Elon Musk Jokes About D&D – But There’s A Bigger Problem Here
Ugh. Fine. Elon Musk went into an outrage over a blurb in a D&D book. But because it made Hasbro’s stock wobble, we have to discuss.
Let’s get one thing straight. Nobody actually likes Elon Musk. Nobody wants to talk about him. We all just kind of have to because stonks are weird. And bad. And dumb. The numbers go up based on someone thinking “hey wouldn’t that be weird.” From the South Sea Bubble to Dogecoin, it’s all the same.
But in a nutshell, Elon Musk is a billionaire with enough money to single-handedly end world hunger. And he got big mad at WotC for writing words in a D&D book. Then he asked “how much is it” over the Thanksgiving holiday. Hasbro stock “experienced fluctuation” as a result. And here we are.
All of this is why we can’t have nice things. But there’s a bigger problem at work here which we’ll get into after taking you through everything.
How Elon Musk’s Reaction to D&D Criticism Made Hasbro’s Stock Wobble For A Day (It’s Dipped Back Down at Press Time)
So here’s what happened. It all started on November 21st, when Musk’s safe space was threatened by words in the foreword to The Making of Original D&D. If that sounds familiar it’s because the internet already had its day with this back in July. It was a whole thing. People were very upset with WotC and then went on to buy record numbers of the new core rulebooks, which led in part to a good fiscal year for WotC.
In response to this lukewarm, months-old news, Musk called on WotC and Hasbro to “burn in hell,” because, apparently Musk is still all about being edgy.
And normally that would be that. We wouldn’t even be talking about it any more. But then on Thanksgiving, Musk wrote on the website he bought, “How much is Hasbro?” It’s a cheeky reference to the time he bought Twitter for $44 billion. And then proceeded to tank the social media platform’s valuation nearly 80%, down to a mere $9 billion.
And after his tweets on the subject, Hasbro’s stock prices jumped like 2%. And not because of Black Friday deals. But because of the previous exchange. In response, many throughout the D&D community reacted the way most people react to the idea of Elon Musk.
And while it’s great to see the D&D community come together, it does kind of miss one problematic aspect of Musk wanting to buy D&D.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks is Already Musking the Life Out of WotC
And it’s that there’d be nothing for him to do. Hasbro is already following Musk’s playbook and laying off people who helped make WotC successful. This famously includes the team responsible for greenlighting Baldur’s Gate 3.
And being absolute weirdos about AI in a way that nobody wants? Hasbro/WotC have got that covered too.
Time to go outside and touch grass. Maybe not log back on again for a week. Or ever again.
