cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3992477
Elon Musk, the owner of the app formerly known as Twitter, is calling on Wizards of the Coast and its parent company Hasbro to “burn in hell” for the publication of Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons. On November 21st, former gaming executive turned culture warrior Mark Hern posted several passages from Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter, criticizing the book for providing context about some of the misogyny and cultural insensitivity found in early rulebooks. These passages were pulled from the foreword written by Jason Tondro, a senior designer for the D&D team who also worked extensively on the book. Hern stated that these passages, along with the release of the new 2024 Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide for D&D’s “40th anniversary” (it is actually D&D’s 50th anniversary) both “erased and slandered” Gary Gygax and other creators of Dungeons & Dragons.
In response, Musk wrote “Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the [naughty word] is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell.” Musk had played Dungeons & Dragons at some point in his youth, but it’s unclear when the last time he ever played the game.
Notably, Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons contains countless correspondences and letters written by both Gygax and Dave Arneson, including annotated copies of early D&D rulesets. Most early D&D rules supplements as well as early Dragon magazines are also found in the book. It seems odd to contain one of the most extensive compliations of Gygax’s work an “erasure,” but it’s unclear whether Hern or Musk actually read the book given the incorrect information about the anniversary.
Additionally, Gygax and Arneson are both credited in the 2024 Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide. The exact credit reads: “Building on the original game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and then developed by many others over the past 50 years.” Wizards of the Coast also regularly collaborates with Gygax’s youngest son Luke and is a participant at Gary Con, a convention held in Gygax’s honor. The opening paragraph of the 2024 Player’s Handbook is written by Jeremy Crawford and specifically lauds both Gygax and Arneson for making Dungeons & Dragons and contains an anecdote about Crawford meeting Gygax.
Musk has increasingly leaned into culture war controversies in recent years, usually amplifying misinformation to suit his own political agenda.
Elon Musk hints at buying Hasbro for D&D after announcing AI game studio
A week later, on November 27, X user Ian Miles Cheong posted a screenshot showing Tondro’s response to Musk’s prior concerns.
When addressing Musk’s criticism of the book, Tondro explained that he and others agreed that backlash would come from “progressives and people from underrepresented groups who justly took offense at the language of OD&D.”
“How much is Hasbro?” Musk asked.
Although the X owner didn’t elaborate on a potential purchase, if Musk does end up acquiring Hasbro, he would also secure the rights to Transformers, Axis & Allies, Monopoly, Magic The Gathering, and even My Little Pony.
We’ll have to wait and see how this unfolds and if Musk is serious about potentially acquiring the entertainment juggernaut.
What was the drama between Larian Studios and them?
If you google this, you only get interviews where the Larian CEO explicitly states that Wizards is not to blame for the split. but a CEOs job is to lie on behalf of the company and it is prudent for Larian to do so, as to not rub future business partners the wrong way. We aren’t gonna officially know what happened for years unless one company or the other dies.
What did happen, is that Wizards fired all the people Larian worked with on their end right after BG3 came out, when it would have been the exact perfect time to lean in on more content for the game. This came in the wake of all the stupid things Wizard has done and announced in recent years, from the attempted OGL license changes to the money grubbing with digital content and more. I find it very likely that Larian cut ties because of these things, not wanting to be associated with them, and that Wizards then fired all the people Larian worked with because they failed to keep them on board.
Larian also had to go to unofficial sources to get the information they needed to make the game. That is why they thank the forgotten realms wiki in the credits, because they needed it to make the game. Wizards hasn’t cared about giving out coherent setting information ever and I can’t imagine them be fun to work with in that regard.
Then there is the whole VTT using AI business that Wizard is pushing hard, as well as Wizards heavily referencing Baldurs Gate 3 in the marketing of their own products and it does not seem like a very healthy relationship. I am specifically talking about the promo videos on the WotC Youtube channel, where you can’t watch a single video without someone mentioning BG3 and trying their best to look like they are somehow responsible for the game instead of Larian.