I think we can decide for ourselves what we find interesting.
I find it very interesting. I'm fine you don't. But, I am not ignoring the rest as opposed to just focusing on the thing I found interesting.
OK, fair enough. I shouldn't have said it wasn't at all interesting or implied that either of you are guilty of BadWrongInterest, but I was irked in that it is the only quasi-controversial thing in the article, and of course it happens to be the center of discussion. I was concerned that it would be yet another opportunity for people to be offended, feel entitled and/or mis-treated by WotC for not catering to their special needs...thankfully that hasn't really happened in this thread.
Anyhow, I too find it somewhat interesting, but more for the underlying implications - that is,
why is their approach so successful? Why is an "old-fashioned" game of books, dice, and imagination so popular in a world of immersive video games and virtual realities? What are people craving for and enjoying that the cyber milieu isn't offering?
What WotC is doing is wildly successful. Would also selling PDFs make D&D even more successful? I don't know, but presumably WotC has made the researched guess that in fact no, it wouldn't - otherwise they'd be doing it.
Radio killed books, TV killed radio, Videoclubs killed TV, Internet killed cinema and videoclub and video-consoles killed miniatures and boardgames.
The books are for collectors, and the PDFs are by little third party companies.
* I imagine the future of the storytelling "pencil & dices" RPGs like videogames with a creator of quests/missions/stories.
Except...no, not really. D&D is proving that the "latest and greatest" technology isn't always the best, or what people want. What the article is saying contradicts your Darwinian thinking: the book was
not killed, but has survived and is thriving. People want the tactile experience of books, pencils and paper, dice and miniatures; they want the theater of mind, not another simulative screen. They want the in-person social interaction with actual other, real human beings - not just text interactions with avatars.
Books aren't going away, just as watercolor paints aren't being eradicated by digital art or wooden violins by 3D printers or synthesizers. They are classical cultural artifacts that have lasting perennial value and meaning to the human experience.
I would also add that board games are in a bit of a golden era, for the last decade or more. While the board game experience is not nearly as immersive or imaginative as RPGs, it does share one thing in common: hanging out in the real world with actual real human beings.
If I sound like an unabashed member of
Team Meatspace! then guilty as charged.
* For new generations of players WotC needs a boardame with simple rules to be easily learnt by preteens, something like the "Hero-Quest" 90's boardgame. ("Endless Quest" as title was copyright by TSR).
I don't disagree with this, but they've done this with games like
Wrath of Ashardalon with (at best) tepid results. As I mentioned elsewhere, I recently played
Wrath with my two daughters and was greatly disappointed: it was like D&D but with the best elements taken out. No imagination, no real story - and very repetitive. We actually preferred the much simpler
Dungeon game.
But certainly a board game that whets the appetite for more would be nice, but I don't think they've come across the right combination of simple and playable in a few hours, but also with enough of the story and imagination of D&D to give a taste of the actual game. To me that would be the Holy Grail of a D&D boardgame: you get a taste of what makes D&D really special: the feeling that you're participating in a story in a living, imaginary world.