D&D 5E WTF Wizards of the Coast? *RANT* (video link)

[Morrus]

That means that the dozens of board games released each year are going to split a much smaller chunk of the admittedly larger pie.

You're just guessing wildly here.

One particular data point shows the opposite - a boardgames Kickstarter will typically get much more than an RPG Kickstarter. In fact, the top boardgame Kickstarter is 8 times more successful than the top RPG one (and three weeks ago, before 7th Sea, it was 16 times bigger). That's not smaller chunks of pie. That's bigger chunks of pie. 8 times bigger.

 

[CapnZapp]

Why don't we cut through the bs?

Wizards is definitely large enough a company to make decent digital tools had they wanted to.

But they don't want to. They have never wanted to.

Please stop the "this sector is smaller than that sector" smokescreen.

Of course they could have made solid if not spectacular tools on a modest budget.

Some of you make it sound like a digital character sheet is rocket science. Jeez. It's not.

Since one guy tinkering in a basement over a year could do it (see: lots of Web efforts actively cease and desisted) the only explanation left is:

Wotc is hoping the modern world is just a bad nightmare, and that people will soon accept again having to do routine calculations that computers could do for you.

Good luck with that.

 

[Queer Venger]

A little video talking about my disappointment in the lack of 5E Digital presence for table top apps. HERE

Wizards is under no obligation to give me a digital tool set, because instead they gave me a game simply enough that it does not take me 2 hours to create a new character. All I need to buy is the PHB, they want to give me more bang for my buck.

 

[Greg Benage]

First of all, your article states that the hobbyist board games market is $125M to the RPG market's $25M -- 5x is hardly an order of magnitude.

That's just U.S. and Canada. The gap widens considerably when you include the rest of the world. You may have heard about the board game market in Europe, especially Germany, or the TCG market in Japan. It's been ten years since I was there, but the global partnerships and multilingual production processes FFG built were the main drivers of its explosive growth (along with some smart, successful licensing deals).

 

[Curmudjinn]

Why don't we cut through the bs?

Wizards is definitely large enough a company to make decent digital tools had they wanted to.

But they don't want to. They have never wanted to.

Please stop the "this sector is smaller than that sector" smokescreen.

Of course they could have made solid if not spectacular tools on a modest budget.

Some of you make it sound like a digital character sheet is rocket science. Jeez. It's not.

Since one guy tinkering in a basement over a year could do it (see: lots of Web efforts actively cease and desisted) the only explanation left is:

Wotc is hoping the modern world is just a bad nightmare, and that people will soon accept again having to do routine calculations that computers could do for you.

Good luck with that.

The problem with what you're pushing(untactfully, I might add), is that more people talk about wanting it than those that actually want it. No RPG company has a strong digital tool presence in-house. None of them.

Probably because it's a financial dead-end for anyone to expect real profit from outside of fandom side-jobs. If Hasbro saw valid profit from such a thing, they would have leaned into WotC to make it happen. The risk clearly isn't worth the reward for a profitable business model.

 

[captcorajus]

Wizards is under no obligation to give me a digital tool set, because instead they gave me a game simply enough that it does not take me 2 hours to create a new character. All I need to buy is the PHB, they want to give me more bang for my buck.

Other than the desire to 'make money' which one would think is a factor in being in business. As a business, it is their obligation to constantly improve
their business model, and find new sources of revenue. To NOT do so is irresponsible.

Thus, their obligation is to the business.

 

[feartheminotaur]

Wotc is hoping the modern world is just a bad nightmare, and that people will soon accept again having to do routine calculations that computers could do for you.

This might be the most ridiculously hyperbolic statement ever posted here. Right...it's more likely WoTC decision makers - the same ones that designed their last edition around a digital presence - are Luddites who refuse to believe in modern technology and have decided to stake their business betting against it rather than they simply decided that the cost wasn't worth the benefit.

Sure, whatever. Rant on. It's like listening to my uncle claim the only reason he got that speeding ticket was because Obama's lizard men alien illuminati overlords want silence him before he can warn us that the UN is coming to take our guns and not that cop he sped past at 45 in a 30 was just doing his job. But, I'll give you this, at least you didn't make it a video.

 

[CapnZapp]

If Hasbro saw valid profit from such a thing, they would have leaned into WotC to make it happen.

I am in complete agreement.

(Note that this argument of yours is not the same as "they're too small, they can't afford it".)

 

[Jabborwacky]

I think its important to realize that the development team for WoTC is not particularly large. D&D holds a special place in the RPG sphere, but not one that produces triple A figures. Our hobby is a niche one, which is why they work by contracting other companies to help produce D&D material. I'd love to see the kind of support we get for other kinds of entertainment venues, but the fact is they haven't found a way to increase revenue in a significant way.

 

[feartheminotaur]

Other than the desire to 'make money' which one would think is a factor in being in business. As a business, it is their obligation to constantly improve
their business model, and find new sources of revenue. To NOT do so is irresponsible.

Thus, their obligation is to the business.

I'm going to guess that you have never actually run a (real) business. Operators of a business have a fiduciary responsibility to the owners (private or public) to ensure the profitability of owner investment. Problem is there are two sides to the ledger, and screaming about how foolish a company is for ignoring one side (income) while you yourself ignore the other (expenditure) illustrates your failure to grasp the point: If a new "source of revenue" costs the company more to bring to market, then it's not a "source of revenue" but a "source of financial liability". If a new "source of revenue" doesn't have a sizable enough margin to justify the investiture of capital, then it isn't a "source of potential revenue" but a "source of potential financial liability".

Obviously WoTC and it's upstream owners have decided that the profits margins are too thin to be worth the investment or non-existent.