D&D has a messaging problem that goes beyond the OGL controversy

polygon.com:

Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast kicked off 2023 with a series of troubling controversies. In January came the leak of an early draft of its Open Gaming License (OGL), an edict meant to impose new restrictions on third-party content, which led to an open revolt by its most vocal fans. Then, in April, it was revealed that its parent company, Hasbro, has a long-standing relationship with the Pinkertons, a private security company with a storied history of violence. As a result consumer sentiment has taken a dive, damaging a decade of hard-won goodwill for the oft-stigmatized tabletop role-playing game.

Turns out that D&D’s missteps go back even further. In August 2022 the team inadvertently rebranded its seminal role-playing game’s next version to One D&D. It even commissioned a new logo that was introduced with a lavish video reveal. But One D&D was never meant to become the new name of the franchise, representatives told Polygon. It’s still just called “Dungeons & Dragons,” and earlier this month during a private press briefing in Seattle (for which Polygon declined Hasbro’s offer for travel and lodging accommodations) marketers and developers alike attempted to course-correct.

“[The design] team never called it that. [...] They’ve got codenames,” said Nathan Stewart, vice president of marketing, said in a group interview. “And so from our standpoint [One D&D represented] what they were doing, plus it was the things we were seeing the D&D Beyond team do for access and accessibility related to the digital and physical being more integrated [as well as the in-development virtual tabletop].”

Stewart was referencing parent company Hasbro’s recent acquisition of D&D Beyond, the officially licensed digital