|
I seem to recall that "I'm in law school Kelsey" became the thread running joke for a while when we first discussed that.
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2022 22:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 22:25 |
|
|
Man, this article is really loving softballing in Golden Bell's favor.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 05:51
|
|
|
Yeah they are REALLY generous in that one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 06:07
|
|
|
Tsilkani posted:Man, this article is really loving softballing in Golden Bell's favor. They are, but it's also the most comprehensive article on everything that's happened I could find because there's just a shitload of stuff spread across kickstarter comments, reddit threads, BoardGameGeek, etc, it really can't be overstated just how much Golden Bell has been pulling this sort of shady poo poo all over the place.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 09:42
|
|
|
Given the head guy talks like a C-Tier Sherlock villain, I don't really blame anyone for avoiding coming out and saying "yeah he's criminal scum." If only to avoid the inevitable SLAPP suit.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 14:52
|
|
|
I've spent quite a bit of money ordering from Noble Knight over the years. What's the accepted best practice to support the union? Keep buying from them until the union asks me not to? Write and say I won't buy anything else until the union is recognized? Keep buying things, but write and say that I'll stop if the union is a failure?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 21:50
|
|
|
Rand Brittain posted:Keep buying things, but write and say that I'll stop if the union is a failure? Pretty much that. But also add "#WeRollTogether" to the order notes (so they can tally a number of supporting customers easily) https://twitter.com/NkgUnited/status/1590079500305707008 Sad to see this, but not at all surprised. https://twitter.com/NkgUnited/status/1590366099656347653 I sure as hell will never buy from them ever again if the vote fails, because if it fails after a 70% initial declaration, it'll be because the owners chose to pay for lies and intimidation and worker retaliation. I say again, Aaron and Dan Leeder can go choke on each others balls. Union or bust. P.S. Any of y'all hear about shady poo poo with Michigan Toy Soldier Company, other than that time the owner served 10 months in jail for stealing Peter Jackson's credit card in 2007 and ringing up $200k in charges? Slyphic fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Nov 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2022 22:04
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/a_AlessaTorres/status/1589837938950819840 TL;DR: The former LatAm Ambassador to WoD Alessa Torres is accusing Outstar (Brand Manager for WoD) in specific and Paradox of racism and being exclusionary to Latin American fans.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2022 14:27
|
|
|
Slyphic posted:Any of y'all hear about shady poo poo with Michigan Toy Soldier Company, other than that time the owner served 10 months in jail for stealing Peter Jackson's credit card in 2007 and ringing up $200k in charges? Other than that, no.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2022 10:56
|
|
|
https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/magic-the-gathering-analysis-prompts-bofa-to-double-downgrade-hasbro-432SI-2943159 So apparently analysts for Bank of America are worried that Hasbro is mismanaging the Magic the Gathering brand to the point where they believe its going to hurt the company and caused the company's stock to drop. Its not anything too fascinating beyond the fact that industry analysts are looking into this aspect of the hobby and weirdly enough agreeing with an increasing sentiment that they are going to wreck the game for short term profits.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 17:55
|
|
|
MadScientistWorking posted:https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/magic-the-gathering-analysis-prompts-bofa-to-double-downgrade-hasbro-432SI-2943159 Are they agreeing or did they just do a surface-level analysis of online rage posting? Do sales figures actually bear out their conclusion?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:27
|
|
|
I have no dog in stuff like "secret lair is destroying magic!" But I'm definitely getting late beanie babies/foil variant issue #1 comic era with all of the ads I'm seeing for new limited time tie-in variant collector's edition packs. Like I think just in October through November I've seen A tie in to the current set Junji Ito Metal Gear Solid 3(?) Warhammer ones Another artist specific one It feels to me like late product life cycle value extraction, but hell maybe the model completely checks out, and they're only printing to order or something, and project it as very low volume and the folks actually buying them just view it as "Nah, I'll buy the 1 secret lair that overlaps with my specific tastes and put it in a display" vs the usual nerd collector "buy a wall of funkos" sort
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:43
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:Are they agreeing or did they just do a surface-level analysis of online rage posting? Do sales figures actually bear out their conclusion? Reading the the article posted:"We've spoken with several players, collectors, distributors and local games stores and have become aware of growing frustration. The primary concern is that Hasbro has been overproducing Magic cards which has propped up Hasbro’s recent results but is destroying the long-term value of the brand," Haas said in a client note. Who is Jason Haas?  I never heard of him but he's (probably) Vice President, Equity Research at Bank of America, Retail Hardlines.Also this news has also caused Hasbro stock to drop about 9% it seems, which is nice because gently caress Hasbro.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:44
|
|
|
Their conclusion is that future sales figures are at risk, and the article says they acknowledged current sales figures are good. So, this is speculative. But all of the companies that declare price targets on stocks are doing so speculatively - it's the nature of the business. I think it's pretty unscientific in this case but generally speaking analyst ratings are unscientific. Here's the current analysts' price targets for Hasbro: https://www.benzinga.com/quote/HAS/analyst-ratings  With the exception of DA Davidson, every analyst with an opinion has recently downgraded their price target. But also HAS is currently at $57.73, so only BofA is saying it's going to go down in price. The others are all still recommending a buy or a hold. And it's important to understand that these price targets/ratings are sensitive to overall market conditions, e.g. analysts predicting a recession may downgrade stocks across the board.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:44
|
|
|
Part of the issue is that they're putting out so much different product and printing it in such volume that game stores are having to pick and choose what and how much they stock. Whereas before they could just buy a pile of what's current and keep it in the back room.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:49
|
|
|
I agree that's an issue, but I see them rapidly adopting Amazon as the primary sales venue and I don't think that issue applies for Amazon. I do think there's a risk to longevity by flooding the market with too many "collectibles" but the most recent reports on Arena suggest the company could actually be viable even if it sold no paper magic at all so that risk may be somewhat mitigated. Ultimately I think this report is useful in that it shows even financial analysts are aware of the special risks that sellers of collectibles face, but much like the prognostications of doom familiar to the OG readers of the Games Workshop Death Threads, I think predictions of Hasbro's demise under a mountain of unsellable Secret Lairs is... premature, and mostly wishful thinking by people who hate the company and hope it goes down in flames.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:54
|
|
|
Didn't they also reprint the forbidden reprints? (As overpriced proxy cards, but that's always been the red line for "Magic is in trouble")
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 18:55
|
|
|
moths posted:Didn't they also reprint the forbidden reprints? But that was also really just the secondary market justifying itself. Hasbro could have crunched the numbers and concluded between collector's sets, digital and sales from big box retailers, they don't need a secondary market anymore. Like if in 2001 1/3 of all magic sales were to people opening packs for the secondary market, and now it's 1/12* they could just view the higher margins on arena they might not even blink if it disappeared. *completely made up numbers.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 19:18
|
|
|
moths posted:Didn't they also reprint the forbidden reprints? Not in a way that changed anything except for internet rage machine content creators.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 19:38
|
|
|
Coolness Averted posted:I have no dog in stuff like "secret lair is destroying magic!" But I'm definitely getting late beanie babies/foil variant issue #1 comic era with all of the ads I'm seeing for new limited time tie-in variant collector's edition packs. People have been begging for product tie-ins for decades, making fan sets, drooling over the My Little Pony and Transformers promo cards, etc. People are now getting exactly what they've been asking for, and based on sales numbers, it's a win for everyone but LGSes. So, interpreting it as desperation seems way off-base.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 19:41
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:People have been begging for product tie-ins for decades People ask for lots of dumb poo poo. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 20:33
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:People have been begging for product tie-ins for decades, making fan sets, drooling over the My Little Pony and Transformers promo cards, etc. Right, and I think it's absurd to say they're desperate and circling the drain. It just feels to me like the amount of tie-ins are probably nearing saturation. Depending on their models it could mean nothing, in the same way Hasbro probably didn't expect Star Wars: The Force Awakens figures to sell at the same numbers from 2014 - 2023. Even though I mentioned seeing parallels to the 90's comic boom and bust, that was an industry way more tied to printers, distributors, and local shops that Hasbro isn't as tied to. If all of the local comic/game shops go bust Hasbro isn't as hurt. They also don't need something like Diamond putting them in stores.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 20:44
|
|
|
I think Wizards and Hasbro have the staff and expertise to look at sales figures and understand what is maximally profitable, and if they start seeing a fall-off in sales (attributable to oversaturation of the collectibles market, or anything else) they'll react. Products have to be designed and planned many months in advance (I would guess a year+) so turning things around could take several quarters but I think they'd do it long before the global appetite for M:TG cardboard went to zero. So again IMO not the impending death of the company nor paper magic, but the BofA analysts' view that Hasbro's profits could decline in the intermediate term and result in lower stock prices isn't totally crazy, it's just speculative.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 20:54
|
|
|
Unless there's some catastrophic rot seeping in at the functional-game-mechanics level of MtG that makes it irreparably and permanently unpleasant to play, I don't know if anything could actually destroy Magic.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:26
|
|
|
https://hellgatenyc.com/no-on-wants-to-dungeon-master-any-more
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:33
|
|
|
what the gently caress quote:“There's a DM shortage in the tabletop community like there's a top shortage in the LGBTQ community.”
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:36
|
|
|
hold up, they're making some good points
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:46
|
|
|
that article's mostly goofy flailing over nothing but i do think it's plausible that as a game like D&D grows in popularity (especially in a forced / inorganic way, like in response to suddenly much more aggressive marketing) that the rate at which new would-be players are created outstrips would-be GMs. you don't necessarily need to know the game already to GM but you do need a combination of ability to self-teach, greater free time, and desire to create something for other people's entertainment which doesn't just make you proportionately rarer than players (that's a given and handled via most of the medium assuming 3:1 to 5:1 ratios anyways) but more likely to already be playing TTRPGs if so, the best thing you could do is make GMing less work. the next-best would be to make it more socially appealing, but lol, lmao
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:46
|
|
|
It's just a fluff piece for 2 or 3 pro DMs, but drat there's a bunch of uh puzzling poo poo shoehorned into that. I guess they needed an angle for the article other than "Wow, I know someone who gets paid to play d&d, that's wild, isn't it?"
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:53
|
|
|
quote:Additionally, she's given seminars for aspiring DMs and hopes to establish a certification course for professionals: The idea is that anyone who wants to make their DMing more sustainable by getting compensated financially for it can feel more comfortable doing so. are you an ACCREDITED dungeon master?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:57
|
|
|
Nuns with Guns posted:what the gently caress This is completely accurate
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:58
|
|
|
quote:Bilanko is also developing her own game system that would offer DMs a table-top role-playing experience with minimal prep and without the high entry cost of books and rules that come with D&D. This is the only point in the article where the idea of playing an RPG that puts less of a burden on the GM is even contemplated, and of course it's homebrew instead of mentioning that other games exist.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:09
|
|
|
I've finally found my true calling!
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:11
|
|
|
I've got better games to run than 5e but for $100/hr I could reassess.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:13
|
|
|
Like a lot of contract work, the per-hour rate is very misleading. These GMs aren't running 40 hours a week of games, and they're doing tons of prep during unpaid time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:14
|
|
|
Oh definitely. But in 5e you're looking at $400/week to run a 4 hour session that's mostly tedious, uneventful combat or nodding along with improv. E: I'm mostly joking, and I realize it's not actually worth the money. moths fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Nov 14, 2022 |
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:17
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:This is the only point in the article where the idea of playing an RPG that puts less of a burden on the GM is even contemplated, and of course it's homebrew instead of mentioning that other games exist. Anything that puts less of a burden on the GM puts more of a burden on the players and the typical new-ish D&D 5e player is not comfortable with that, in my experience.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:28
|
|
|
Wonder how long I could run a pro-DM session before the players noticed my headphones were just playing a podcast and I was just nodding and occasionally saying like "Can I get everyone's passive perception score?"
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 22:33
|
|
|
Article aside, love seeing the header art by Mattie Lubchansky.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 23:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 22:25 |
|
|
Tism the Dragon Tickler posted:This is completely accurate I extend my apologies and condolences to the hungry bottoms community for their plight. I don't think the ratio of GMs to potential players is some new problem though. I've never had a problem finding players for a game if I'm willing to GM and coordinate everything. A lot of times that also means the game falls through after a ton of planning and setup in the background because some players flake. I've had non-gaming get-togethers that fall a bit flat because most people cancel, too. Probably more of a symptom of being an adult and trying to plan recurring events around other adults with families and jobs than anything? Getting a handful of people together for recurring weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever sessions of tabletop roleplaying games is certainly more of an investment in time and mental energy than movie nights with friends at least, and it's hard to see that until you start it up. New GMs have all the extra homework reading a rulebook and poo poo on top of that, plus people in general being a bit shy and self-conscious about being the central planner for something. It's a hobby that burns up a lot of mental and emotional bandwidth.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 23:41
|
|