My job isn't to help WOTC run their business. My job is to help GMs run great games. WOTC could do a better job at that but they're letting their business needs get in the way and it can definitely get worse.
Just wanted to first say when I first started GMing three years ago, your videos and articles were really helpful. Thanks!
My D&D players are on Roll20 (so I’m wary of what may come in 2024) but they are new to the hobby so I haven’t really had to struggle against preconceptions.
It’s a little harder with my Pathfinder players, who are established in the hobby and really familiar with Foundry, so they kind of forced my hand into using that, but one of them hosts the server and they have been very helpful in me learning the platform.
So I definitely get the concern, we had a conversation and really decided on using Paizo material as a starting point, and we have discussions on any 3PP, but we are open to it, but I think their familiarity with customizing in Foundry helps with that. Less savvy players probably wouldn’t be interested, so I could see that. I’ve heard custom stuff on DDB is harder than Foundry or Roll20, but I don’t really know myself.
I had to tell my D&D players about the OGL crisis earlier in the year to let them know it may affect our game on Roll20. Fortunately so far, it hasn’t. I tried to move that game to PF2 and they did not stick with it, so we moved back to D&D. Since I’m not in the DDB ecosystem, I’m definitely wary of supporting it. But I can see how others who are using it would have the same issue I had trying to move to something people weren’t familiar with/comfortable with. So I think we can advocate for what works best for our tables and that’s just the best we can do. Hopefully that preserves a sort of balance.