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SIGIL VTT is on life support (extended) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-03-19 23:38:27
Imported:
2026-06
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Videos

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Bad news. Good analysis.

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SIGIL In Trouble

Comments

Bagel-Man

Excited to watch Professor, I was actually thinking of messaging you about this lol

Bryan Stephens

If a company is gonna treat people like hired gun contractors then they should pay highed gun contractor rates. It is immoral to have people work what they think is a steady job wait until they finish the project and then fire them.

Bark Madly

The OGL and Pinkertons scandals were the nails in the coffin for me for modern D&D. I'm confident that the indie game makers I support won't do those kind of things haha.

Tom Giblin

Life support might as well be dead. There's no way those 3 people will improve and expand that platform in any meaningful way.

Scott Spears

Thanks for the insights. It sure does look cool.

Russell Miller

It looks pretty, but it doesn't have the advantages of other VTT's. Multiple game systems, vast amounts of user-made content, relatively easy customization. Heck, my players love bare bones VTT's like Tabletop Simulator because we all know the rules or the GM makes rulings as we go. I just don't see Sigil getting its claws into people without continuous development to get people to want to switch to it.

DM DooM

You must have been uploading this about the time I was asking you if you were going to upload this lol. Excellent coverage as always. I particularly like the smirk as you introduced the sponser LOL!

Richard A Regner

Perfect insight: Why do I want to change when I have invested $1000+ and 100's of hours into another platform? What's the benefit?

MrGunn

Dear Professor, Excellent analysis! I am not at all surprised by Wizbros actions. The corpos fundamentally do not understand the IP or their customer base and they have failed on every level to support D&D in a way to enhance and grow the brand. 1. Scandals i.e. OGL 2. Utter marketing failure to exploit the 50th anniversary of D&D 3. Failure to articulate a compelling differentiator between versions. I still don't understand what version they are on 6, 5.5, 5.1.2 4. Zero attempt to engage and gather feedback from the customer or even understand the customer. It is VotC not VOC, volital organic compounds. 5. Pandering to minority voices i.e. 'Orcs are just misunderstood people' which arrogantly assumes the customer is ignorant and needs educating. 6. Trying to treat D&D like a software product with a ULA so they can change the Ts&Cs any time they want. You cannot easily erase a physical book, but with a computer you can change history with the touch of a button. 7. Perhaps the greatest sin is simply a lack of imagination, most, if not all recent releases from Wizbros has been objectively boring. Food needs salt to taste good, trying to appeal to everyone pleases no one. Keep up the great work! Best regards, MrGunn PS If you don't own the means of production, don't believe the lie that hardwork will set you free, work your forty and go home, unless they offer fair compensation for your additional labour.

Michael Placonouris

Hope your students test go well! Agreed Sad to see when layoffs occur. I would also think that Hasbro is really late to the "game" in this case and probably didn't know how to be a disruptor in the area. I use Roll20 & Foundry weekly. Both meet the needs for the groups I am in. When we can we also do physical which is always best.

Stu Keller

I don't have much interest in WotC/ Hasbro business, but I appreciate your insights and updates, Prof, an I enjoy your presentation. AND, I am still enjoying your content on gaming updates and DMing insights, which you DO, of course, still create and post. Keep on rolling, mate!

Scott

Sad that all those people (especially recruited so relatively recently) lost their jobs, but it is a challenging industry, and the company is fairly questionable.

Jay
>>168325362

Well thought out and insightful. I couldn't have stated any of this better.

Jay
>>168315057

Umm...It's not the first time Wizbro has done this to workers. Perhaps it would be wise to know the business practices of the company before applying and iron out the terms of your employment during the hiring process. Corporations aren't in business to pander to what people may feel is moral. They make money for shareholders and are typically sociopathic in nature. Not my type of work but for some...well...

Bryan Stephens
>>168315057

Since I have been a CEO of a 30 million dollar a year company, I do understand how corporate America works. I have had to close down departments. I even understand not needing a workforce after a project is over. The moral thing to do is be up front with someone when you hire them about the plan. The fact that this has not happened before does not make it moral.

baldrage

Disappointed you didn't speculate on what this means for Hasbro, WOTC, and D&D going forward. As you have commented so eloquently many times, this VTT was central to Hasbro's plan to turn D&D into a digital walled garden and turn D&D from a pen and a d paper TTRPG into a purely digital experience that could be milked for cash via subscription fees. That plan is now dead, so where do they go from here? Given the failure of "One D&D", I would not be surprised if WOTC is shuttered completely and Hasbro just licenses D&D out to another game developer.

Cee-Jay

Mr. Gunn's points numbers 4 and 5 should not be underestimated in Table Top games, but especially in Video Games and Moves/TV Shows. My sense is that many companies decided to captilze on the social upheavel that happened around COVID times, thinking they'd could catch a wave to riches while leading the way from an ethics/social responsibility standpoint. But things haven't quite gone as they expected and the massive, multi-year projects they embarked on are considered by many as quite cringe at time of release. Much worse than a little cringe, they seemed to have lost there focus on/understanding of quality... not only have the alienated much of their fanbases needlessly, they just plain haven't been making very good video games and shows. At the end of the day, the game has to fun an interesting! Luckily in the TTRPG space, there are TONS of good games still being made.

Steven Sweet

Many people have pointed out that the top tier decision makers don't understand their IP which I think is accurate. I think it is even more so around the topic of the VTT. So many of them came from video game backgrounds that I suspect when they saw online VTTs such as Roll20, all they could think was "what a janky video game. we can easily blow that out of the water and make a much better looking video game." They didn't understand the actual purpose and in-game-use of the tool, they saw only a poorly crafted (in their opinion) video game experience. I think in particular of one question and answer exchange from the D&D creator's summit that PDM wasn't invited to. I can't remember who related this, maybe Teos Abadia (?), but during the demo of Sigil someone in the audience saw all the computers were Alienware gaming rigs. They asked if it would run on more modest, non-gamer systems. The people running the demo seemed surprised and asked "Is that something you would like?" I interpret that as they had assumed everyone playing D&D was an online gamer. Certainly many are but I suspect as you go up in age category, that percentage goes down. Of course it also fits with their assumption that roll playing gamers over 40 (I think it was 40) don't exist. In one of their fairly early on surveys you had to select your age group and the choices ended at 40.

Scott Miller

Another great video. I don’t use VTTs but I suspect there is a lot of sunk costs involved where if you’ve already bought a lot of content for one, switching is going to cost not just time learning a new system but a lot of money as well. So the replacement needs to really knock it out of the park to justify that. Plus a lot of the existing VTTs have modules for other games, like you mentioned Call of Cthulhu. If people like trying different ones, and D&D’s is only going to be designed for D&D that’s another hurdle for them. But as much as they were banking on recurrent microtransaction revenue losing this option won’t help that. I wonder where they’ll look now.

Walter

I'll admit I was waiting to hear your reaction to this when the news came out. I didn't expect this. This seems more like what you see in the video game business, the product here is effectively done, so just like the rest of the industry the staff is let go. The people to watch for this will be Roll20. I'll admit, that to me personally, Roll20 is the platform I like the least. They were the first to really enter the VTT market and are struggling to innovate. I anticipated that Sigil would leave them behind. The other problem with VTTs is all of the 3rd party content that is seldom developed for print AND VTT. And face it, most of the really good material you find in the 5e sphere is 3rd party. Still, your analysis is solid. I also wish I was at Gary Con.

Jay
>>168315057

Yeah, I don't believe you. Most CEO's I know lack interest in TTRPG sites and are always too busy for games of make believe. Even if they aren't still working at a Corporation they are typically workaholics with more important things to do. The odds are against what you claim or is that why your no longer allegedly a CEO? Furthermore, making an argument based on a title or argument from authority doesn't hold water. Ultimately, the onus and responsibility falls upon the person who applies for the job to know what they are getting themselves into. Companies with a history of firing employees such as Wizbro are infamous as to how they treat employees. Fact is this HAS happened before by Wizbro and precedence has been set. So spare us the moral pandering when those of us who live in reality know most corporations, especially those with a history of doing such things, care more about the bottom line and cost savings over being nice or moral. However, we can at least agree it would be better if Corporations cared more about doing the right thing yet evidence supports more of the opposite happening. I will be happy to do a retraction of my opinion if evidence is provided when all the international mega corporations start becoming moral. I just don't see it. Yet, remember, I'm just another nobody making a comment on a TTRPG thread and my opinion doesn't really matter now does it. So have a great day.

Jeff Krus

Your spot on with COVID having a factor in increase sales then when things were back to normal as possible sales dropped and this happened in many industries. People are now out and about, kids playing sports or traveling teams which is very expensive ect.. Even schools budgets are affected like mine district. No more COVID funds and those funds were used to hire people ect... No we have layoffs and a 150illion dollar budget short fall.. It was very narrow thinking that money or sales would continue like they did during COVID.