Vigilance
Explorer
Clefton Twain said:To some extent, I think you're right. But there is definitely a breed of consumers who will not jump on the bandwagon at the drop of a hat. Obviously WotC would be betting on the type of person who will gobble up anything and everything. I tend to pick and choose what I want--this adds up to about 3-4 books a year. Mostly this is because of either poor design, uninteresting subject matter, or lack of anything I can actually use. My gaming group tends to share books so that only one person ends up buying about half of the books we use.
Of course, but a new edition not only lets them sell you more books, it lets them sell you THE SAME BOOKS.
Even casual gamers will probably get hooked. Your GM gets the game and really likes it, so ok, you buy the new PHB (in several stages possibly from what we're hearing). And then of course you HAVE to have the Forgotten Realms campaign.
And then your GM leaves your group and it falls on you to run the game for a bit, which was going so well in 4e. So now you need the MM and the DMG (again in several stages).
Etc etc.
I think this process is why despite all the acrimony, the vast majority of gaming groups end up adopting the new game. D&D is social, and just like people will get the new EQ disk to go cavorting with their buds on Norrath's moon or wherever, they will get the new edition of D&D to play with their friends too.