Brand Fatigue

[Stormonu]

Edition fatigue and company fatigue (as in "sick of WotC"), maybe from the chatter I see. I don't think there's brand fatigue, plenty of people seem to still love D&D regardless of edition.

 

[Mallus]

No.

 

[Morrus]

I'm seeing some signs that D&D could be reaching the end of it's Shelf Life as a brand. Not to start an edition war, there are some signs that the product is reaching the end of it's life.

Would you care to share your insights? I'm not clever enough to see these signs, unfortunately.

 

[Dice4Hire]

No.

These kinds of arguments always seem to come from those who do not do D&D, or at least the current version of it. In other words, wishful thinking.

D&D is THE brand for those who are not serious about roleplaying, or those who are entering the hobby, especially via bookstores or stores like Target. A new player has to work awful hard to find the older editions or other games in this hobby. As a hobby, we do not want D&d to fail, and I see no signs it will.

Of course, it may ell go places some people don't want it to go, but all brands do that.

Hopefully it will go back to a place where the most people are happy with that. I do not believe it is currently in that place.

 

[Reynard]

The problem with the basic thesis of this thread is that D&D hardly gets used as a brand at all, outside of gaming. The last couple years have been a little better, but we're still missing some key uses of the brand:

1) First and foremost, the fact that there is not a D&D branded cartoon on CN or DXD or the like is ridiculous.
2) Where are the McFarlane Toys D&D monsters. These would be amazing, and sell like hotcakes.
3) The starting and stopping of D&D comics is a travesty; get a real creative team on it and give it some real time to grow.
4) No current PC games besides DDO? Really?
5) Boardgames!

Now, it looks like they are going to try 3 again, and give 5 a real go. 4 just amazes me, given that it was games like Baldurs Gate that kept D&D alive while the tabletop game floundered. 1) and 2) are probably pipe dreams, but D&D is a world recognized brand, known by far more than those that play the games.

 

[BryonD]

No.

D&D as a name is still huge.

 

[Festivus]

The problem with the basic thesis of this thread is that D&D hardly gets used as a brand at all, outside of gaming. The last couple years have been a little better, but we're still missing some key uses of the brand:

1) First and foremost, the fact that there is not a D&D branded cartoon on CN or DXD or the like is ridiculous.
2) Where are the McFarlane Toys D&D monsters. These would be amazing, and sell like hotcakes.
3) The starting and stopping of D&D comics is a travesty; get a real creative team on it and give it some real time to grow.
4) No current PC games besides DDO? Really?
5) Boardgames!

Now, it looks like they are going to try 3 again, and give 5 a real go. 4 just amazes me, given that it was games like Baldurs Gate that kept D&D alive while the tabletop game floundered. 1) and 2) are probably pipe dreams, but D&D is a world recognized brand, known by far more than those that play the games.

1. My kids can't relate to the old cartoon, they will watch it but it's not as cool as "Rescue Heroes"
2. Is McFarlane still making toys? I haven't seen any new cool dragons, but I haven't been looking hard for them.
3. The new comic is good, but it pisses me off that you have to find a comic shop that will order 10 copies to get the one edition that has the encounter printed in it. Stupid.
4. Neverwinter Nights is what sucked me back into tabletop gaming. Yes, it's needed and with 4E it could be totally awesome. I just wish we could have something like NWN where you could develop content for it, but I think that's a bygone era.
5. Please hope they don't delay Wrath of Ashardalon again

 

[Umbran]

The brand is a couple of words, and some ideas. "Dungeons and Dragons", and adventurers creeping down corridors, alleyways, or forests fighting monsters and finding treasures.

Does this somehow fail to ignite your imagination? No? Then the brand, as such, is just fine.

I'm sorry to say that most of the "fatigues" we bring upon ourselves. Really - if we channeled half the energy and attention we expend in arguing with each other into actually playing our favorite game, the edition changes wouldn't mean diddly to us, because our own games would be awesome!

If you spend so much energy fighting with over how you're right and they're wrong... well, you shouldn't be surprised you get fatigued. Fighting is tiring.

 

[DragonLancer]

D&D is THE brand for those who are not serious about roleplaying (snip...)

What do you mean by "not serious?"

 

[shadzar]

The problem with the basic thesis of this thread is that D&D hardly gets used as a brand at all, outside of gaming. The last couple years have been a little better, but we're still missing some key uses of the brand:

1) First and foremost, the fact that there is not a D&D branded cartoon on CN or DXD or the like is ridiculous.
2) Where are the McFarlane Toys D&D monsters. These would be amazing, and sell like hotcakes.
3) The starting and stopping of D&D comics is a travesty; get a real creative team on it and give it some real time to grow.
4) No current PC games besides DDO? Really?
5) Boardgames!

Now, it looks like they are going to try 3 again, and give 5 a real go. 4 just amazes me, given that it was games like Baldurs Gate that kept D&D alive while the tabletop game floundered. 1) and 2) are probably pipe dreams, but D&D is a world recognized brand, known by far more than those that play the games.

1. CN has vastly thrown out what made it popular, Nickelodeon now has DBZ to compliment their own popular Avatar. AS was probably kept as a cheap way to keep some older people without completely alienating all of their viewers in their recent demographics switch to a younger audience. Disney does still have to option to air the D&D cartoon featuring Willie Aimes as Hank the Ranger et all. All 3 of these networks have moved form TOON Disney (Disney XD), CarTOON Network, and NickTOONS to promote and develop live action programs. Sort of confusing to people like having WWE wrestling on the Sci-Fi SyFy channel. HASBRO's HUB channel has a few programs like Deltora Quest that are in the same direction as D&D along with their A-Team version GI Joe called Renegades. So they may be moving in that direction to place something related to their own products when they can get a decent foothold in this market of what is remaining on TV as opposed to what is being watched online and on iPod and downloaded etc.

2. HASBRO is a toy manufacturer, did they produce MacFarlane's or did someone else? If they did not, then why would they want his company to do it for them?

3. Didnt they have a Magic the Gathering manga? Maybe they see as many others in that industry that comics are dying if not dead already in their current format. At least US comics are while Asian comics are taking a foothold.

4. Would you compete with WoW? Console games would also be beter thqan PC games in today's market.

5. Didn't someone recently (past year) say that the D&D team was split into RPG team and board/other games team?

Spreading yourself thin like this is what caused T$Rs downfall. Granted WotC has HASBRO to back it up financially, but I am sure they would rather spend money elsewhere than on failing products or diluting one of their brands worse than they have done with many of them recently.

What do you mean by "not serious?"

D&D has become the Jell-O of RPGs.