My phone call with Creg Leeds

[Truth Seeker]

Wait...that sounds like a excellent idea!!

Just imagine what can happen, the possibilites has potential!!



*And yes, we will get slap with the phone bill cost*

Well, I got one. Several maybe. But it may simple come down to interpretation. Points 2, 4 and 5 were all relatively good in my eyes, yet some of them seem to have offended others. Still, I know I wasn't on the line, so I'm not too worried about what I might have missed. And I seriously can't expect the president of the company to call each and every concerned customer to offer his assurances.

 

[Brix]

Brix, did you ask Greg Leeds about print on demand? What did he answer?

I suggested that in my initial email. However we did not talk about that.

I guess that wizards won't do that. Although I would appreciate that.

 

[Brix]

...
And thanks to Brix, too, for getting the ball rolling. if possible I'd love a bit more details; any chance of a transcript? Or some more detailed thoughts. As the person on the other end of the phone, what was YOUR take on the conversation?
...[/QUOTE]

Since I'm not a native speaker and haven't talked much English recently, my approach was to collect my own complains about WotC in a paper I sent to Greg and try to find solutions I would appreciate. In addition I asked the community to do so in a couple of threads. Then I pointed Greg to these threads in my paper as well. I did this to establish common ground, and to make sure that he gets my point and that no misunderstandings occur through bad use of English.
So most of the 15 minutes he spoke and basically gave the information I already provided. I had three opportunities to speak.

1st: After he referred to the success of 4E I specifically asked him if WotC is not concerned about the growing success of his competitor Paizo, and if they don't want to earn the money Paizo gets from people who turned away after the advent of 4E, which led to the answer that WotC is fine with the fact that people support Paizo, as long as they continue to play roleplaying games, which benefits the whole industry.

2nd: He asked me, why I don't like D&DI. I said that there is no content for me (since I don't like 4E-rules, 4E-FR). I also said, that imo D&D is a pen&paper game that is played with friends at the table and only in rare circumstances over the internet. While I think that computers can help to organize your roleplaying experience i think that there are (free) tools available that work better than the current iteration of the D&DI tools.

3rd: I was sqeaking with joy after he said that amongst my many suggestion they will shoot out pre-Spellplague FR material. Although no details were given. In my original paper I suggested that they already paid for that stuff (tons of material from Ed Greenwood and others) so why don't sell it? It also suggested to make it like Paizo, e.g. regional books with no or very light stats (like LE Fighter 6) and mostly fluff - for decent prices. We'll see

 

[Grazzt]

Color me unimpressed with his answers.

Same.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I´m really interested how Wotc will present the pre-spellplaque stuff. I would pay immediately for a, say, electronic re-issue of the old FR Grey Box, hyperlinked and optimized and enriched with later maps and lore. Basically different campaign-packages from different timelines.

This thread, however... well, again my opinion of D&D fandom sank down a notch. "Prostituting D&D"? WTF.

 

[Bumbles]

This thread, however... well, again my opinion of D&D fandom sank down a notch. "Prostituting D&D"? WTF.

I wonder if they've ever seen the record books or other products from the 80s...

 

[Korgoth]

* Wizards tries to evolve the game every ten years or so. Greg compared it to bands that change their style over the years, and thus loose old fans and get some new fans. But in the end Wizards hope to get everyone back.

So they went from Big Band to Chinese Opera. What's next, Bluegrass?

And hmm: "every ten years or so". My money's on the "or so". Or rather, my money is nowhere near any of these people.

It was nice that Leeds spoke with you, and nice that you posted about it. It has taken this last debacle (PDFgate) to finally push me over the edge of Total Cynicism. Short of WOTC paying off my grandma's mortgage there's basically nothing they can do to make me not assume the worst about whatever they say and do, and to hope that their every effort fails and that they come to financial ruin as a company.

 

[El Mahdi]

So they went from Big Band to Chinese Opera. What's next, Bluegrass? ...

Nah, they'll go Freeform Progressive Jazz like Spinal Tap.

 

[Kask]

Wizards is even fine with the fact that a fraction of the gamers went to Paizo. As long as everybody plays D&D that's fine.

So, he considers Paizo's offering "D&D?

 

[Mistwell]

So, he considers Paizo's offering "D&D?

Well sure, why wouldn't he? It's a flavor of D&D, since it's essentially based on 3.5 D&D.