Tell that to Shakespeare and Madonna
If your base erodes with time anyway (say, as your gamers age, have kids, and so on), then re-invention doesn't cause much damage.
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Re-booting D&D with a new edition - how necessary is it?
- Thread starter Mercurius
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Tell that to Shakespeare and Madonna
If your base erodes with time anyway (say, as your gamers age, have kids, and so on), then re-invention doesn't cause much damage.
ExploderWizard
Hero
This, when profits for IPs matter more than understanding the nature of a given medium and what "good" actually is relative to media type. A TTRPG can be doing great but it might look like small fries next to a popular CCG or MMO. If all that matters is IP--------Profits, then underperformers will always be TTRPGs in these situations. The answer: take the IP and turn it into whatever it needs to become to stay viable. Good for the IP-yup, good for the medium- not so much.
This folks is why the industry is NOT the same as the hobby and why slavishly supporting one doesn't mean you are doing the other any favors.
Tell that to Shakespeare and Madonna
If your base erodes with time anyway (say, as your gamers age, have kids, and so on), then re-invention doesn't cause much damage.
But we're talking about a niche market. Not Shakesspeare or Madonna.
However, if the re-invention occurs faster than those gamers are aging, and having kids....
Stormonu
Legend
I'm not talking output of books here, I'm talking growth of the # of gamers, and I do believe WotC is hoping for exponential growth
What percentage of the population has seen Shakespeare performed more than once? Traditionally, classical stuff counts as "niche".
To date, reinvention (edition change) has been on the order of a decade - about the same timescale as aging and having kids.
Yes, and I'm hoping for a million dollars, a pony, and a castle in Wales. Doesn't mean I think I'll actually get it.
Realistic business models don't plan for exponential growth except in the short term. In the long term, it isn't sustainable.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Tell that to Shakespeare and Madonna
Very different things we're talking about here. Re-invention in performance art can expand and show your range as an experienced performer. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (ask REM if the musical direction they went in after Bill Berry left the band worked well for their popularity).
But this is an industry where, as other posters in other threads have argued, the previous product doesn't become obsolete or invalid and requies a significant investment to get returns. An RPG is not cosigned just to memory as past performances as Shakespeare's plays were in his day. It's not as simple to access as tossing a variety of David Bowie CDs in the CD player to listen to Ziggy Stardust or the Thin White Duke in succession or on shuffle.
I'm sure they would lile exponential growth but its a pretty mature market. I do not see it as a real likelyhood. Where would all these extra gamers come from?
I disagree that "The base" erodes with time, to some extent that is true, but with everything there will always be a loyal, if small, group of people that will continue to support the product.
Now, if you're looking for a wide or large group of people in order to make profit, then it becomes a bad thing. But that's the key, is if all you're doing to publish the game is for profit and not because you love it and support it, then you 't have to worry about profit decay.
That's really is what the issue here is. The only reason to worry about publish or die.
If you don't care about profit, you really don't have to worry about the "decay" and you certainly don't have to worry about producing the product for a large group of people and pleasing a large group of people.
They're already pleased and will continue to support the product.
Now, if you're looking for a wide or large group of people in order to make profit, then it becomes a bad thing. But that's the key, is if all you're doing to publish the game is for profit and not because you love it and support it, then you 't have to worry about profit decay.
That's really is what the issue here is. The only reason to worry about publish or die.
If you don't care about profit, you really don't have to worry about the "decay" and you certainly don't have to worry about producing the product for a large group of people and pleasing a large group of people.
They're already pleased and will continue to support the product.
nedjer
Adventurer
Tell that to Shakespeare and Madonna
It shouldn't be possible/ allowed to put Shakespeare in the same boat as Madonna on anything - but there they are bobbing along. It'll be your fault if she tours as Lady MacBeth
If you don't care about profit you will go out of business.
You can do something for fun but it is a business then you have to care about profit. Not caring about profit, you will run the business into the ground.
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