Wizards aiming younger audience

[S'mon]

The Heroes of Hesiod rules look very interesting as the basis for a full game! My son is not quite 3 yet, but he loves monsters and fighting! He especially loves my gargantuan black dragon miniature. I recall successfully playing a simple minis+dice game with one of my cousins when he was 4 (we used lead minis!), and HoH looks like it might provide the basis for a cool game for 4-6 year olds that could let me use my dungeon tiles and plastic minis with my boy.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Now that the ol can-o-worms is opened and out of the way I think a younger audience is generally a wise idea in marketing. Young does not equal unintelligent or lacking in attention span as universal constants.

The medium of a product is important. Print product will never have the flash and sensory appeal of electronic media and should not try and compete directly with such things.

 

[Klaus]

Largely because good kids' comics are few and far between, IMHO.

When I was co-owner of Golden City Comics, we had a lot of people looking for comics for their kids, but the available selection wasn't what a lot of them were looking for. There are a few good kids comics; most of these are put out by DC. Then there are a few good "feeder" comics, like Owly, that are put out by small presses.

Though if by "kids" you include teens, then things are a bit better. Golden City sold quite a lot to teens.


RC

DC puts out good kids comics (specially Tiny Titans). Marvel puts out their "Marvel Adventures" line, which features better art (my one complain about DC comics based on cartoons is that they are beholden to the art style of the cartoons... wouldn't it be great to have, say, Arthur Adams do an issue of Ben 10?)

 

[I'm A Banana]

It is more than smart.

It is necessary to continue to survive.

Demographics, kids. If you're not appealing to middle-upper class males 8-25, you're not selling nearly as much as you could be.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

WotC is going about this all wrong.

According to the US census bureau, the population of senior citizens is expected to increase by 40% over the next five years, while the population of children 15 and under is only expected to increase by 6%.

WotC needs to produce large-print format rule books and market it to the retirement communities (just think of the page count!).

D&D Insider: now accepting direct payment from Social Security.

Kids? Bah! They just grow up to eventually become senior citizens anyways.

 

[avin]

WotC needs to produce large-print format rule books and market it to the retirement communities (just think of the page count!).

I'm not certain if US retirement communities would enjoy RPG but, heck, it's all I plan to do when these days arrive

 

[JediSoth]

Since D&D is widely considered to be a gateway RPG, this makes sense. Heck, a lot of non-gamers I know assume RPGs are for kids anyway :eyeroll:.

The aesthetic doesn't appeal to me, personally, but if it grows the industry, I can't help but view it as a Good Thing™.

 

[carmachu]

How many kids read and collect comic books these days?

At several local comic stores, the owners mentioned most of their customers are people in their 30's or 40's who still collect comics. Less and less kids and teenagers, as the years went by. A general "graying" of the audience.

Yeah but lets be honest, there's more than just "kids dont want to" going on there. Comic book prices are outrageous compared to when I was a kid. Comics went from 50 cents to 1.25 to about $2.

When my daughter started liking spiderman, I got sticker shock when I went to get her a comic an it was over $3.

What kid's going to collect with that? Hell I'm not even going to and I love comics. Its trade paperbacks for me.

 

[Klaus]

Yeah but lets be honest, there's more than just "kids dont want to" going on there. Comic book prices are outrageous compared to when I was a kid. Comics went from 50 cents to 1.25 to about $2.

When my daughter started liking spiderman, I got sticker shock when I went to get her a comic an it was over $3.

What kid's going to collect with that? Hell I'm not even going to and I love comics. Its trade paperbacks for me.

DC is aiming at lowering the price point of comics, according to boss men Dan Didio and Jim Lee.

 

[renau1g]

They also had some young teen novels when 3.5e was still around right based on that editions "iconics"? I seem to remember buying them for my brother when I was trying to get him into playing, but after Garagos the destroyer of death was introduced...yeah that was the end of that (caveat, my brother is 10 yrs younger, he was 13 at the time). Kids also have a lot more buying power these days as parents are becoming busier and busier with demands from an increasing workload at "the office" as companies are forcing people to do more with less and requiring lots of unpaid overtime out of staff. Parents are much more willing to buy kids "stuff" to keep them occupied so WoTC should certainly take advantage of this. It's gotta be better than the kids playing Habbo Hotel (or whatever free game is hot right now) with complete strangers over the internet.