Future of D&D Keynote Speech [UPDATE - with video!]

[wisemoon]

If you all want D&D to flourish, you MUST get kids involved, and sorry the majority of kids simply will not get involved with a "boring thing with books n dice" when they can plug in a game and get right into the action themselves.

I agree with you to a certain extent...kids 20 and younger have grown up in an environment where interactivity is ubiquitous, video games of various kinds are ubiquitous, and instant gratification is the norm. You *must* have interactivity and excitement to engage younger players.

However, I truly believe that Mearls was on to something when he said in the keynote that the "D&D experience" is NOT ABOUT THE RULES. A really good DM knows the ruleset well enough that they know what to change, what to leave out, what to adapt. Interactivity is about *drama*, it's about *imagination*, it's about *creating a story* and *making it real*. THAT is what gets kids excited about this game. The ruleset you choose to use doesn't really matter, as long as the DM/GM knows how to make it fade into the background.

How many kids go to *RPG/baord game shops*, or book shops?
Don't talk foolish, folks, jsut to "support D&D", the relaity is damn few kids go to such shops..

I have to differ with you here. In my town, a game store opened up a couple of years ago, in the deepest part of the US recession. Nobody thought it would succeed. And yet, last year they moved to a new location twice the size of the old one, and they are still doing well and making money two years after they started. Every night their shop is filled with players. My teenaged daughter goes down there whenever she can beg me to take her...she plays card games, but card gamers are not the only ones there. D&D Encounters is booked up months in advance. Just based on my experience with that one shop...I'd have to say you are wrong.

A Blockbuster ocmputer game would do vaslty more to boost D&D than anyhting else will.
And frankly I don't see any such out there (the new Neverwinter and DDO....don't cut the mustard by a long chalk....go see Skyrim instead)

I do agree that developing a D&D computer game would go a long way to exposing the game to new players from younger generations. D&D Online didn't do well because they didn't really consider the fact that developing a successful MMO is a VERY large task and a daunting one, one that many video game studios have tried to do and failed. That said, a single-player PC or console game with 4E or 5E rules could be an excellent marketing tool. If WoTC were to license the D&D brand to a huge and well-respected studio, like they have in the past, they could bring in another large revenue stream, get more exposure for the brand, and bring in more new players for the D&D tabletop game.

 

[mudbunny]

I do agree that developing a D&D computer game would go a long way to exposing the game to new players from younger generations. D&D Online didn't do well because they didn't really consider the fact that developing a successful MMO is a VERY large task and a daunting one, one that many video game studios have tried to do and failed. That said, a single-player PC or console game with 4E or 5E rules could be an excellent marketing tool. If WoTC were to license the D&D brand to a huge and well-respected studio, like they have in the past, they could bring in another large revenue stream, get more exposure for the brand, and bring in more new players for the D&D tabletop game.

I am not sure you are accurate when it comes to DDO. Last I read, it has been doing very, very well. When they made it Free to Play, it started making even more money.