WotC president Greg Leeds and I!!!

[JohnRTroy]

I'm with Dave on this. At this point, there is no way they are going to do anything to make 4th edition more like the game we have enjoyed in the past, bring back the print magazines, or allow their pdfs to be sold again. In short, they have gone too far to do anything to bring us former WotC customers back. That ship has definitely sailed.

I agree with selling older versions. Hell, at least release some of the 2e and lower classics, the rareities.

OTOH, Wizards sort of stopped this a long time ago. They stopped scanning old products years ago. (I've always wanted Epic of Aerth, Gary's world setting for Dangerous Journeys, to be available via PDF, like Mythus was) So I suspected they don't want to go through this process again.

 

[AllisterH]

Which is why they've also made the radical changes they did. (I don't particularly like those changes, but I understand them) Brand Identity is the only way for a strong product to stay strong. The novels, original creations, etc., are important. D&D is not meant to be "Generic Fantasy RPG". Public domain stuff is only part of the process.

It's similar to the reason why Bioware has its own sci-fi and now classic fantasy RPG universes (MASS EFFECT & DRAGON AGE)

It's all about the branding and the trademarks.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Also keep in mind the "public domain" stuff only makes up part of the experience. While some things were taken from novels, they were either sufficiently changed enough so they weren't plagiarism, removed, or even in a few rare cases given oral permission (Ioun stones).

A lot of stuff is D&D exclusive. Modrons, the culture of the Drow (if not the name), Kender, Beholders, Mind Flayers, Githyanki, stuff like Ultradaemons, etc. Plus the various campaign settings etc.

I know in the old days it was fast and loose, we had Giants In the Earth, April Fool's day jokes featuring Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck, etc. As soon as D&D became a big enterprise with LJN figures, the Cartoon, and Novels, all that had to change.

 

[pawsplay]

A lot of stuff is D&D exclusive. Modrons, the culture of the Drow (if not the name), Kender, Beholders, Mind Flayers, Githyanki, stuff like Ultradaemons, etc. Plus the various campaign settings etc.

The term Githyanki comes from a George RR Martin novel, and the githyanki/illithid relationship from a Niven novel. The culture of the Drow is Melnibone, plus a spider motif. Mind flayers were inspired by the cover of a Brian Lumley novel. Modrons are kind of unique, but definitely draw on Flatland, and remind me a lot of the beings in The Mote In God's Eye, who are also caste-driven.

Kender are a Dragonlance-specific phenomenon.

I'll give you the beholder.

 

[avin]

Niven is the guy who wrote Ringworld, is that what inspired Sigil?

 

[fireinthedust]

My two cents:


1) Big fan of 4e (huge!), as it's playable by my group, and allows the DM to have a life. I've managed to get a Classic feel to my games with it. I like the PH2, Martial Power, and am looking forward to other books. This is, for me, the best edition I've seen. R&D did a great job. Keep this edition going, please.

2) I really like DDI, and more options there would be nice. A Module Formatting tool, to take encounters and monsters I make or get from the compendium, and make a file out of them, is I think the direction I'd like to see.
Online tools and PDFs are key. I do like (love) print books, but can't always carry them with me.

3) I don't like the flippant management of company-public relations. The PDF debacle was rude. The way Paizo was "just fired" was rude, or it seemed to me that way. The hard magazines were a tradition, not just a product. That DDI is a great product has no bearing on this. Saying goodbye to Dragon and Dungeon on a whim, as if the public's opinion didn't matter, that was a bad move... I mean, why is Paizo the competition now? That one stupid move.
We want to love you guys. Please help us feel like necessary decisions (like "we can't afford the magazine in paper and it kills trees") can be done. Let us feel that we're not "beneath your respect" with these moves. Try to accomodate us, we're paying for stuff. It's not the same as a TV network: the community is all about interaction; manners will help so many of the recent problems.

4) GSL/OGL/Fansites and participation: Figure a way to get the players interested in the game, that's the DMs job, that's what you're selling. Now expand that. Not just RPGA. We tend to be counter-cultural. Suspicious of ...well, name it. That's why we create an interior world.
Your job is to nurture the market, and that means the community. I like 4e. Now let me write for you. Let me post my adventures. I get the quality control, perhaps, and other companies have had it (M&M does it for their brand).
I get the market share, but this product isn't like other products. It's an amazing one, but it's all about people. Why would you alienate your stockholders? Why would you alienate your co-workers?
Granted, I didn't like all the OGL stuff that came out. Also, a lot of cool monsters weren't in it, and that sucks. I want to do a 4e campaign setting some day, but what if I can't use Genasi or Drow?

suggestions:

1) access to a shared history isn't bad; don't lose your own foundation, right?
2) more DDI tools; I'm subscribed, beef it up!
3) I like the design changes, but sneaking them in isn't necessary.
4) More stuff in the GSL, like if I want to write a setting with my own version of Illithids and Beholders; Or if I want to publish a set of D&D 4e inspired novels!

 

[concerro]

I don't play 4th but I would like for you(WotC) to start putting indexes in the books so that when 5th comes out the habit is already in place. Not having indexes for all the 3rd edition books was annoying.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I mean, why is Paizo the competition now? That one stupid move.
We want to love you guys. Please help us feel like necessary decisions (like "we can't afford the magazine in paper and it kills trees") can be done. Let us feel that we're not "beneath your respect" with these moves. Try to accomodate us, we're paying for stuff. It's not the same as a TV network: the community is all about interaction; manners will help so many of the recent problems.

They aren't competition: but internet people like to make stands in the sand and create artificial enemies.

It creates a cohesion of us vs them.

WotC explicitly said they have no problems with Paizo's pathfinder.

 

[Festivus]

I don't play 4th but I would like for you(WotC) to start putting indexes in the books so that when 5th comes out the habit is already in place. Not having indexes for all the 3rd edition books was annoying.

My 4E PHB has an index... and I almost never use it since everything is organized into a few select pages that I have ever needed to look anything up (page 277 anyone?)

My 4E DMG has an index... the only other book where I might need to go look something up.

Everything else I don't really understand the need for an index (as far as my 4E books go). Things are organized either by class or alphabetically. I don't really need indexes when it's organized like that. I really don't have much trouble looking anything up I need.

 

[Harr]

They aren't competition: but internet people like to make stands in the sand and create artificial enemies.

It creates a cohesion of us vs them.

WotC explicitly said they have no problems with Paizo's pathfinder.

Ha, you really think that what determines whether something is competition or not is one side "explicitly saying" that they have a problem with the other side?? Funny...

It doesn't matter if the WotC staff and the Paizo staff have daily group hugs, picnics in the sunshine every weekend and give each other "cause it's Monday" gifts... WotC made Paizo into competition, and they are both in fact now competition to each other. Whether one has an explicit problem with the other has nothing to do with anything.