Interesting thread. I am going to go back to the OP on this one. Apologies if I cover ground already tread.
I can imagine one of the more asked questions that Mike will be asked is "Where are you going with these articles?"
I get a feeling from reading these articles that Mike is trying to brainstorm about game theory and he wants to elicit feedback from his fanbase. It has proven to be a contentious but successful strategem for Paizo.
Anyhow after reading page after page of discussion about these articles I've been surprised at the number of people who are say"This won't work!!!!" or who say something like "If this is 5e then count me out!!!!" without any sort of sense of how this would even actually look beyond discussion about theory.
No matter how you couch the subject of D&D, change, editions, etc. It will elicit strong responses. Look at the last four years. It amazes me how many people are invested in a game ruleset.
So this makes me wonder, could WotC actually make the majority of people happy with a new edition? Are WotC just the hated big guy that draws a lot of fire from people (granted they've made unpopular choices)? I imagine if say Paizo came out with with these articles as the possible new direction that Pathfinder would be taking the response would definitely be more positive. Is WotC in a no win situation?
I am going to come at this from a marketing perspective (my RL profession). I don't think that WotC drew fire from being the 'Big Guy'. D&D was the 'Big Guy' for decades without the schism we have seen in the last few years (granted, the arrival of the Internet as a communication vehicle also bears some of the responsibility for this). In fact, most gamers praised WotC as the savior of D&D in the last days of 2e.
What drew fire was the perception many had at the callousness that WotC (and by implication, Hasbro) treated their customers during the 4e rollout. Before I get any heated replies, note I said PERCEPTION. I am certain they didn't mean to treat any of their customers callously, no company ever does. But, and old saying in the marketing business is 'Perception is reality'. It doesn't matter what message you are trying to get across, if your mode of communication ends up being received badly by your audience, it is your fault, not the audiences. After all, the customer is always right. Why? Because you want them to buy your product.
Take my example. Not because I think that everyone thinks like me, but because I can only speak for myself. When 4E was announced four years ago, I was cautiously optomistic. I was a bit put out because I had thousands of dollars in 3e stuff, and I really wasn't looking forward to upgrading. However, the example of the 3D computer MMO-like interface WotC showed at GenCon looked really sweet. I have maintained that the future of gaming will eventually blend the visual impact and world-wide reach of MMOs with the customizable features and sandbox-style narratives of TTRPGS. I thought this was an important first step.
Several things occured to sour me on 4e. The previews didn't catch with me. I was somewhat distressed with the slaughter of the sacred cows of canon (I likes my sacred cows). Dragon and Dungeon, two of my oldest and dearest magazine subscriptions were announced to stop print and go digital. Paizo, a company I had learned to respect highly through said magazines, was being cut out of them. The OGL, a document I had thought very highly of, was being discarded for the GSL, a step backwards IMO. The delay in producing the GSL only hardened this opinion. Then, there were the 4Vengers...
I am not trying to spark anger here, let me put this out right away. But from a perception angle, the way the fans of the new system dismissed the concerns of those of us not sold on the new system rankled. I understand that they didn't speak for the company. But, in the end, the perception was that they did, or that their flaming was tolerated. It produced flaming from the proponents of the 3e/OGL side of things as well, and it escalated into the sad state of affairs we sufffered through these last few years.
The final straw for me was ending the miniatures line and ending sales of the previous editions PDFs. I felt as if WotC didn't care for my patronage any more. Whether this was true or not is irrelevant, this is how I FELT, and with a customer, how they feel is how they buy. Now, I am but one person, but my gaming outlay is about $150/month (it is my one hobby). I had originally spent this primarily with WotC and some with White Wolf, but now that money goes to Paizo.
Now, Paizo has won my loyalty over the years. They put out a beautiful product (gaming rules don't really bother me, but quality of product is key). They are incredibly responsive to customer queries, and their staff seems to have a real love of the game. If, as the OP posits, they did a Version 2.0, I believe that their open playtest style and their committment to open source gaming would ease the pain of the transition. I personally don't really care about the ruleset, I can tell my stories with coinfips if that needs to be done. It's how I feel I am valued as a customer that is important.
Is WotC in a 'no-win' situation? No, not really. Hopefully, they can learn from the marketing blunders of the past years and come up with some winning material. I would suggest as an olive branch to disaffected customers that they put PDFs of their older edition material up for sale again. That would go a long way towards healing the schism. Also, releasing edition-neutral items like miniatures, maps and the like would gain them returning customers, who then might be tempted to try their new game ruleset. You have to get them in the door if you want to sell them something, after all. I am not irretreivably lost to WotC, but they will have to work hard to regain my patronage.
Thank you for reading my TL missive. Once again, I will state for clarity: I am not trying to demean 4e, WotC, Hasbro, or its players. I am stating opinions only, and I speak only for myself. I was merely trying to discuss the OP's question from the perspective of a former customer of WotC.
