First of all, a piece of music, "The Piano [Life is a song]":
Secondly, it appears to me that
WotC has problem with forming long term plans with regard to media:
- premature switch to digital form of periodical media
- lack of clear and supportive policy for indirect business partners (
GSL)
- high degree of staff turnover
Thirdly, latest products contain rehash of 3.0 and 3.5 material adapted to
4E or somewhat problematic reinventions of older stuff (no new settings, somewhat slow and awkward support for already published settings). Examples:
- reinvention of
FR, which alienated large portion of fanbase - best business solution would be to build new subset of realms to appeal to new fans while providing support for continuity of campaigns of old time fans
- popular settings of Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Eberron suffer from serious support delay for those who would like to convert their campaigns - digital media should support such switch upon release of
4E to enahnce appeal
4E instead of forcing people to choose or convert by themselves
- there is no promise of continual support, merely 3 books per setting intention - this is good for novices, but may be not sufficient for those who invested into 3.x over the course of several years
In the light of the above, I feel doubly sorry for those who leave. May you find some nice place in this rather fragmented market.
I also feel sorry for those who stay, since it will be their duty now to carry on with supporting rich culture of D&D worlds. I hope you can do this... mind you, I don't like
4E, but I would hate even more to see such large part RPG world to suffer further.
Finally, to all. It's not the end of the world, there is infinity of imagination to live through and put on paper. It's just that I hope that all the talented people will find ways to contribute to gaming community (and prosper, of course).
Regards,
Ruemere
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