What's going on with the movie? Producers now saying they want to detoxify the men in the movie! LoL ... What can possibly go wrong with this strategy?
I think that's really a marketing strategy. We really saw the writers / producers go overboard trying to gin up "feminist versus anti-feminist" controversy on social media before the release of a lot of "fannish" movies from Ghostbusters (2016) to Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).
If it's a sign of anything, it's a sign that the producers are worried it's going to be a flop with fans and are trying to get ahead of that by positioning fans on the "wrong" side of the culture war.
Alternately, they could be trying to prove to critics / reviewers that their movie is on the "right" side of the culture war and therefore deserves their reflexive good reviews, because there are a lot of critics whose ratings are mostly ideological these days. I'm not sure *why* this has become a common movie marketing strategy, but it seems to be one that gets rolled out regularly enough that it pretty much has to be a deliberate marketing strategy.
It’s also important to note that WoTC spent quite a while trying to convince 3rd parties to take on the OGL due to TSR’s litigious reputation. Which is part of the reason why they included the following in their FAQ:
“Q: Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?
A: Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.”
It's getting MYCH worse at Wizards... https://youtu.be/zg-VJJDL99Q
What's going on with the movie? Producers now saying they want to detoxify the men in the movie! LoL ... What can possibly go wrong with this strategy?
I think that's really a marketing strategy. We really saw the writers / producers go overboard trying to gin up "feminist versus anti-feminist" controversy on social media before the release of a lot of "fannish" movies from Ghostbusters (2016) to Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).
If it's a sign of anything, it's a sign that the producers are worried it's going to be a flop with fans and are trying to get ahead of that by positioning fans on the "wrong" side of the culture war.
Alternately, they could be trying to prove to critics / reviewers that their movie is on the "right" side of the culture war and therefore deserves their reflexive good reviews, because there are a lot of critics whose ratings are mostly ideological these days. I'm not sure *why* this has become a common movie marketing strategy, but it seems to be one that gets rolled out regularly enough that it pretty much has to be a deliberate marketing strategy.
It’s also important to note that WoTC spent quite a while trying to convince 3rd parties to take on the OGL due to TSR’s litigious reputation. Which is part of the reason why they included the following in their FAQ:
“Q: Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?
A: Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.”
The full recently-deleted FAQ can be found here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040307094152/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20%2Foglfaq%2F20040123f