But we might have gotten a different car in '67 that you'd like just as much, and you wouldn't have people complaining about how they keep changing the Corvette from what you liked and the community won't stop talking incessantly about the new one.
I don't know about this. How sacred is a nameplate anyway? Should they have just made the same old Corvette every year over and over? To keep this car related, look at Nissan. The 370z and the GTR both existed in their most recent forms for a very long time, and even though they were both very well liked and critically acclaimed vehicles, they both also wore out their welcomes. Everyone just complained how the designs were a decade old.
Sensibilities change over time. Nothing stays green forever. Even the OSR has changed OD&D because people almost unanimously agree THAC0 was lame.
So then you might say, okay, don't carry the name forward. Leave the old thing for the people who like it, and make a new thing for new people. This leaves you with multiple problems. You're splitting your audience and competing with yourself. Where do your development and advertising dollars go? If product A is slowing down and product B is selling like hot cakes do you pump A to try and catch up, and potentially let B's momentum fade? Or do you pump B and ride the hype wave and leave A to wither and die?
I could go on forever but I don't want to derail too much more from the thread than what's already been done. I am in favor of refreshing nameplates. I like the Mustang Mach E and the C8 Corvette, and I also like 5E.. But that doesn't mean I don't also like Fox Bodies and 3.5E. Was 3.5 the Fox Body of D&D?
I'm going to say Brandon Sanderson and Dragonsteel Press, because I think they could manage the game and business.
As a Brando Sando fan, I don't know. He'd probably do well with it.. The man is great at business, and apparently he's a good dude. Supposedly whenever new MTG sets drop he buys thousands of dollars of product to host drafts for his company. That's awesome.
We'd certainly see a wild explosion of new settings, probably with slim books to support them. (Fantasy High doesn't need a 300-page book to spell out the setting.) I think presenting gamers with a book that says "Dungeons & Dragons" on the cover explaining how to use contemporary New York City as a setting would be greatly expand the possibilities of the game for many groups.
I love splat books. I know a lot of people don't, and I can understand why. As someone with a love/hate relationship with MtG I do believe there is such a thing as too much product. But I have a lot of nostalgia for splat books. The person who taught me to play D&D came over for our first game night with a big Rubbermaid tote full of books. They broke out the core books, but then this stack of the "Complete" series. I loves pouring over all the options.
Little 30-50 page paper back splat books with city/town settings, or adventures like the old style modules would be something I could really get behind.