WotC Seeks Unity with a New Edition

Gold Roger · Jan 9, 2012

Interesting, but my concern is: Do they have the manpower for this? An open playtest and asking everyone concerned for feedback, actually organizing the amount of input to something workable might be the hardest part of this.

Color me curious, but nothing more for now.

I'm A Banana · Jan 9, 2012

Mark CMG said:
No mention of the Open Game License. They really should have said something about that right out of the gate. It's one of the cornerstones of what made 3.XE so successful. I imagine a lot of gamers are going to be disappointed if they don't use it and don't make mention of it fairly soon.

I'd give 'em some time for that one. I imagine this is something they'd be re-visiting, but something they need to be a lot more careful about than just an announcement that "It's coming, and we want to be inclusive."

talok55 · Jan 9, 2012

Can it be true? Did WotC actually learn that it's best to ask what the customers want instead of making what their designers want and trying to force it on the customer? Let's hope so. Maybe it will even be in time to save D&D.

OpsKT · Jan 9, 2012

Well, I can't say what I really feel without violating the EN World ToS, and I for the most part get along with the mods here, so I won't. I'll just leave this here and note that is not safe for work or school.

As a side note...

OpsKT said:
My guess is more stuff that will further divide their player base, based on the last 2 years of operating procedures.

I hate being right...

Argyle King · Jan 9, 2012

I'm interested to see where things go.

However, I can't seem to get by the thought that I already own the game they are talking about when I hear things like "...we want a generic and simple base which you can add to with options to suite the complexity you want..." and "nod toward realism."

I wasn't shocked by the announcement. I'm actually relieved that I can move beyond 4E now; I had good times with it, but I think it's time to let it go. Though there's no guarantee I'll be moving to 5E. WoTC has a lot of work to do to win me back as a regular customer. While I am excited to see what 5E will hold, I was also somewhat burned when I jumped into 4E as quickly as I did, and I already have what I feel is a game of excellent quality which has many of the traits the 5E team seems to feel is desirable in a game system.

delericho · Jan 9, 2012

I thought I'd be more excited than I am.

I wish the luck in their endeavour. I don't have time to be properly involved in the playtest, so I'll have to restrict my input to posting here.

When the time comes, I'll check out the 5e core books, and make a decision. Hopefully, it will be "better enough" than 3e to persuade me to switch. If not, I won't have any interest in any potential 6e; WotC have one opportunity to persuade me to return to the fold.

kitsune9 · Jan 9, 2012

Kzach said:
Naysayer here.

The division within the D&D community isn't because of different editions, it's because people are inherently divisive.

I agree with this. Appealing to gamers is like herding cats, but if you have the opportunity to playtest a new edition, jump in and at least enjoy the fun while it lasts.

GMforPowergamers · Jan 9, 2012

Kzach said:
Asking people what they want is stupid because people don't know what they want. WotC should become more like Apple and less like a socialist republic.

remeber there is a right and wrong way to do it. In sales we ask people what they want, then ignore 90% of there answer and take the last 10% and twist and interpirt it to give our first suggestion, then we gage there responce to maek a second suggestion.

Son of Meepo · Jan 9, 2012

Mark CMG said:
No mention of the Open Game License. They really should have said something about that right out of the gate. It's one of the cornerstones of what made 3.XE so successful. I imagine a lot of gamers are going to be disappointed if they don't use it and don't make mention of it fairly soon.

Bah! The OGL was just a poor excuse for small time companies to make money off the backs of a real game system. 90% of the 3rd party stuff was poorly conceived, utterly unbalanced, overpriced crap.

Feel free to have an OGL again WotC, but this is one consumer who won't touch it.

S'mon · Jan 9, 2012

Gundark said:
Shocked....no not really.

WoTC has had to swallow a lot of pride. To announce a new edition so soon seems to be openly saying they take the view that 4e is a catastrophic failure. I don't take that view as pertains to the 4e play experience - I love playing 4e - but they must know much better than anyone else how 4e sales have been; apparently very much Not Good, at least as compares to their projections.

I hope something good comes out of this. I bought 3e when it came out in 2000 after 2e had driven me away from D&D for about 5-6 years, and was an enthusiastic adopter. I burned out on 3e in 2006, I bought 4e in 2008 but didn't like what I saw, I finally got into 4e in mid 2009. I finally got 4e hammered into a shape I like about 6-7 months ago, and am currently very happy with it.

So, I'm not burned out on 4e and have no plans to switch, and unlike 3e & 4e I will not be an 'on-launch' customer for 5e. If it turns out to be a good, robust system with legs, I guess I may look at it in 3-4 years.