While I won't argue against the ease of making art orders for a business, the value of iconics to the
consumer is questionable.
Really, AFAIC, iconics are bland, boring, and - most importantly of all - completely and utterly
irrelevant. What's the point to the consumer? Branding? Meh. Looks like, for example in Pathfinder's case, some giant nobody/schmoe just plastered on the cover and getting in the way of some artwork that's actually cool.
Sure, Seoni's got a nice rack, but who are these other schmoes? For me, at least, not only are the iconics completely irrelevant, it's getting to the point that it could be seen that we're getting them shoved down our throats (the aforementioned prominent ruining of covers along with two wasted pages of - again, irrelevant - stats of these nobodies in the book itself).
Sounds like
WotC made the right decision for
4e, from this particular consumer's point of view.
(But sure - maybe art ordering would have been easier for their business. Meh.)
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