Has WotC hit its stride?

[DNH]

It seems to me that the last several releases from WotC have all met with considerable praise, each one picking up sound bites along the lines of "best 4e book yet!" I am talking about Madness at Gardmore Abbey, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, the Neverwinter Campaign Guide and Heroes of the Feywild. All seem to have been met with enthusiasm and critical success from the fans.

Are we seeing WotC turning a corner here? Is this the shape of things to come? Will we see more of the same quality? I certainly hope so.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Judging by their product line lately, the number of new/old core books being sold on Amazon alone, and the number of paying subscribers to DDI, I would sure say they are meeting their goals.

I have bought Madness at Gardmore Abbey, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, and the Neverwinter Campaign Guide and am impressed with them all. I may even have to buy Heroes of the Feywild.

 

[Kzach]

Really? I haven't heard anything good about MME.

 

[wedgeski]

They seem to be on the right track. Recent product has been good or very good, the quality of articles in Dungeon and (especially) Dragon seems to be going up, the Character Builder is finally (FINALLY) addressing house rules, and the Monster Builder, math fixes aside, is a really fun piece of software. The VTT is also in broad beta now and although I don't think it's going to set the world afire, it looks like it will be a solid addition to DDI.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Are we seeing WotC turning a corner here?

I think from good product reviews through to the Mearls & Monte articles, the passion of those working for Wizards is starting to translate more and more through their recent products to a broader audience. I think Paizo really raised the bar and Wizards is meeting the challenge on several fronts. Lots of benefits to D&D fans of all stripes I think. Shades of the Empire Strikes Back perhaps?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[MerricB]

Really? I haven't heard anything good about MME.

My play experiences with MME have been extremely positive - after a lot of sub-par experience with giving out magic items, MME has made that part of my DM's role a lot more fun than it used to be.

Cheers!

 

[D'karr]

My play experiences with MME have been extremely positive - after a lot of sub-par experience with giving out magic items, MME has made that part of my DM's role a lot more fun than it used to be.

Cheers!

This is true of my experience also, as well a bunch of local DMs that we organize games with.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think part of it is that 4e itself is finally figured out from a standpoint of what works, how to present things, how different elements like items etc fit into the system, etc. I think to a large extent WotC's devs themselves didn't really understand their own game. Gardmore Abbey for instance has a whole different conceptual structure from earlier adventures, much more scope for story, much more dynamic and character centered. Its like it took them 3 years to figure out that a game of super cinematic adventure needed to get the HELL out of simple location-based trundling through rooms full of enemies. Now and then some of the earlier modules almost got there, but not quite.

Also I think they are finally really doing stuff that is whole-cloth new. 4e up to now seems like it has wallowed in the pit of rehashing and rewriting the vast pool of prior-E material. They did put a new stamp on it, but the feywild they've created for instance is both very classical and rather different from anything that previous editions did. Neverwinter isn't exactly a whole new place in theory, but it might as well be.

Monsters have vastly improved, items have vastly improved, design seems a bit more open and less constrained.

 

[Neverfate]

I find it odd that this is the same year we got the Shade race, the Binder and vampire classes and dearth of DDI support, and then amazing things like Gardmore Abbey, the NWCG and some solid support for the weaker classes.

I think WotC is really building up some momentum now. I hope they keep it up.

 

[OnlineDM]

Really? I haven't heard anything good about MME.

I think Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium is very good (so there you go - you've now heard something good!). The Tome Show episode where they reviewed it also gave it uniformly positive reviews. I haven't actually heard anything negative about Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium - well, I guess until now!

As for WotC "hitting their stride" it's hard for me to say because I've only been playing the game for a little less than two years. But I've certainly enjoyed the stuff that's come out recently.

To be fair, I also really enjoyed stuff that was coming out last year at this time - the Rules Compendium, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, Monster Vault. The Red Box isn't very good in my opinion, and the DM Kit itself isn't exciting if you already have DMG 1 & 2, but the Reavers of Harkenwold adventure in the DM Kit was a lot of fun at my table.

I wasn't excited about Dark Sun last year, and I didn't much care for Heroes of Shadow or The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond. I liked Monster Manual 3 last year (though I thought Monster Vault was in a league of its own). I wasn't crazy about Player's Handbook 3.

So, based solely on my own opinions, WotC has been hitting its stride with printed materials since the Essentials line came out in late 2010, with only a few misses (Red Box, Gloomwrought, Heroes of Shadow) and far more hits (the rest of Essentials, Heroes of the Feywild, Monster Vault - Nentir Vale, Gardmore Abbey). This is just my own opinion, though, and I know that other folks may, for instance, love Heroes of Shadow and hate the Essentials books or something like that.