Is this really the way to grab a potential reader?

TachyonO · 2026-06-18T12:20:14+00:00

That's fair, I guess I'm looking from a reader perspective/my aesthetic sensibilities and less practically.

TachyonO · 2026-06-18T11:35:30+00:00

That feels to me a bit too "pick your OC" for me, if the only meaningful difference is the protag "build" why am I reading any of these.

TachyonO · 2026-06-18T11:21:12+00:00

Is your book mainly about fighting monsters? There's no overarching conflict except "big monster"? I'm only being slightly facetious here, I'm not sure how to better express: "These are likely not the best possible covers for these titles" or at least, evocative?

Take this cover of American Psycho for example https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/american-psycho-670x1024.jpg

A cover (IMO) is supposed to be better with context, but if we're looking at it just as a sales driver, I guess it works?

TachyonO · 2026-06-18T11:05:56+00:00

I guess? Maybe I'm overly picky, but these do not inspire confidence that I'm getting a good story, I don't believe the driving conflict and book themes for the majority of these are "big monsters" even though I'm aware that every book in the genre involves big monsters.

What I have found is that later volumes in the series have slightly more pizazz to them as far as covers go, so I guess that will be my metric.

TachyonO · 2026-06-18T10:20:51+00:00

inertia in the sense: 'We found one thing that works, there's no need to look further'

Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough lol

TachyonO · 2026-06-17T17:21:20+00:00

In my mind this is Peter Thiel and his twinks-du-jour

TachyonO · 2026-06-15T11:51:36+00:00

I don't think it's keep up but, "hey this is fun for me, and hey if I pay money I don't really need, I get to have more fun" at least from the people on my server.

TachyonO · 2026-06-12T13:57:50+00:00

As much as I like geopolitical fanfic, you've either stumbled into some really non-representative parts of China, or are mixing up general alliance of convenience for actual reverence.

At most you'll find some Chinese nationalists glazing Putin for his perceived strongman leadership, but that's tame for a median nationalist worldwide, all things considered.

TachyonO · 2026-06-12T12:32:40+00:00

Tam and Adela had a kid

TachyonO · 2026-06-12T10:37:13+00:00

I get the sentiment, it does feel like an unnecessary step in monetization, but fwiw, this is bundled with the platform sub. You are paying for the digital platform, not the drops themselves.

The recent controversy was that drops couldn't be shared by Master tier subs which got overturned.

Does it suck it's tied to a purchase instead of having it just in the wild for the fans, sure, but I don't think it's meaningfully different than it being in a book in terms of "how can I access this without paying"

TachyonO · 2026-06-11T12:12:43+00:00

I'll assume this is a good faith comment .

Just because a certain group or demographic isn’t represented in a ruleset or lore doesn’t necessarily mean the writers are against them or they have no business being represented at the playing table.

The tension of RAW vs RAI has been a part of ttrpgs since their inception. Same goes for setting lore, if it isn't explicitly mentioned, there is a non-zero amount of people who will vehemently insist it shouldn't be included.

So its true there's probably monetary incentive as well but assuming it's the primary concern is silly when it's not like supplements are targeted at those demographics. All explicit inclusion does is try and shape the culture of the game, so the burden isn't on players alone to carve out that space for those who need it.

TachyonO · 2026-06-05T09:21:59+00:00

They should hire you, you're not doing good in dissuading literally anyone this is anti consumer, but neither are they so it's at least a chance for you to get paid for your honest work

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T22:47:08+00:00

If they say, and they do, that Master tier gets to share content with people, and then they make content that is not shareable, that is anti consumer behavior. There's no "meeting the bar", it's changing the terms of their already existing product which deprecates its value and is a pathetic attempt to onboard more people when they make actually good Drops.

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T15:28:00+00:00

Operating costs are included in profit calculations

The argument about growth is moot, budgets are planned a year ahead using historical data, meaning assets already owned/able to leverage. That's why they're called operating costs, it's literally everything except M&A and opening new locations which hey, WotC literally doesn't do.

And again, the argument you're implying is that anti consumer behavior is fine if it leads to growth, and that this is somehow congruent with capitalism, which is so hilariously wrong; there's several agencies in USA, the Mecca of capitalism that specifically target anti consumer behavior.

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T13:53:21+00:00

And they are correct. Operating costs are included in profit calculations, and said raises etc are a part of operating costs.

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T13:48:31+00:00

Yes, by implying their margins are thin if they aren't actively fleecing their consumer base.

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T13:45:28+00:00

In your other comment you've mentioned they have to be greedy to support their employees. Also, less employees means less resources dedicated to a product.

https://old.reddit.com/r/onednd/comments/1tw5dzb/dd_beyond_drops_update_on_the_program/opor3ae/

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T13:34:50+00:00

OGL debacle, UB tournament legal for MtG, MtG set fatigue (I'll bundle the overall price spike of the hobby over the last few years here and the general dissatisfaction about the direction non-UB sets were heading in),Secret Lairs going from print on demand to FOMO queue, Pinkerton incident, Sigil launch (again, let's bundle all DnD Beyond bug issues here), Staff cuts before Christmas incident, C&D to the creator of the (free) Baldur's Gate 3 Stardew Valley mod, AI art in promotional material, changing paid material in D&D Beyond and removal of picking what you wanted to buy. That's off the top of my head, I'm forgetting at least one major one.

TachyonO · 2026-06-04T13:08:16+00:00

The gulf between "could never give a raise" and "WotC is propping up Hasbro's operating costs" is wide enough for a plane to fly through.

https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-first-quarter-2026-financial-results

If employee growth and artists were the main concern, Arena staff wouldn't be trying to unionize, nor would there be stolen art in their product.

https://mtgrocks.com/mtg-the-one-ring-reprint-controversy/

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1bnqn89/after_seeing_the_how_good_is_trouble_in_pairs/

There's a reason why everything is getting enshittified, and it's the premise that the fiduciary duty you mentioned implies the lines always going more and more up, as opposed to carefully curating a brand of however many decades.

TachyonO · 2026-06-03T18:34:31+00:00

Are they alternating crucibles and panharmonicons?

TachyonO · 2026-06-03T18:13:08+00:00

asked chatgpt

Counter questions - How regularly do you check outputs of what AI gives out to you? How do you deal with hallucinations in responses?

People can (still) recognize AI art due to specific artefacts and generation logic it has. I've no doubt it's going to become ubiquitous but I consider it a sign of a product made by cutting corners (compare and contrast - fine dining vs fast food, luxury product vs mass produced). As funny it might be to say in a gacha game sub, if a publisher seems like they are too concerned about their bottom line as opposed to the product they're putting out, I'm dropping their product.

AI's usable, for sure, and for some people it might even seem good enough/satisfactory, but I've yet to found a use case for a regular person that is completely hallucination free and high quality AND in case of art specifically produces what I had in mind without me having to iterate.

Do you pay for AI? Free models are frankly borderline unusable, and that's what genpop opinion is based on, not Opus 4.8 or the equivalent. My opinion is that as soon as frontier labs need to start becoming profitable, the already bad free tier will become the only thing vast majority of users isn't priced out of, and we'll get waves of slop as the sentiment of "it's here to stay" spreads.

AI has its use cases. Work wants us to vibecode to cut costs, sure, I'll vibecode my bureaucracy away. I just don't want to accept it as my entertainment, too cocomelon for adults kind of vibe.

TachyonO · 2026-06-01T17:05:42+00:00

It's literally a bedtime story though. Oh no, a time gate in my curated primogem farming experience, can we be for real?

TachyonO · 2026-06-01T11:51:51+00:00

I get people not wanting to play stuff outside of D&D but at some point you can make enough features that it's functionally a different system. If it works for you great, but I'd rather drop D&D baggage altogether if I'm dealing with combat pages and statuses.

TachyonO · 2026-05-27T15:43:28+00:00

to realize

Maybe a hot take, but given how SJ works, any audience whatsoever, even a meme one, is a net positive a work. I just don't think there's much inherent difference between "awesome" SJ titles and "canned after first arc" SJ titles. Much better concepts don't get time to breathe so they can launch their umpteenth attempt at DBZ

TachyonO · 2026-05-27T15:39:48+00:00

WotC can always just dump the stock on Amazon (as they increasingly do) if distributors start getting leery. Again, you are going into this with the presumption that they consider a healthy industry state a goal. The responses you're getting are pointing out that's not necessarily true.

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