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How Important is the D&D Brand?
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<blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 7652150" data-attributes="member: 58416"><p>I think your experience mirrors a lot of mine -with the exception that I started playing and buying GURPS material. It boggles my mind when I think about how much money I spent on D&D during 3rd; many times, I bought things while scarcely knowing what the products were. My loyalty to the D&D brand was such that I didn't question the decision to buy things very often. I bought the 4th Edition core books without even questioning what their quality might be because I still felt that brand loyalty. Now days? Things are a lot different, and I am suspicious of WoTC products.</p><p></p><p>To be fair, I cannot blame this on 4th Edition. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my experience with rpgs due to threads like this one, and I've come to realize that maybe I just didn't know any better during 3rd Edition. At the time, I had little or no experience with other systems other than a brief run with Rifts. There were things which bothered me about 3rd, but I overlooked them because I was -at the time- unaware how different other options could be. I was aware other games existed, but I figured that D&D being the industry leader must mean it had better quality. "How much different can rolling dice with a different game be," I would often think. So, while I knew there were other games, I didn't really think about them. With the birth of 4th Edition, I learned that mechanics could actually matter a lot; I learned that I had likes and dislikes. Eventually, I became frustrated with 4th* and D&D, and I decided to try something different. This lead me to standing in the local game store and trying to decide on either Champions or GURPS; I ended up buying GURPS. I had no idea there could be such a world of different in both the style of a rpg and the way I felt treated as a customer. (Note: In my opinion, SJ Games has excellent customer service.) </p><p></p><p>*I now can enjoy 4th, and I do believe it's a good game in spite of some of the issues I have with it. However, at the time, I was extremely negative toward both the product and WoTC as a company. Part of that was because I was trying to still play and run the game the same way I was running D&D previously. I didn't understand -at that time- that the game was different. That negativity boiled over after having some severe smudging problems with my DMG.</p><p></p><p>As for what I call things...</p><p></p><p>Honestly, I call a tissue a tissue. While I'm aware some people do use brand names as generic terms, I haven't done so in the case of tissues. I do have plenty of friends from the South who do use "Coke" to refer to pretty much any kind of soda. Years ago, I would have used "D&D" was a generic term for a roleplaying game, but it's been quite a while since I have, and I don't believe I personally know anyone who uses "D&D" as a generic term. I do occasionally call Pathfinder "D&D," but that's more due to Pathfinder being a clone of 3rd Edition and having had conversations in which I was trying to explain to someone what Pathfinder was. I would never refer to either GURPS or Dragon Age (both games that I currently play) as D&D. </p><p></p><p>I do feel that brand name can matter a lot, and likewise feel the D&D brand name has a lot of strength. However, I also feel it's important to note that brand name (usually) requires the product to live up to a certain standard. Flubs do happen, and an easy example is XBox. I'm sure the XBox One will still be an awesome machine, and I'm sure it will still sell like crazy, but a lot of poor PR, bad marketing, and a somewhat lacking presentation at E3 lead a lot of people to purchase a Playstation 4.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Argyle King, post: 7652150, member: 58416"] I think your experience mirrors a lot of mine -with the exception that I started playing and buying GURPS material. It boggles my mind when I think about how much money I spent on D&D during 3rd; many times, I bought things while scarcely knowing what the products were. My loyalty to the D&D brand was such that I didn't question the decision to buy things very often. I bought the 4th Edition core books without even questioning what their quality might be because I still felt that brand loyalty. Now days? Things are a lot different, and I am suspicious of WoTC products. To be fair, I cannot blame this on 4th Edition. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my experience with rpgs due to threads like this one, and I've come to realize that maybe I just didn't know any better during 3rd Edition. At the time, I had little or no experience with other systems other than a brief run with Rifts. There were things which bothered me about 3rd, but I overlooked them because I was -at the time- unaware how different other options could be. I was aware other games existed, but I figured that D&D being the industry leader must mean it had better quality. "How much different can rolling dice with a different game be," I would often think. So, while I knew there were other games, I didn't really think about them. With the birth of 4th Edition, I learned that mechanics could actually matter a lot; I learned that I had likes and dislikes. Eventually, I became frustrated with 4th* and D&D, and I decided to try something different. This lead me to standing in the local game store and trying to decide on either Champions or GURPS; I ended up buying GURPS. I had no idea there could be such a world of different in both the style of a rpg and the way I felt treated as a customer. (Note: In my opinion, SJ Games has excellent customer service.) *I now can enjoy 4th, and I do believe it's a good game in spite of some of the issues I have with it. However, at the time, I was extremely negative toward both the product and WoTC as a company. Part of that was because I was trying to still play and run the game the same way I was running D&D previously. I didn't understand -at that time- that the game was different. That negativity boiled over after having some severe smudging problems with my DMG. As for what I call things... Honestly, I call a tissue a tissue. While I'm aware some people do use brand names as generic terms, I haven't done so in the case of tissues. I do have plenty of friends from the South who do use "Coke" to refer to pretty much any kind of soda. Years ago, I would have used "D&D" was a generic term for a roleplaying game, but it's been quite a while since I have, and I don't believe I personally know anyone who uses "D&D" as a generic term. I do occasionally call Pathfinder "D&D," but that's more due to Pathfinder being a clone of 3rd Edition and having had conversations in which I was trying to explain to someone what Pathfinder was. I would never refer to either GURPS or Dragon Age (both games that I currently play) as D&D. I do feel that brand name can matter a lot, and likewise feel the D&D brand name has a lot of strength. However, I also feel it's important to note that brand name (usually) requires the product to live up to a certain standard. Flubs do happen, and an easy example is XBox. I'm sure the XBox One will still be an awesome machine, and I'm sure it will still sell like crazy, but a lot of poor PR, bad marketing, and a somewhat lacking presentation at E3 lead a lot of people to purchase a Playstation 4. [/QUOTE]
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