D&D 5E D&D / WotC and GenCon

[Mistwell]

I don't think people are overreacting at all. WotC, who owns the D&D intellectual property, which most of us hold dear, are once again playing the secrecy card about what they are doing. Those of us that are "overreacting" are simply voicing our concern that we are left in the dark on where the game is going (or coming)... especially since this version was a very community driven effort.

Whoever or whatever gave you this false sense of entitlement was wrong.

Also, you previously declared you think it's wiser to just stick with Pathfinder. Which is fine for you, so why are you still on about your entitlement to information from their competitor?

 

[fjw70]

This was posted on the Gencon forums

Wizards of the Coast is still in the processes of finalizing their strategic plans for Gen Con 2014, the timing of which differs from Gen Con’s event catalog release. Their events will be released once everything is complete and we’ll let you know when the events are "active".

i still say there will be a big announcement this week.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Whoever or whatever gave you this false sense of entitlement was wrong.

Also, you previously declared you think it's wiser to just stick with Pathfinder. Which is fine for you, so why are you still on about your entitlement to information from their competitor?

I don't think it's really good for discussion to label people who want more information as "entitled". I have say. WotC played up the fact that 5E was going to be community tested and transparent a great deal earlier on in the process, and that was their decision, so when they do that and then "go dark", I don't think it's fair to suggest people who wanted that to continue are "entitled". It'd be one with if the poster was demanding that WotC "owed" him and "had" to do this. That's entitlement and worth calling out. What this poster has is more of a case of concern and desire, I think, than entitlement.

Personally I'm not too concerned about when 5E comes out. Actually, that's not entirely true. I am a little concerned it might be "half-baked", and we might get 5.5E two years from now to correct that (I mean, let me be clear, I would RATHER have 5.5E than a half-baked 5E continue, but I'd rather have a fully-baked 5E than either).

I do think the level of blackout we've seen is a little odd, though, and the strange way we've had these sort of "semi-formed" ideas leaking out, rather than confident/finished "This is how we're doing X!"-type stuff. I don't really know what to make of it. I personally hope that, if it's indicative of what's going on at WotC right now, they just release some sort of "work in progress" preview/early version at GenCon, and keep the finished version until it's well, finished, rather than just finalizing things at an arbitrary stage (I mean, there will always be an element of that but...).

 

[pedr]

This was posted on the Gencon forums

...


i still say there will be a big announcement this week.

That's fascinating, and helps explain Derek Guder's tweet when he saw the release of details on the WotC site. He simply tweeted "..." to Dave Christ, which I think I'm now interpreting as "why did WotC tell me not to release these details into the GenCon system and then post them on their site?"

 

[Mistwell]

I don't think it's really good for discussion to label people who want more information as "entitled".

And I don't think it's good for the discussion to characterize what I said as me labeling "people who want more information". Every single person on this message board probably wants more information, and that's not who I was referring to.

It'd be one with if the poster was demanding that WotC "owed" him and "had" to do this. That's entitlement and worth calling out. What this poster has is more of a case of concern and desire, I think, than entitlement.

If I gave the impression I was speaking to some larger group of people, I apologize for that. I am not speaking to some larger group of people. And I do think this particular poster is in fact saying that he thinks WOTC owes him something.

 

[DMZ2112]

I don't think people are overreacting at all. WotC, who owns the D&D intellectual property, which most of us hold dear, are once again playing the secrecy card about what they are doing. Those of us that are "overreacting" are simply voicing our concern that we are left in the dark on where the game is going (or coming)... especially since this version was a very community driven effort.

Man, I remember the fan-built D&D3 PHB PDF, cobbled together on the web from the scraps that WotC deigned to toss us, that was available around May 2000. If you think this is high secrecy, when they just released a new iteration of the completely playable next edition last week, and it was the third such official release in the last year, I just don't know what to tell you.

This was posted on the Gencon forums

*snip*

i still say there will be a big announcement this week.

Part of me says that it would be a really bad move for them to miss initial event registration. The other part of me says that if the timing was really that close they would have just made it into the catalog. A third part of me says, "Hello San Diego Comic Con."

That's fascinating, and helps explain Derek Guder's tweet when he saw the release of details on the WotC site. He simply tweeted "..." to Dave Christ, which I think I'm now interpreting as "why did WotC tell me not to release these details into the GenCon system and then post them on their site?"

Amusing, but not particularly revealing. Are you seeing something I am not?

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Part of me says that it would be a really bad move for them to miss initial event registration. The other part of me says that if the timing was really that close they would have just made it into the catalog. A third part of me says, "Hello San Diego Comic Con."

It's worth noting that as per the other thread, the Starter Set is now mostly confirmed for July 15th. Which means the Barnes and Noble "leak" was correct. That information was released yesterday to retail stores.

We know that Dave Christ assured everyone that he had put in the descriptions of all the D&D events months ago to be sure that they were all ready to go when event registration happened. He tweeted that and he posted the same thing here on ENWorld.

We also know this exchange happened on Twitter just recently:

Martin Tideswell [MENTION=28]Martin[/MENTION]Tideswell May 11
Hello Dave and team [MENTION=6674266]Ba[/MENTION]ldmangames Do you know if the DnD events be up on the @Gen_Con events listing before next Sunday? Flying blind here!

Baldman Games [MENTION=6674266]Ba[/MENTION]ldmangames May 11
[MENTION=28]Martin[/MENTION]Tideswell @Gen_Con I have no answer for that I'm sorry. I really!!!!! hope they do but this is above my pay grade.

Martin Tideswell &#8207 [MENTION=28]Martin[/MENTION]Tideswell May 11
[MENTION=6674266]Ba[/MENTION]ldmangames @Gen_Con Darn... Hard to plan anything else when we haven't seen this! Is the new edition of #DnD actually launching @Gen_Con?

Baldman Games [MENTION=6674266]Ba[/MENTION]ldmangames May 11
[MENTION=28]Martin[/MENTION]Tideswell @Gen_Con cannot answer that but hope to post a helpful update as soon as I get it approved.

It looks like Baldman Games(which is likely Dave Christ) has no idea why the events they entered aren't active on the GenCon website. Also, note that the wording he used when replying to the second question was "cannot answer that" rather than "I don't know" or something similar. I'm positive he knows the answer and isn't allowed to say. He's also waiting to hear from WOTC as to when he is allowed to post an update.

Honestly, I can think of only ONE reason why WOTC would wait to post those events: They are waiting for SOMETHING to happen before they post them. I assume that is because PR is trying to coordinate a couple of things happening at once, like an official announcement along with details going out to distributors and retailers and the events going live at the same time. However, there is the possibility that they ran into some problems with printing or shipments and are waiting to hear back from part of their supply chain before they can make an official announcement(since they might have to change the release date).

I'm positive that the delay has to have SOMETHING to do with the release of the books, however.

 

[DMZ2112]

It's worth noting that as per the other thread, the Starter Set is now mostly confirmed for July 15th. Which means the Barnes and Noble "leak" was correct.

It'd be nice if they were also right about the PHB.

I'm positive that the delay has to have SOMETHING to do with the release of the books, however.

Someone's going to write a memoir about this process entitled "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Wait Patiently for D&D Next," but it won't be me. I have no idea what anything means anymore. They've announced the events! They're on the Wizards site! Why the delay in the Gen Con catalog? The announcement on the Wizards site will reach an order of magnitude more people, affecting both initial impressions and the impact of a potential retraction!

If they need a delay for the sake of security, why would they reveal the uncertain information to a wider audience first? Ow, my brainmeats.

 

[exile]

It'd be nice if they were also right about the PHB.



Someone's going to write a memoir about this process entitled "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Wait Patiently for D&D Next," but it won't be me. I have no idea what anything means anymore. They've announced the events! They're on the Wizards site! Why the delay in the Gen Con catalog? The announcement on the Wizards site will reach an order of magnitude more people, affecting both initial impressions and the impact of a potential retraction!

If they need a delay for the sake of security, why would they reveal the uncertain information to a wider audience first? Ow, my brainmeats.

my suspicion is that the description in the GenCon catalog reveals more information than what WotC posted on their website. For example, the GenCon entries may indicate that pregens will be provided or that you should bring your own character. They may indicate that these adventures are part of a new organized play campaign (or not).

 

[Thaumaturge]

my suspicion is that the description in the GenCon catalog reveals more information than what WotC posted on their website. For example, the GenCon entries may indicate that pregens will be provided or that you should bring your own character. They may indicate that these adventures are part of a new organized play campaign (or not).

I was thinking something along these lines.

The description could easily have "using the newly released 5th edition rules" or some such. And they want all of their ducks in a row before they pull the trigger.

Thaumaturge.