Why Wizards Has Lost Touch w/ Its Base

[amethal]

I am very sad to see Dungeon and Dragon go. I don't think it will turn out to be the right decision, financially, but time will tell.

It would be great if WotC had given us more of an idea as to what they will be replacing it with. We'd be in a better position to judge.

Anyway, since they haven't, I've signed up to Pathfinder instead (and cancelled my pre-order of Complete Champion to pay for it).

 

[Presto2112]

That's better.

 

[Vigilance]

I'm not sure where your apparent need to kiss up to Wizards comes from, and frankly, I don't care. Don't mistake mindless for emotional. Even though its been years since I regularly read Dragon magazine, its cancellation has put me in a strange funk. For the past 27+ years, it has been part of the fabric of gaming for me.

You just said you didnt read the magazine. Haven't for years. They didn't consider you when making this decision. You missed your chance to vote with your wallet.

As for "sucking up", I find it interesting that you, and others (like Belen) have to accuse me of things and insult me cause I disagree with you.

I just don't see this as an awful, evil move.

 

[The Shaman]

The first step toward enlightenment for wotc will be when their profits plunge due to their alienation of my demographic- you know, the 30-50 yo group that has most of the money to spend on toys. Even though all of the guys I play with are in their early 20's, I easily outspend the entire group put together. And that's even when I'm not the dm.

I've long wondered about this myself. I'm inclined to think that while the buying power of the twenty-nothings is less than our generation, there are fewer of us, so they make up the difference with volume! VOLUME! VOLUME!

This could also work out if they can keep these younger gamers interested until they join the working world as well, making this a generational marketing strategy.

Of course we're in the wrong generation if that's the case.

As for me I gave up on D&D and the Wizzos years ago, recognizing that I wasn't buying what they were selling - the second or third time I bought a supplement and realized that I would only be likely to use a handful of pages showed me that I was investing in the wrong system.

 

[Ravellion]

You might want to check a source for those numbers before blithely popping them off. Hundreds of thousands? Best estimates I've seen are that Dragon and Dungeon customers are a tiny fraction of the D&D player base.

There's about 3 million D&D players in the US. Overseas numbers are negligible in comparison.

roughly 100,000 copies of Dungeon get sold each month. The average group consists of 1 DM and 4 players.

That means about 1 in 6 D&D players is affected by the axing of the mags (perhaps 1 in 7, to account for non-American players). I consider that to be substantial.

 

[mmadsen]

I can answer that for you.
A good many don't have one.
I went from age 25 - 31 without one. Heck for 3 of those years I was totally off the grid finicially after I cashed my HARD PAYROLL check. Paid everything in cash and got out of debt.

Let me clarify. I know many adult gamers don't have credit cards; they complain about it regularly on-line. What I don't understand is why so many gamers don't have credit cards. Are they financially irresponsible? Paranoid? What's going on? Is it something about the personality type drawn to gaming?

(We're clearly learning a thing or two about gamer psychology in this thread. Obviously gamers react negatively to change and feel the world owes them high-quality gaming products at a low price.)

 

[Vigilance]

Ever been to Circvs Maximvs? I can respond to you there in the manner in which you deserve.

Im there right now.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

On second thought, never mind.

*walks away*

 

[TheYeti1775]

Let me clarify. I know many adult gamers don't have credit cards; they complain about it regularly on-line. What I don't understand is why so many gamers don't have credit cards. Are they financially irresponsible? Paranoid? What's going on? Is it something about the personality type drawn to gaming?

(We're clearly learning a thing or two about gamer psychology in this thread. Obviously gamers react negatively to change and feel the world owes them high-quality gaming products at a low price.)

For me it was a case of living high on the hog at the time, and then getting slapped with a lay-off. I know how to do the day laborer thing for 18 months before getting a new job that I wanted.

Personally I've just gotten to the point where I picked up a new contract recently and the company requested that I needed direct deposit. As it was a 25% increase in salary, I went and got a bank account for the first time in 3 years.
Outside of normal utilites/rent, I have 2 auto loans and under $5k of unsecured credit card debt. This is a far cry from when I plunged. There was a time I would drive over to the dealership and get a new truck because I wanted it akin to what I do with my gaming wants nowadays.

 

[Pyrex]

The thing I don't get here is the automatic assumption a lot of people seem to have that just because the content that used to be in Dungeon and Dragon is moving to online distribution that it suddenly no longer has value.

I pay for an ENWorld Community Supporter account because I derive much value from ENWorld, wish to see it continue, and choose to support it like a good capitalist and vote with my dollars.

I'm sad to see Dragon go, but I'm not going to automatically assume that it's replacement is useless. When it's released I'll take a look. If I determine that it holds value for me, I'll subscribe. If not, I won't.

But I'm not going to run around screaming "The sky is falling!" just because WotC made a business decision. Especially not before it can be objectively demonstrated to be a bad decision.