Hello hello!! It’s Victoria again!! This post actually ties into my previous one about TTRPGs a bit or well maybe actually a lot, as you see this post will actually be about why I don’t like the company that, I really hesitate to say owns but that is the word that fits best here, DnD. Actually when I think of it, a lot of my grievances could probably tie into that of Hasbro as well, which I’m pretty sure Wizards of The Coast falls under, I’m not really too sure on how corporate umbrellas work really so if anyone is I’d love to learn more about it!!
DISCLAIMER: These are all things I’ve heard from other people and any links I may reference could be biased, this is… NEWS after all.
Okay… so my very first reason for despising the company is actually the very first thing I learned about them, that of a licensing issue over DnD (I told you it was related to TTRPGs!!). To be honest, I didn’t really understand what was happening at first, I had to have my best friend Jenny explain it to me as I’m.. again… not the most knowledgeable when it comes to company and legal topics. HOWEVER, after I had it explained I designate this as the very first reason why I do not particularly enjoy this company and I will do my best to describe the issue… and then link a newspaper article that can probably explain it better than me. Okay so how I would describe it is basically Wizards of The Coast wanted royalties for anyone who would stream DnD, which I can see how one might not necessarily care or see an issue with this but well.. my friend really put this better than me so I’ll let you come to your own opinion if you decide you want to read the article.
For reason number two, that would be the time they sent The Pinkertons after someone for a mistake THEY made. Again for some brief context, they accidentally sent this one creator a pack of cards that wasn’t supposed to be public and they didn’t even ask before sending The Pinkertons to retrieve it.
https://www.polygon.com/23695923/mtg-aftermath-pinkerton-raid-leaked-cards
For reason number three, this would also be a Hasbro issue as this was the time they laid off a bunch of people right before the holidays, which is… very messed up in my personal opinion.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robwieland/2023/12/13/hasbro-layoffs-affect-wizards-of-the-coast/
And for the final reason, this would actually tie into that of AI!!! This would be the time Wizards of The Coast was caught using AI art after having previously DENIED said accusations and stating they were “Anti AI”. I actually find this one to be the most interesting as it is actually very similar to what I wish to talk about for my research project, afterall this is the use of AI in fantasy based content.
https://gamerant.com/hasbro-ceo-ai-use-confirmation-dungeons-and-dragons-magic-the-gathering/
So in conclusion… I’m not really a big fan of Wizards of The Coast OR Hasbro, which really sucks considering how much I love DnD and a lot of different franchises that fall under Hasbro’s name. All I can say is… It’s a good thing DnD 5e rules are all over the internet for free so you don’t HAVE to purchase any of their products if you don’t want to.