Confidence in WotC

[Treebore]

Frankly, I don't really care anymore. I am glad they are doing the reprints, especially for 1E. I've just realized I am no longer their "target audience", and am actually glad I am not. Its been very liberating.

So they can keep on however they wish, I don't care. I am more than happy with my gaming without them, and will continue to be whether they keep the brand going or not.

Now I do hope they pull the D&D community back together with 5E. I really do. This idea to unify the mechanics is an awesome one. Its why I have been playing Castles and Crusades these past 7 years+. So if they pull it off, they will succeed in making me interested in "their" brand of D&D again. If not, no big loss to my gaming.

 

[Alzrius]

But aren't they the company in the business that is estimated to make by far the greatest profits?

Yes, but that's due mainly to M:tG, and DaveMage said he was talking about the business side with regards to D&D.

 

[billd91]

Cutting a project that isn't going to thrive (the VTT) doesn't really boost my confidence. Rather, it just arrests any further decline that issue would bring.

My confidence in WotC isn't very high. It hasn't been for a few years now. That said, they're making several moves I would consider positive with D&D Next (as well as a few negative like losing Monte Cook). I like their ambitions in designing a game that could attract fans of all D&D editions, but I'm not so sure they'll pull it off.

 

[S'mon]

The question is about the "D&D brand". I think Hasbro has been driving the D&D brand into the ground at least since 2010, so based on that I voted 'not confident'.

 

[Dannager]

This depends on what you define as "digital products."

Software packages and other digital tools. The concept of creating a comprehensive suite of programs to facilitate a specific system's ease of play, even if that ended up being only half-realized. It was the first time it had ever been tried, and accordingly it stumbled a number of times.

But, as I've said a number of times, the fact that they got as far as they did means that gaming can never go back. Digital support will, from 4e onward, be seen as one of the fundamental pillars of first-party RPG publishing going forward. If you want to be one of the industry giants, you are going to have to compete both offline and online. Paizo lagged behind in this respect for years, but we're starting to see the results of what they must have been planning for quite some time now with the recent announcement of their own VTT/PbP system, complete with published adventure integration. Even if first-party publishers choose not to develop their own apps, they would be smart to make their products as seamlessly available for use with third-party apps as possible (making art assets like maps available in high res, with DM symbols removed; or creating API-accessible databases of rules material; etc).

 

[Harlock]

Software packages and other digital tools. The concept of creating a comprehensive suite of programs to facilitate a specific system's ease of play, even if that ended up being only half-realized. It was the first time it had ever been tried

It's been a very long time indeed since I actually looked at what AD&D Core Rules 2.0 had on it, but I think that might meet your requirements. Character creation, encounter creation, map tools, complete text of a lot of books... it didn't have a virtual tabletop is all. That was a good CD-ROM. I loved it and used it quite a bit. It even allowed for houserules! Anyway, that is just me, nitpicking.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

It's been a very long time indeed since I actually looked at what AD&D Core Rules 2.0 had on it, but I think that might meet your requirements. Character creation, encounter creation, map tools, complete text of a lot of books... it didn't have a virtual tabletop is all. That was a good CD-ROM. I loved it and used it quite a bit. It even allowed for houserules! Anyway, that is just me, nitpicking.

Exactly.

I was browned off with eTools and then the DDI rubbish because Evermore 88 designed and delivered (ahhh, execution... something WotC knows jack about) a fully-functioning comprehensive character generator plus books plus map builder etc... in about 1997 or 1998. That's an eon in digital terms... and that was with 2E with its multitude of fiddly Gygaxian sub-systems.

Oh, and it was offline... and, yes, you could even add in house rules.

 

[scourger]

Mostly confident. I like what I've seen of 5e so far. I did not get any 4e and 3.5 was lukewarm to me after the 3.0 d20 hotness, but I think they are doing some good things for 5e. I especially like WotC's own old school revival by reprinting the 1e and 3.5e core rulebooks almost simultaneously. It's like someone in a board room woke up and realized that they are the old school and the new school too. They really shouldn't be losing significant market share to clones when they have the source code.

 

[Filcher]

Edited. Keep my mouth shut.

 

[Tallifer]

By 2015, D&D will be effectively dead as a pen-and-paper RPG, at least by that name. It will live on in the form of Pathfinder, the various retro-clones, 3rd party support for 4e, but not as "Dungeons & Dragons" as we know it.

Wizards of the Coast no more exclusively defines Dungeons & Dragons than did TSR. If as you say it will live on in Pathfinder and the retro-clones, then it will live on, full stop, no difference from living on under WotC. Most of the retro-clones are especially slavish in their continuation of the classic rules. (I hope the same will happen for the Fourth Edition.)