GVDammerung said:
IMO, Greyhawk can only benefit from a few years time out to take a breather and see where the fanbase is at that time. The biggest question in my mind is - were the Living Greyhawk participants fair weather "fans" who will now jump in mass to Living Forgotten Realms and forget about Greyhawk or did they truly have/develop a lasting appreciation for Greyhawk? Time will tell and THAT answer will say much, IMO, about GH's future viability.
I know we've been flooded with recent polls about the age of D&D fans and when people discovered and/or abandoned Greyhawk, but I wonder the average age of Greyhawk fans?
Long-standing fans of Greyhawk are the most likely to buy Greyhawk products and yet are often the harshest critics of current Greyhawk incarnations. Many of them may not be happy with any future incarnation of the setting, seeing it as a long dead (or undead) thing best remembered in its prime. Likewise, newer fans, particularly those that are only familiar with Greyhawk through what's lately been referred to as "Paizohawk", may be less likely to purchase a Greyhawk product because of it's lack of support when they came aboard. They might see Forgotten Realms or even Eberron as their default systems and Greyhawk as something they're barely familiar with...
Now, I don't mean to make too much of things like this, but having just finished re-reading Owell's
1984, there is a certain notion that Greyhawk is being phased out over generations or editions. In 3.0e Greyhawk was the default "flavor" but the setting was barely supported. By the time of 3.5e Greyhawk was far behind Forgotten Realms and by then Eberron in terms of support and even the names of spells were becoming generic versions of what were once Greyhawk spells. Now, in an age without Paizo support and with 4.0e abandoning Greyhawk altogether, it will, as the OP said, certainly be dead by Origins 2008.
My question is, if the older fan base is likely to be more critical of any future Greyhawk product and the next generation of fans (those who come aboard for the first time with 4e) don't have any (or little) concept of Greyhawk at all, who will be there to support it if it makes a return in say four or five years? Unlike Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, Greyhawk doesn't have a successful novel library to bring in fantasy readers. Greyhawk doesn't have the glitter and comic book art style of Eberron, either. Mostly Greyhawk has its fans...or does it?
All, I know is that I would support Greyhawk in the future, even if it wasn't perfect. Even if it didn't fit my concept to the letter. One of the best things about Greyhawk, in my opinion, is the ability to insert your own stories and ideas with greater ease than in Forgotten Realms, for instance. I just worry that if Greyhawk ever returned it would only be played by those of us who remember AND those of us who don't mind if it's not presented exactly the way we want it. As time goes on the number of individuals who meet both requirements is probably more likely to diminish, not increase. The old grognards will prefer their thirty year old tomes to some new blasphemy and the newcomers will stick with their 4E warforged warlord warmachines instead of going back to some old relic of their grandfathers'.