This is the WORST D&D Youtube Scandal 

Hasbro doesn't JUST work with Pinkertons two of the investment board members are Pinkertons.

Ron is a pro bono lawyer and volunteer for kids' interests. It is not out of jealousy or hate that he criticizes. The man has led his life putting his money where his mouth is, having a very low tolerance of corruption and advocating not mixing monetary self-interest with the things you cherish. The criticisms of his stand are the real unhinged, uninformed hot takes.

The whiplash between the Gulf War and Spyro dealt me 8d8 psychic damage

I have not purchased a WoTC product since the release of Tasha’s, nor will I ever. That company is dead to me.

I kind of have to agree that boycotting should still be in place, Wizards walked back the ogl changes but that was the bare minimum. Everything else has shown they're an awful company intent on bringing the worst traits of gaming monetisation into the space and though I totally understand creators need to get paid, taking those pr views and the sponsorship helps repair wizards reputation when they have done nothing to deserve it.

I don't support boycotts but I won't take their money. Ever. --Professor DM, Dungeoncraft

Hasbro officially denies kicking any puppies not related to the development of our failed game "Kicking Puppies" that was not released due to similarities to "Exploding Kittens"

Never forget the bigger picture. Unsatisfied with monopolizing food, energy, technology, and utilities, the same half dozen investment funds and world banks have monopolized art and culture in the last eight years. They didn’t create the “products of our imaginations,” they simply acquired them through purchasing power.

I'm still boycotting WOTC/Hasbro. Haven't bought a D&D product since just before the OGL scandal. I shifted over to Pathfinder and have been quite happy.

wotc literally doing the "I'll pay you $5 to pretend we're good" and it's working

Yeah it is kinda like being between a rock and a hard place for dnd creators. I understand why they would take sponsorships, but it does feel a bit wrong considering what Wotc/Hasbro has done not too long ago. I don't envy these creators right now and I hope when the books do come out they can give their true opinions on the new edition and not be sponsored.

> This is the WORST D&D RU-vid Scandal What, *again* I guess it must be Saturday or something.

You keep posting videos that are the "worst thing ever for DnD." I keep thinking surely this is the worst it can get, but then it actually gets worse💀

People still believe that youtubers can survive on youtube revenue alone? How is that even possible

When I was a young lad in the 80's, my dad told me that no one was ever going to pay me to play D&D. So my hat is off to all of those who are proving him wrong.

11:02 Great shoutout to Seth! Many of his videos are system agnostic, so whether or not you're playing 5e, he's a good watch.

Honestly yeah, Rules Lawyer kinda in the right for this. It's understandable but still gross working with WotC

My opinion is thus: I won't judge em or blame em, especially when it's how they put food on the table. I will refuse to give WotC my money, and tell others likewise for all the reasons, but ... who am I to police your fun it it doesn't harm another?

Creators are allowed to receive money from any source, and we are allowed to respond how we wish, however the problem is if the creators don't have a choice. I'm strongly reminded of the fact that many museums and galleries around the world, after losing funding from governments, are only able to keep their doors open by accepting sponsorship deals from various monopolies and fossil fuel companies, because it's either that or shut down. This is what led to the British Museum defending BP several years ago, if they did anything else they'd lose money that was needed to continue operations. Ultimately the problem here (as it was there) is economic, and we the consumers are being made to choose between supporting the creators we love or boycotting the company we don't love. It's another way for Hasbro/WOTC to be "to big to fail" because if they fail they take everyone down with them.

Seth is the Best! That being said, I enjoyed this video. So long as a creator makes it transparent about the sponsorship of a video, i don't have an issue with it.

Many of whom said they were going to ween off d&d content, judt give them time...and have only done d&d since. Ive got no problem with showing d&d, but starting to work with then seems like the exact opposite of what was promised.

Indestructiboy said on a video that he was told first hand that WotC has a black list of RU-vidrs they wont work with.

Shadowrun taught me never to trust a megacorp. They’ve turned a bunch of freelancers into company men, which makes me question those old freelancers.

Larian refused to continue working with them when they noticed how they treat consumers and staff. I myself am really thinking about moving to pathfinder 2e.

"Well -". Careful. That's a deep subject.

Just based on the thumbnail I was like ooooo is there an illicit romance between Ginny Di and Monty of the Dungeon Dudes?

I'm so looking forward to the Starfinder 2e playtest coming soon!!! Hyped!!!

people will ignore anything for comfort

Haven't bought anything from Wizards or Hasbro and I'm living my pirates life quite happily.

Boycotts aren't meant to last until the company walks back the decisions that started the boycott, they're meant to last until the company is on its fucking knees and will never even consider harming consumers or their own employees again.

Mentioning GURPS brought a small tear of appreciation to my eye. Love it!

Seth Skorakowaki is a bit like an Elder God. He knows everything and the rules of reality don’t apply to him xD praise the Call of Cthulhu grandmaster!

Some of what I've seen from the sponsored videos is pretty cool, but none of it has sold me on buying the new "revision" before a box set with all the core books comes out. There are plenty alternatives out there if Hasbro-Wizards want me to play on their VTT and only have digital copies of new D&D books through them, and I will use those alternatives if they want to be bigger d-bags about it.

As long as they disclose it is a sponsored video, then I don't care.

Imagine giving Pinkerton ball washers a single cent. When the WotC drops their new pdf, I'll sail the high seas.

The Exalted shoutout made me happy.

You mean to tell me what supposed principles get set aside for a little money? Where'd I put my shocked Pikachu face?

Tbh I'm on a permanent boycott against Hasbro, since I found out about the Pinkerton Raid. They're gone to me, like Microsoft.

I agree that D&D5e should be boycotted still. I believe if you want the new rules (5.5e? 2024? 6e? waste of time edition?) you should pirate them.

What was most enlightening to me was the level of greed and stupidity the OGL scandal uncovered as it tanked their own feature film right before its release. 🤦‍♂️

This is the crux of RU-vid content creators/ critics. Most of them start as hobbyists like you and me. And that is their appeal. They have experiences and they share them and they establish themselves as reliable sources of information. But then these "independent" sources come big enough to make youtube their career or at least semi-career. And all of a sudden, while they aren't employed by big corporations they do need clicks in order to survive. If they're not relevant anymore their subscribers go down, people cancel their patreon and some have to consider going back into the normal work force again after literally making their passion into their work. So I can fully acknowledge that that is tough. And then along comes papa Hasbro (and others). And they look down on the peasants and they extend their blessing and they say "Fear not little one. I have ALWAYS appreciated your honesty. I shall now appreciate your loyalty. Take this coin and don't worry, it's not like we're buying your opinion. You can say whatever you like. Of course our budget is limited and there are lots of content creators out there. But you don't have to worry." And they shake your hand just a little to firm while smiling and looking deep into your eyes. And you know this is the moment you have to decide. And you tell yourself, maybe now I'm "on the inside" maybe if we all work together we can change things. But papa Hasbro is only interested in one type of change.

14:03 I think your clickbait game is so strong you'd survive making content for any subject you wanted (I say this as a fan)

WOTC and Hasbro will not see another dime from me.

I watched the full video and still don't understand what the scandal is supposed to be. WotC suddenly sponsoring creators to output materials? Creators accepting money from WotC? Creators "endorsing"/describing the product? Creators being surprised that WotC does not want to work with some of them anymore after they stepped on their toes? Seriously none of that is a scandal. Some of it is not even factual. WotC is sponsoring Magic the Gathering content creators regularly to reveal their new sets and products. Look everyone, wake up!! WotC is in no respect accountable to you. They can make with their game what they want to do. But be happy, it's a TTRPG. If you don't like any of it, just take it and change it. It's just text and as long as you can write and find someone who likes those changes you are in no way accountable to WotC. You don't even have to buy their product. WotC gave some copies to youtubers and all the info to play the new version of the game is out there. Thanks to some creators and many customers who cancelled their D&D beyond subcription, many of these rules will also be availabe in the SRD. So not even a need to type the rules together from some videos. WotC working with creators to show off their new product is pretty much a good thing, at least for the D&D community. You get to know what is in the book and if you want to spend money on it. I rather take this information filtered by Treantmonk, Ginny Di et. al then from Jeremy "Brand New Feature but copied over 1-1 from Tasha" Crawford. I am happy for myself that they got early access to the product and I am happy for them that they get paid for it. Damn, after seeing some of the results, I wished they were paid to write the thing. All in all, I get more information from these videos that I usually get from 3rd party kickstarters. I guess those can pay much less, so fair all in all. I agree, D&D is quite dominating the space and probably would be more healthy if there was more competition. But I played Mathfinder and I prefer 5e. Simply think it is the better system. I also backed about 100 kickstarters in the last 4 years with different TTRPG products. D&D 3rd party stuff as well as original systems. You know how many of those creative new systems I got to play? None. People are either already busy with their ongoing longterm campaigns, their lives in general or are not interested in learning a new system. The OGL scandal (an actual scandal) might bring some new games out like Daggerheart, the MCDM game or the game from DungeonCoach. There is also the game from KoboldPress which turned out to be a complete D&D clone (why was that not a scandal?). With brands like Critical Role and people like Matt Colville these games maybe have an actual chance to break into the fold, especially with how little innovation D&D is getting from WotC. But I think it is also to point out, that content creator are riding the wave primarily produced by WotC and Dungeons and Dragons. Not blaming them, especially the ones that are dedicated D&D channels. 3rd party creators are riding the wave of the success of 5e. RU-vidrs like you are riding the wave, even though you are not even providing game relevant content. But somehow 150k people watch the video with a totally clickbait title and create revenue for you. I have not seen any content creator disclosing how much revenue they made from the OGL scandal when all the angry fans (and even people who had nothing to do with D&D) jumped onto those videos. Maybe also a scandal? Not really, I am happy to you got to earn some money from that (assuming you did). Btw, real scandal potential: There was a youtuber, rather small, that uploaded loads of videos previewing the new classes, species, feats and spells shortly after the NDA for the youtubers popped. Now all his videos are unavailable. Here is a link to one that I still had open in a browser: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iSPu-G3684Q.html. Sadly can't remember the name of the creator. Would be interested if he was shut down by WotC for some reason and if his full channel is shut down or just these preview videos.

So long as the RU-vidr is not being compromised by the sponsor I genuinely don't have a problem with a RU-vidr being sponsored

I didn't realize anyone even *remembered* GURPS anymore! XD

notice that talk of the DnD VTT and microtransactions are conspicuously missing from all those influencers doing previews. And you pointed out what more people should be asking about.. Why is this Golden Dragon such a great bonus/ future potential purchase? Especially when you'll have to buy the books to access the content, buy a sub for DnD Beyond, then pay an additional sub to access the VTT... It's going to be well over $100 just to become a player in the first month of the VTT.. that is triple AAA gaming level of financial commitments. Not to mention the ongoing subs needed for Beyond and the VTT which are going to equal close to many triple AAA games level of fees all while having to do Micro trans for every character model you want to use for every class you want to play (very likely.. maybe? )

I don't get the Stockholm syndrome from third party creators on RU-vid, fronting for a company that tried to permanently put them all out of business a year and a half ago.

Glass cannon seems to be doing pretty well playing anything but dnd

This woman loves her clickbait, every single vid is THE WORST SCANDAL lmao so cringe

Avril Lavine is your cousin!

Me: "I'm not gonna watch another dnd scandal video, I'm not going to watch another dnd scandal video, I'm already watching another dnd scandal video. I'm commenting... damn it."

I’m a simple, old man. I see a reference to GURPS, you get a like… Oh, and on topic (sort of), I haven’t purchased a D&D product since the early 1990’s. The game doesn’t cover enough genres for me. Cheers,

The self awareness had me rolling. Excellent video as always. Both delighted and discouraged me. 10/10.

Someone drop the names of the RU-vidrs being paid by Wizards of the coast & D&D beyond.

This video actually went nowhere and was not actually about any new scandal. This was just an attempt to get views and get the drama going again. I am tired of content like this and will not be watching anymore. It is exhausting. For anyone who wants to check they basically undermine the entire premise of the video with a load of caveats around 12:25 to 13:06. Disclaimer: I am not saying that people should not be conscious about the companies that they engage with and I am in support of anyone who wants to boycott any company that they disagree with because that is normal healthy behavior. But this is ridiculous. If you want to boycott a thing, more power to you. But this is just stirring the pot (or the echo chamber at this point). Remember that people also profit off of the drama itself. They always tell you that they are the ones helping and showing you the truth, or that they are just trying to get the message out there. But they are just profiting as well. Here is an example of someone just making a video to rehash old things that were bad in an attempt to taint something that they themselves openly state was not a bad situation. Once again listen to all the caveats at 12:25 to 13:06 where they explicitly explain that everything about this situation seemed to be on the up-and-up. The wrap-up starting around 13:07 is basically saying "so yeah nothing bad happened this time, but remember all those bad things, just saying". Also OF COURSE content creators are going to want to carefully consider working with a company with a bad record... And also thanks for baselessly catastrophizing the lead up to the release of the new books. Note: I wont be coming back to read any comments. I am going to make sure I don't see anything more from this channel. And for the record I will likely be getting the new core rulebooks for my because we love the game and the new books and content look amazing and fun to us.

Back when the OGL scandal was still ongoing, I had suggested (on other channels that I was watching at the time) that we have a discussion about what it would take to end the boycott. The options I was able to think of, at the time, were: 1) Backdown(✔). 2) Shelve it for a time. 3) Sell. 4) Done forever. But this conversation was never had.

Not surprised Ginny Di is part of this. She was so vocal about Critical Role doing the Wendy's collaboration but then when she got popular praised the Amazon collab and shills anyone who offers her money.

Hasbro realized that as a megacorp they have the standard megacorp superpower: money. I don't begrudge anyone making a deal and doing a sponsored video, but don't forget and don't forgive what Hasbro and WotC have done. The boycott continues.

I cannot fault a company that has suffered so much backlash from a community to finally reach out to the faces of that communities mainstream creators to sell the idea of the new rules. Such actions is smarter than trying to slip in a sly revamp of its rules and doing this allows creators to retain their creative integrity in bringing the information to the community and to be paid for it. I have watched many of the creators that have released videos on the upcoming new rules and it has been what I would perceive as a fair approach to the good and bad of what they have been shown. I do not think that those who are taking money from WoTC (Hasbro) are compromised but it is obvious what WoTC is trying to do. They are trying to make everyone more aware of the new thing to come. It is a perfectly viable and tangible way to engage with the community and reach the casual observer as well. While it maybe spun in a way to make those who are more popular in the D&D community creator wise. All in all at the end of the day it is just business and it is up to the consumer on how they vote with their own dollars.

You need to dial back on the pervy jokes by about 5 notches. They aren't funny and make you seem almost obsessive about Chris Cocks. I'll get to the rest of your video in a bit.

If you believe Orcs are now Mexicans, continue supporting HASBRO.

Profits influencing the game is already the worst thing to happen to DnD. Every scandal last year was tied to money. I worry what influence WotC profitability decisions will have on the 'open RPG spaces' of RU-vid where things still have soul.

According to you there's a world shattering D&D scandal every day.

I wouldn't say that Hasbro-Wizards is a evil company. It's just a standard corporation. Profit drives businesses. Growth drives corporations. They all look for ways to monetize, vertically integrate, and expand reach constantly. I won't get mad at anyone taking money for a sponsorship for a game they already play. Just as long as they're open about the money trail.

As someone who’s been playing since the early 90s … this is silly.

I'm not gonna make hateful comments on anybody's videos (it wouldn't be possible, if I wanted to), but I think they shouldn't have accepted a spon from WotC, so I'm not watching any of those videos (except one, which is what it took for me to figure it out, yw Dungeon Dad). Also, if WotC were going to spon RU-vidrs, that they didn't give AJ Pickett some is (or should be) criminal 😂

Hasbro and WoTC forgets DnD fans can simply download leaked PDFs if they wanna keep acting a mess

Pf2e Player Core 2 coming soon.

You’d think RU-vid being dangerous would be the exact reason WOTC would want to give it attention. Ignoring the detractors is only the best option if you’re in the lead, doing nothing is the worst option if you’re on the back foot. You’d think WOTC would try to foster positive relations with content creators - and in fact a smart business would realize that their survival depends entirely upon the community they service. I do not intend to imply Hasbro is a smart company, and I fear their shortsighted nature is preventing WOTC from doing the smart thing.

Content creators getting paid for sponsorship or based on viewership for ad supported content is a century old business practice. The RU-vid community and WOTC marketing team engaging in this is not a scandal. Creators and advertisers accept the guilt by association with the other party until it seems like it will actually harm their reputation, then sever ties. If a DND RU-vidr wants to accept money from WOTC and then turn around and give their honest opinions on the product they can do that. It isn't a scandal if WOTC doesn't grant them a future sponsorship, that's their prerogative. Content creators are not entitled to have things both ways. WOTC would be smart to not do that, as supporting respected creators that fairly criticize them earns them brownie points among the segment of their fan base that is currently fairly alienated and eyeing their competitors. This media blitz has been very saturated and exhausting but I suspect it was a effective marketing plan that pushed lots of preorders.

There are better games out there. D&D is a brand, not a monopoly.

I think is good to boycott hasbro, I also think is bad to harass the creators (like some people are doing).

These are also a bunch of nerds getting offered the opportunity to read rules early.. love me some fresh rules, quite a temptation

I'll take 4th place. *_GURPS!_*

They can't ALL be the biggest scandal.....

I sort of joked about this happening way back when the OGL scandal exploded. I said yeah all these prominent D&D RU-vidrs will be screaming and calling Boycotts. However all Hasbro needs to do is flash cash and exclusives and suddenly these baying RU-vidrs are suddenly promoting D&D again as if nothing happened and their sycophantic fans will attack anyone who calls out the said RU-vidrs BS and hypocrisy. 😂

The rules for everyone else really don't apply to Seth and I think that's just great

You should try to get in touch with D&D shorts, I'm sure he'd be interested to chat with you about the preview content

This is our new reality, as a global society. The internet allows mundane complaints to be spread out of control. My personal opinion is that every company does, or has done, unsavory things to become successful. Boycotting a company because of something unsavory they've done is futile, counter-productive (they love the attention whether it's positive or negative), and hypocritical. At the end of the day, however they've achieved their success, they provide a service people want. On a side note, we've long known that negative reinforcement is a bad way to facilitate growth. A far better way is positive reinforcement. So continue playing and watching D&D, and support the people you want to support. The more you support creators/companies with ethical practices, the more creators/companies will view ethical practices as beneficial. Right now we are just constantly rewarding bad behavior with the attention the scummy companies are trying to get; and it'll keep getting worse as long as we do.

I don't mind the youtube creators grabbing the bag (of cash... or gold pieces in this case) from Hasbro, still not going to buy anymore D&D products until Hasbro/Wotc change their ways (which I doubt they will).

Every video is named "scandal this, scandal that" I thought this was a channel about discourse, not constant complaining."

I’d like to know where this list is online, so I know which channels to avoid. There’s no way I can trust any review or discussion of DnD from them ever again.

I haven't finished the video yet, but Hasbro sponsoring youtubers now means they are behind the times. Its commonly known as influencer marketing and many companies have been increasingly switching over larger portions of their advertising budgets to this lately. Many crowdfunded games have been successful doing the same thing and its a main part of my companies' strategy to launch our first game.

I come for the information and perspective and I stay for the references (Batman, The Wire, The Simpsons etc.) and humour. Keep it up.

So many dnd players ONLY play dnd and never even try anything else, even when they WANT something else they just try to cram that thing into the dnd 5e box. Like you want to play a Star Wars game? Screw any existing Star Wars ttrpg, play a massive and wonky Star Wars in 5e conversion! I'd imagine Pathfinder is probably the next biggest game in that genre and its DRASTICALLY smaller, not because it's not as good but because 5e players refuse to try other games. And so they only consume 5e content, so only 5e RU-vidrs really get the views. Even the biggest Pathfinder RU-vidrs are tiny in comparison to middling 5e ones and get way fewer views (granted that's also part RU-vid pushing 5e because that's what gets the views and the algorithm wants those views). Frankly, I don't think 5e is a good game. The rules are an inconsistent mess, and half the tables just pick and choose the rules they want to bother with because the game is so poorly put together and poorly balanced that you can often do that without breaking things because its already broken. I'd honestly say most 5e players would be happier playing other systems. Maybe rules lite, maybe crunchy. They need to branch out and try, because so many of them are playing dnd in name alone anyway, but that name recognition has a stranglehold on the entire industry as a result.

I'm also kind of worried about what the agreement between the content creators and WotC was there...especially after things like the GW one where you had a massive pile of, essentially, permanent restrictions on anyone who took their rewards there.

How long until someone makes an item entry for Astroturf on dm's guild? TTRPG content creators should have started diversifying away from d&d 18 months ago. They haven't, and won't, and will be completely caught off guard when Sandcastle (the VTT) launches in a year or so, signaling the end of analog d&d development and the shutdown of things like dndb & dm's guild. We've all known Hasbro's plan since the OGL scandal. It was all there. No one should be surprised when it happens.

The pinkertins are still around? Dang

1:02 Nah, that's because of your legal background

Well, his name IS Chris Cox after all

Much like Games-Workshop, it is big so it attracts the mindless zombies that play it. GW doesn't even come close to making the best games, but they have a huge net that makes it easy for people to get in, then after 'investing' they feel stuck. Sunk-cost fallacy is the driver of these big companies and they know it.

I have zero interest in the new rules book, and as soon as my dnd beyond subscription expires I've already decided to move to a new system. The only reason I'm still using it is I wanted to play with my family and I needed something easy and quick to get us started, but morally I can't do it anymore. They're just so predatory.

This is an absolutely brilliant move on Hasbro’s part. Disney has a well known media list of Cooperative influencers who they pamper and feed Career sustaining exclusives. Making them dependent on staying in the company’s good graces. This is probably the start of WotC/Hasbro making their own list, and I imaging their next OGL update is going to come with exceptions for their Creators on their media list. Honestly I’m surprised they haven’t been doing this sooner.

Scandal. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Heh, I remember the 80's D&D witchcraft panic. Good times! You had a bunch of eccentric wine moms experiencing a mental breakdown and the clergy started to capitalize on it, as they tend to do. The only spell D&D was ever able to cast on anyone was the "curse of eternal virginity"; affecting all the poor nerds who weren't fortunate enough to get a girl into the hobby...which was most of them. To not get off topic too much: D&D began its steady decline to the bottom as soon as WoTC got their claws on it. I haven't looked back in over 20 years.

Maybe WotC learned something with the OGL scandal and decided to leverage the RU-vid influencers to promote D&D 2024 and cast a Suggestion spell on D&D players to follow them.

I don't think you have any logical arguments. You, in fact, are probably getting paid off your channel. Does that mean I can republish your video? And get paid from it also, being Beta Testers for a new book isn't the same as getting paid, so I don't think you can prove a lot of what you've said. And you yourself are doing What you're arguing against making you a hypocrite light version

I love ALL Dungeons & Discourse videos!

The nickle and diming of DnD to death will continue.