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Ryan Dancey speaks - the Most Successful Year for Fantasy RPGaming ever. However...
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<blockquote data-quote="GVDammerung" data-source="post: 2804348" data-attributes="member: 33060"><p>My opinion, to which I am entitled and to which others are entitled to disagree:</p><p></p><p>The permanent staffers at Wotc (including a number from that model of acumen TSR) who are now setting the creative direction of D&D would not know an innovative or creative idea if it came up and bit them; they are immaginatively tapped out. They can leverage the brand like no one's business but they cannot come up with "The next Forgotten Realms" or the like. Instead, they must cling to the Realms they have because they have nothing else. </p><p></p><p>Eberron is not the "next Realms." It is a niche setting that will "hit the wall" soon enough, finding it has reached its reachable audience.</p><p></p><p>And what's wrong with the good old Realms? It has reached it reachable audience, plateaued and as time reduces the number of folks who early on caught the FR fevor, its plateau will settle.</p><p></p><p>This leaves Wotc with "the Core." It is a truism that the core books sell best and the father you get from the core, the more you see sales settle. This requires, even damands, that the wheel be reinvented with a new edition every so often. The problem there is finessing the transition when many players are entirely content with the present iteration of the game. The 3X transition was galvanized by the d20 license and OGL. Good luck duplicating that feat (pardon the pun), particularly with all the "OGL has failed" and "PDF's hurt innovation" chatter from Mearls and other Wotc staffers.</p><p></p><p>From the present position, looking long term, D&D minis offer the only bright spot for Wotc. Can they be leveraged or be sustained over the next decade? Unknown. Every other long term trend is down with the only consolation being that Wotc knows how to work the brand and achieve a "best year ever." Working the brand, however, is not innovation. And "best year ever" as the longer terms trends start moving away from you can only be encouraging to a Pollyanna.</p><p></p><p>All this might not be a problem but for WoW and its copycat competitors and the likelihood that Blizzard and company will be looking to "top" WoW and, as technology advances will likely be able to do so and in not too many years, if one looks at where we have come since only(and arbitrarally) 1990.</p><p></p><p>And Wotc fiddles while Rome burns. No ideas. No energy (except to leverage the brand!) No innovation. Featherbedders having the "best year ever" right up until the point they have, suddenly, the "worst year ever" to the surprise of only the Pollyannas.</p><p></p><p>The sky is not falling but the clouds are lowering and the horizon is shrinking for TRPGs. TRPGs will go the way of model railroading - always there but hardly a "big" business. The "brand leveragers" at Wotc will leverage the brand into near irrelevance because "leveraging the brand" has replaced a drive for innovation.</p><p></p><p>And, yes. Many don't need Wotc or anybody else to produce product. Fine. You are then irrelevant to the conversation. You got yours and can play with yourself and your friends forever. Have a nice life. For everyone else, there is an issue.</p><p></p><p>Like it or not Wotc drives the market. Anyone interested in that market has an interest in Wotc and how it does its business. Right now, Wotc is content to rest on its laurels and its minis and let others innovate, be it WoW or what comes next. Sure. Wotc will try to play catchup. Spellfire to someone else's Magic the Gathering. How ironic that, now that the makers of Magic find themselves left to produce the electronic equivalent of Spellfire. </p><p></p><p>Lead, follow or get out of the way. Wotc cannot lead. Will attempt to follow. But for the same reasons they cannot lead will wind up being forceably moved out of the way.</p><p></p><p>Wotc would not know an innovative idea if it came up and bit them. All they can do is manage the brand. Right into the ground. Best year ever! Keep repeating that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GVDammerung, post: 2804348, member: 33060"] My opinion, to which I am entitled and to which others are entitled to disagree: The permanent staffers at Wotc (including a number from that model of acumen TSR) who are now setting the creative direction of D&D would not know an innovative or creative idea if it came up and bit them; they are immaginatively tapped out. They can leverage the brand like no one's business but they cannot come up with "The next Forgotten Realms" or the like. Instead, they must cling to the Realms they have because they have nothing else. Eberron is not the "next Realms." It is a niche setting that will "hit the wall" soon enough, finding it has reached its reachable audience. And what's wrong with the good old Realms? It has reached it reachable audience, plateaued and as time reduces the number of folks who early on caught the FR fevor, its plateau will settle. This leaves Wotc with "the Core." It is a truism that the core books sell best and the father you get from the core, the more you see sales settle. This requires, even damands, that the wheel be reinvented with a new edition every so often. The problem there is finessing the transition when many players are entirely content with the present iteration of the game. The 3X transition was galvanized by the d20 license and OGL. Good luck duplicating that feat (pardon the pun), particularly with all the "OGL has failed" and "PDF's hurt innovation" chatter from Mearls and other Wotc staffers. From the present position, looking long term, D&D minis offer the only bright spot for Wotc. Can they be leveraged or be sustained over the next decade? Unknown. Every other long term trend is down with the only consolation being that Wotc knows how to work the brand and achieve a "best year ever." Working the brand, however, is not innovation. And "best year ever" as the longer terms trends start moving away from you can only be encouraging to a Pollyanna. All this might not be a problem but for WoW and its copycat competitors and the likelihood that Blizzard and company will be looking to "top" WoW and, as technology advances will likely be able to do so and in not too many years, if one looks at where we have come since only(and arbitrarally) 1990. And Wotc fiddles while Rome burns. No ideas. No energy (except to leverage the brand!) No innovation. Featherbedders having the "best year ever" right up until the point they have, suddenly, the "worst year ever" to the surprise of only the Pollyannas. The sky is not falling but the clouds are lowering and the horizon is shrinking for TRPGs. TRPGs will go the way of model railroading - always there but hardly a "big" business. The "brand leveragers" at Wotc will leverage the brand into near irrelevance because "leveraging the brand" has replaced a drive for innovation. And, yes. Many don't need Wotc or anybody else to produce product. Fine. You are then irrelevant to the conversation. You got yours and can play with yourself and your friends forever. Have a nice life. For everyone else, there is an issue. Like it or not Wotc drives the market. Anyone interested in that market has an interest in Wotc and how it does its business. Right now, Wotc is content to rest on its laurels and its minis and let others innovate, be it WoW or what comes next. Sure. Wotc will try to play catchup. Spellfire to someone else's Magic the Gathering. How ironic that, now that the makers of Magic find themselves left to produce the electronic equivalent of Spellfire. Lead, follow or get out of the way. Wotc cannot lead. Will attempt to follow. But for the same reasons they cannot lead will wind up being forceably moved out of the way. Wotc would not know an innovative idea if it came up and bit them. All they can do is manage the brand. Right into the ground. Best year ever! Keep repeating that. [/QUOTE]
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