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4 Hours w/ RSD - Escapist Bonus Column
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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 7647747" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>A very well written and thoughtful article.</p><p></p><p>There are two points that I agree with Mr. Dancey and wanted to highlight:</p><p></p><p>1) Dnd's strength lies in the social network of its players. The more unified the player base, ultimately the stronger the RPG market becomes.</p><p></p><p>2) MMOs are attracting kids/teenagers before they are hitting RPG age, and so is pulling their attention away from those avenues.</p><p></p><p></p><p>With those in mind, I see two major issues for the future of DND:</p><p></p><p>1) Moving away from the new edition model to generate revenue. Even 2nd edition designers noted the difficulty in selling a new edition without fragmenting the base into 1st and 2nd editioners.</p><p></p><p>Each edition has showed an initial period of strong revenue followed by diminishing returns as players buy less and less of the "non-core books".</p><p></p><p>A new edition counters this by introducing new core books and results in increased sales, but also generates fragmentation in the industry which hinders long term prospects. Taken to the extreme, it could result in a market where the majority of players play an old "favorite edition", and a new edition is only sellable to a much smaller group, a phenomena that I think we are already starting to see now.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately, the business model has to change to prevent that. And I think WOTC answer to that is the DDI. While I don't always agree with how WOTC implements the DDI, I think its a good business direction to take.</p><p></p><p>When you look at products like the characters builder and monster builder, players aren't so much buying "product" as they are buying "services". We are buying tools to enhance our RPG experience.</p><p></p><p>While I may only pay a single fee for a product, I will pay much longer to maintain a service that I enjoy, which is done correctly provides WOTC a continuing revenue stream without the need to generate constant new product, and ultimately new editions.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>2) DND has to continue to try and market outside of its market. This to me is a two fold process: You have to market to kids before they get into MMOs and other competing products, and you have to market to them in a way that can pull them away from competing products.</p><p></p><p>Someone mentioned a new DND video game as a great marketing tool, and I completely agree. As a video game, it hits the MMO style markets, but its just DND enough to perhaps expose them to more traditional roleplaying.</p><p></p><p>I think this is DND greatest remaining strength as a brand. Even people who have never played RPGs have at least heard of DND. Used correctly, it might provide the influx of new players the industry needs to grow.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Now, all of that gives me a bit of hope. But when looked at from a big picture standpoint, this is a TOUGH PROBLEM, one that has not been solved yet. I would like to credit Mr. Dancey for highlighting the problem in a very elegant way.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 7647747, member: 5889"] A very well written and thoughtful article. There are two points that I agree with Mr. Dancey and wanted to highlight: 1) Dnd's strength lies in the social network of its players. The more unified the player base, ultimately the stronger the RPG market becomes. 2) MMOs are attracting kids/teenagers before they are hitting RPG age, and so is pulling their attention away from those avenues. With those in mind, I see two major issues for the future of DND: 1) Moving away from the new edition model to generate revenue. Even 2nd edition designers noted the difficulty in selling a new edition without fragmenting the base into 1st and 2nd editioners. Each edition has showed an initial period of strong revenue followed by diminishing returns as players buy less and less of the "non-core books". A new edition counters this by introducing new core books and results in increased sales, but also generates fragmentation in the industry which hinders long term prospects. Taken to the extreme, it could result in a market where the majority of players play an old "favorite edition", and a new edition is only sellable to a much smaller group, a phenomena that I think we are already starting to see now. Ultimately, the business model has to change to prevent that. And I think WOTC answer to that is the DDI. While I don't always agree with how WOTC implements the DDI, I think its a good business direction to take. When you look at products like the characters builder and monster builder, players aren't so much buying "product" as they are buying "services". We are buying tools to enhance our RPG experience. While I may only pay a single fee for a product, I will pay much longer to maintain a service that I enjoy, which is done correctly provides WOTC a continuing revenue stream without the need to generate constant new product, and ultimately new editions. 2) DND has to continue to try and market outside of its market. This to me is a two fold process: You have to market to kids before they get into MMOs and other competing products, and you have to market to them in a way that can pull them away from competing products. Someone mentioned a new DND video game as a great marketing tool, and I completely agree. As a video game, it hits the MMO style markets, but its just DND enough to perhaps expose them to more traditional roleplaying. I think this is DND greatest remaining strength as a brand. Even people who have never played RPGs have at least heard of DND. Used correctly, it might provide the influx of new players the industry needs to grow. Now, all of that gives me a bit of hope. But when looked at from a big picture standpoint, this is a TOUGH PROBLEM, one that has not been solved yet. I would like to credit Mr. Dancey for highlighting the problem in a very elegant way. [/QUOTE]
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