out than 3.5. The players did the math on things like combat maneuvers in advance. In practice the game played pretty much the same, my groups jumped over seamlessly.
Having run and played both, I do think Pathfinder 2e is counterintuitively simpler in play than 5e D&D. 5e plays fluidly almost immediately, move and act. PF2e is pretty demanding for the first hour or three, the three action economy and Conditions ™ are an armful, and many players need to unlearn some D&D habits. Once a player has below average system mastery PF2e is as fluid as 5e. Beyond that PF2e shines. The rules scale better to complex scenarios, giving players more clear options of how they could act and giving the GM a better framework to figure out exactly what someone needs to roll. I also think it’s easier for players to go from average to good system mastery in Pathfinder, it’s mostly just learning how to optimize their character and learning more conditions and spells that work in the framework the player already understands.
For new players in session 1 D&D is simpler, in session 5 Pathfinder pulls even or maybe ahead, and in session 50 Pathfinder still sort of works where D&D falls apart.
PF2e character customization, though, is much more complicated, which some people like and others do not.
This would be my absolute dream. I loved BG3 but the weakest part of me was being based on D&D 5e. PF2 is just a better system in pretty much every way imo.
If they could make a PF2 CRPG, that would be incredible.
They have Divinity already, why go looking for other IPs?
But we already got 2 good CRPG in this setting?
Hasbro continuing to make shit decisions on behalf of WotC, the only sector of the company keeping it afloat.
You see, if they fire everyone from the division, it’ll make even more profit. ez
Ah, the Jack Welch method.
(Seriously, fuck that guy. He was a pioneer among bloodsucking CEOS, and part of it was mass layoffs to boost short-term profits.)
There’s no one there left to defend the IP, so they can do evil things. I’m guessing it’s as intended.
I think Barbie would like a word
That’s Mattel. And one of the reasons why Hasbro looks so bad in comparison.
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Barbie is Mattel, not Hasbro.
Fuck I mixed up my board game doll companies lol
For the likely large overlap this audience might have with dnd, it didn’t make 100mil a year so it gets to eat shit. It doesn’t help that the video game license isn’t counted in that total. Other Hasbro brands do make 100mil a year.
I thought magic was one. It is surprising to see layoffs there.
Anyway, of course a corporation does evil shit. The only moral is the line going up.
MtG made over a billion dollars. From what I can see WotC, products/services/licenses, make up over 3 billion of Hasbro’s 5.something billion revenue.
Yeah, card crack is real. They’ve been whaling and getting kids into gambling since the 90s. Don’t know why lay offs there. Line go up just a little more probably.
It’s not that. It’s that the fewer people they have to pay the more money they get to keep. It’s incredibly short sighted and self destructive. But they don’t care at this point.
That or they’re planning to lean on generative ai to produce content
Yeah, my partner really likes the art but we’re both aware that MtG was just the real world precursor to the current micro-transaction culture.
The same Hasbro that tried to make a land grab for all D&D derivative content by changing their Open Game License to grant them irrevocable, perpetual rights to it. This is not a nice company as they demonstrate time and again.
So maybe it’s time the RPG community stopped thinking Hasbro are ever going to change, mourn for what D&D has become, but move onto something else.
Shout-out to Pathfinder, paizo, and their new license!
The OGL License happened after Larian teamed up with Hasbro to make Baldur’s Gate 3. Thankfully Larian is still independent so it can continue on to make better RPGs without Hasbro.
Somebody needs to make a company shit list so I can avoid them. I got EA, Hasbro, Nestle so far.
Honestly its kind of extremely crumby that hasbro owns the wizards
The DnD games from the 90s on steam went up in price because of the success of BG3 they are now on sale forbtheir old price lol
Oof, glad I got all the Infinity Engine games in a Humble Bundle before BG3 released
list of the companies that arent garbage might be shorter
A little too short
Samsung, Ubisoft, Epic, Chiquita, Dole, Apple, …
Pretty much any big corp is gonna be really shitty…
Almost as if capitalism would mean “profits over humanity”. I am shocked.
As am I! Just completely shocked!! And OUTRAGED!! /s
Good luck avoiding most of them. They own everything.
Nestle doesn’t just make Chocolate…
All of them.
“I felt your breath upon my neck; investors’ wants as cold as death.”
laying off 1,100 employees as a way to "modernize our organization and get even leaner
Yeah because that’s what we want of the ones in charge of publishing, administering and providing support for some of the most played games in the world now and historically: leanness! The fewer people to take care of important things, the better! 🤦
I know that he’s talking to investors rather than players, but come on! Also, there’s nothing “modern” about stupidly trying to increase profits via mass layoffs without expecting blowback and for quality to suffer. That’s some 1700s bullshit right there.
I’ve survived layoffs at companies where we were told that following the cuts, we were going to get leaner and more agile and more efficient.
I’m sure you’ll be just shocked to learn that what actually happened is I ended up doing twice as much work to pick up the laid off people’s slack, and at the end of the year got a smaller bonus than the previous year, along with a raise that didn’t cover inflation. Overall company profits, of course, hit a record high.
Also, when your company is ailing (read: Not making more profit than last year, no matter what ocean of money your managers are swimming in), fire the good parts. That’ll fix it!
CEO is aptly named, at least.
I kept trying to figure out the joke about the name Swen Vincke and was failing. Cocks. It was right there in front of me everyone. It was Cocks.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, for those of us who can’t help but read comments before reading articles
But what about the poor CEOs? Did they get their Christmas bonus? Think of the children!!
Haven’t played BG3 but wtf sense does it make to layoff these team(s)?
Plenty of people paid for the game and enjoyed it and it won GOTY.
You misunderstand. Larian is the company that made the BG3 video game, and they haven’t laid people off.
However it’s a licensed game. Baldur’s Gate and D&D are IPs that are owned by a company called Wizards of Coast. And Wizards is owned by Hasbro. Hasbro is forcing layoffs at Wizards, specifically on the D&D team because it doesn’t print money as efficiently as say, Magic the Gathering does.
The people at Wizards, i.e the people who actually make D&D are no doubt passionate wonderful people. But Hasbro (and probably some of the Wizards management) are awful corporate parasites determined to suck every last penny from their properties.
They don’t give a shit how loved a product is, if it’s not making $100M per year then it’s basically worthless to them and they won’t fund it. So layoffs happen.
then it’s basically worthless to them
Cool. Make it independent again.
That’s two separate products and companies you’re thinking about…
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They are owned by Hasbro? Why?
Larian Studios is not owned by anyone. The Wizards of the coast team that Larian worked with has been laid off
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why Do pEoPlEs LiVeLihOoDs mAtTeR if my GaEm WoRkS
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shut the fuck up already
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“I win the argument” … are you fucking 9 years old? Jesus Christ
He’s not talking about Larian, he’s talking aboutbthe actual D&D team at Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Hasbro got a new CEO last year and the way they’ve been operating certain business units like WotC has changed dramatically, coupled with massive layoffs across many Hasbro subsidiaries. All he’s saying is the DnD team at WotC now is completely different to the one that Larian knew as they developed BG3.
Please do not tell me that anyone is surprised that a triple A game studio laid off most of their employees as a reward for a job well done.
Please. Please tell me everyone has figured out that nearly all large game dev companies are pure fucking evil.
It’s the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast, not at Larian.
I guess this is reddit and you don’t know how to read past the headlines?
They didn’t even read the headline.
The headline clearly says that Hasbro (owners of WotC/D&D) did layoffs, not Larian Studios (creators of Balder’s Gate 3).
Listen, we all know gamers can’t read. What did you expect? /s
The headline here on lemmy is unreadable gibberish with BG3 in the title. It could as well be
Layoff 5blagagasjjee Swen shgrwaaahahaaaa Baldurs Gate 3 dacghgfrtf gone. Click here for ads.
So i get where he’s coming from. On the other hand, once you start reading the ads with some content in between it becomes clear immediately that this is about the IP holder, not the game studio.
I’m kinda with you on that, without knowing that Hasbro doesn’t own Larian this can be misread.
But I guess that the overly angry tone made people quite upset about your comment
…is that an attempt at sarcasm or something?
‘There’s almost nobody left’: CEO of Baldur’s Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs
Same Lemmy title as the article. You know exactly who’s talking (“CEO of Baldur’s Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke”), about whom (“the D&D team he initially worked with”), what happened to them (“is gone”) and who is to blame (“due to Hasbro layoffs”).
As far as titles go, it’s pretty good at telling you exactly what the actual article is about. Sure, you may need basic knowledge about how a licenced product works, and that BG3 is under the D&D licence. It would be rather hard to fit all that in a title.
I don’t even think they read the headline correctly.
Read? Lemmy is Reddit 2.0. Unfortunately, the majority don’t read articles.
Yeah I was super refreshed when I moved here but it seems to have just absorbed all the bad habits I hated about reddit.
It really has. It’s kind of depressing, honestly.
Off-topic, but when I mentioned this in a different thread, an actual answer I got is basically the fediverse is really similar to reddit - how can the culture be any different?
Anyways, if the fediverse starts to become Reddit 2.0 I think it would be high time to go.
Or maybe people could steer the culture in one way or another by encouraging/discouraging specific behaviour. Nah, sounds like an unrealistic thing
On a serious note, self-regulation should be simpler in a smaller community, so it might work better here than on Reddit
Yeah… that trait isn’t limited to Reddit users
If you read the comments, the majority have done so.
Maybe reread the article
You…You might want to consider reading the article.
Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, who own DnD. Larian, a completely separate company, got the rights to make BG3 from Hasbro. Hasbro laid off nearly everyone Larian Studios worked with at Wizards of the Coast.
Hasbro laid off nearly everyone Larian Studios
WHY ARE ALL DEVS EVIL
About a week ago you decided to make your lemmy account. A better idea would’ve been to learn how to fucking read.
You should teaach him about your username.
I’m proud to say I’ve spread the lemon party gospel on lemmy a few times, and the reactions are always worth it.
I’ll take “I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about” for $500, Alex
Try re-reading the headline again :)
Please tell me everyone has figured out that all large companies are pure fucking evil
Fixed that for you
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