D&D 4E Betting on 4e

[Trainz]

I actually remember when this anouncement first appeared. April 1, (2003?). It was posted on WOTC's site for only a brief time before moving to archives due to the negative reaction and the immedite uproar. The whole thing was supposed to be a joke, not an official anouncement. WOTC apparently had no clue that nobody trusted them to be anything but money grubbing SOBs out for max profit even though it would kill the game to put out a new addition every three years.

That was precisely my first reaction when I saw it on the ENworld main page. But then I thought:"wait, we're march 22, it's not april's fool yet... wtf ?"

Oh well...

 

[jeffh]

I actually remember when this anouncement first appeared. April 1, (2003?). It was posted on WOTC's site for only a brief time before moving to archives due to the negative reaction and the immedite uproar. The whole thing was supposed to be a joke, not an official anouncement. WOTC apparently had no clue that nobody trusted them to be anything but money grubbing SOBs out for max profit even though it would kill the game to put out a new addition every three years.

That was a different fake 4th edition announcement, where they said it would be coming out in ten years and there would be previews annually, or something like that.

I first saw this particular "press release" as a Usenet troll about a year ago. It's quite old and definitely a joke.

 

[RangerWickett]

If you guys are believing this, you need a head checkin'. Sheesh.

 

[Pauper]

Oh... so you know for a fact the "press release" is phony?

I can say with some confidence that, yes, the press release on the Skullport site is fake.

While I can accept that the site admins might have trimmed off the obligatory self-aggrandizing blurbs at the end of every press release ("Wizards of the Coast has been producing high-quality gaming product since blah, blah, blah. Hasbro has blah, blah, blah." If you've seen actual corporate press releases, you know what I mean.), there are two things that convince me that this was put together by an amateur:

1) No press release put out by a publicly-traded company in the 21st century would fail to include the company's stock ticker (HAS in this case, since Hasbro trades on the NYSE).

2) The press release asserts that Hasbro's stock jumped five points based on the "exciting announcement". The last time Hasbro's stock moved anything close to five points in a single day was when the stock lost nearly five points after their second-quarter 2000 announcement that weakness in their licensed STAR WARS line (following the disappointing Episode I movie) and FURBY talking pet portended lower earnings for the rest of the year. (http://www.mimitchi.com/html/furbn135.htm) The only time in the past decade I can find where Hasbro's stock gained five or more points in a single day was the day that Hasbro publically rejected an offer to merge with Mattel - January 25, 1996. (http://www.marketplace.org/shows/1996/01/25_mpp.html - search for 'hasbro' to find the story)

So yes - the press release is a hoax. That doesn't mean that someone in WotC isn't thinking about D&D 4.0, but I doubt it's Jonathan Tweet, and I doubt whoever it is plans to say anything public about it for quite some time.

--
Pauper

 

[shawnsse]

This is obivously a trap.

Wotc is preparing our mind to accept 4E to come earlier even our heart do not want it to come too fast.

The more you talk about it, the more receptive you will be to earlier release date. It's nothing special. It's just psychological.

I would want the 4E to come 2010 but I'll bet it release date is fall 2006....

Too rush for a new edition, but in business term it make perfect sense.

 

[nopantsyet]

I've got to think this was added after the fact or some astute reader here surely would have noticed and mentioned by now.

Get a sense of humor or rent one if you don't have one.

OTOH, emotion clouds reason, and there's no shortage of emotion and nary a speck of reason when it comes to arguing about ruleset revisions.

Please. It's preposterous. I don't doubt there will be a 4th Edition. Better that than it disappears. Plus, with d20 I lose nothing if I don't like a new revision. I've got enough gaming materials to last me a lifetime if the entire gaming industry gets eaten by a single ant tomorrow.

 

[thundershot]

If it's fake, Wizards PR needs to take care of it fast. By not debunking it, it's only fueling the fires. If it's true (or if there's a hint of truth to it), then I can see D&D sales going down the toilet for the next two years, because people won't want to "waste" money. Me? I'm perfectly happy with d20, and I've got enough books to last me a good long time. So many publishers have put out great d20 products, and if I want something new, I'm confident that I'll be able to obtain them (if not a book store, then ebay is always your friend).



Chris

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Then there was the very bottom. Did anyone read that far?

Get a sense of humor or rent one if you don't have one.

 

[SSquirrel]

The Skullport site mentions fall 2006, and there's even a quote from Jonathan Tweet:

"It comes as a bit of surprise to some of our fans, perhaps, but a fourth edition of D&D is the logical progression of the game's evolution. To help support our fans who have bought the 3.5 core books we're going to be offering a 15% trade-in deal for the new fourth edition core books. We're excited about the work being done for the fourth edition and now that 3.5 is out it's time to start planning for the future. We're going to be doing things in this new game that no one has ever dared do in an RPG."

If it turns out to be true, this for me means that I will not buy a single book before 4th Ed. Not out of spite, not at all, but knowing that in exactly 2 and a half years my books will become incompatible, well I'll just run on what I have and house rules.

This announcement would be devastating on WotC's sales, it doesn't make sense: either it's phony, or either it's a leak (possibly from Tweet); in that case, I'm afraid someone else will be joining the ranks of Monte Cook et al.

Or Jonathan misset the date oin his watch so it read April Fools Day when he did that interview *grin*

Hagen

 

[Ottergame]

WOTC has already stated many, many times that they have no plans for 4th edition right now. I don't know what they have to do, mail cards to everyone saying so? Take out double page ads in every newspaper in the world? Buy out Super Bowl commerical time?