Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[Osgood]

If WotC was truly "dying" as you and others are trying to imply (if not outright say for a few of you)... why is the D&D game still on sale, still being published, and new and better extras still being created for it?

Well, I bought a new Pontiac about a year before the brand was phased out and GM went into chapter 11 bankruptcy, so I think its flawed logic to suggest a product cannot be on sale/in production while a company is dying.

I know it must pain a few of you to realize it... but us messageboarders are only a small segment of the D&D population... and just because we're able and willing to come here decrying the state of the Character Builder a mere 35 minutes after it gets released to the public... doesn't mean we are the overwhelming voice of all D&D players out there.

To offer an older business analogy, when Coca-cola test marketed "New Coke" back in the mid-80's the tiny but vocal segment of the focus groups that spoke out against the change was considered inconsequential. Despite New Coke's initially strong sales and overwhelming preference in taste tests, the minority who preferred old Coke fought the good fight. Coke Classic* returned to the market less than 3 months later, and New Coke slowed drifted into obscurity. Never underestimate a vocal minority.



I have no idea what the exact financial position at WotC is... I certainly hope it is healthy, but their dramatically different business decisions over the past year or so suggest otherwise. For good or ill most companies live by the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it motto. In my experience, business only changes rapidly when things are going very badly.

I'm not one to suggest there is anything wrong with WotC making money, even their "cash grabs" are reasonable gambits for a business. But the Essentials, the new DDI strategy, the burst experimental product lines (race books, adventure sites, boxed sets, collectible cards)--some of which have come and gone, and apparently canceled or postponed products (Nentir Vale Gazetteer, Human racial book) strongly imply the bottom line is not looking good.

I really hope that I'm wrong, because I love 4E and hope it continues for years to come.



*I find the fact that they now refer to the old character builder as Character Builder Classic amusing, and maintain a pipe-dream that it will likewise resurface, but WotC is not the Coca-Col Company...

 

[P1NBACK]

If you want a nice review of Kinect, listen to the Gamers With Jobs podcast.

GWJ Conference Call Episode 213 | Gamers With Jobs

This is the episode where they discuss Kinect.

Will do! Thanks bud! I've given you XP recently. Hopefully someone can throw one on you for me for being so helpful.

 

[Chrono22]

And with every one little death... there is an equal and opposite little birth.

That's crazy talk.
If this was true, no one would ever go out of business.

Oh, and don't mind me. I'm just watching the fireworks. It's kind of fascinating, in a viceral kind of way, to watch WotC abandon yet another section of their devoted fanbase.

Really, the track record of WotC's digital offerings should speak for itself. There is no suite of online-only programs coming, just like there is no gleemax, no gametable, and no continued 4e support. My advice: get off the crazytrain/bandwagon and have some fun with a company you can trust.

 

[JoeGKushner]

That's crazy talk.
If this was true, no one would ever go out of business.

Oh, and don't mind me. I'm just watching the fireworks. It's kind of fascinating, in a viceral kind of way, to watch WotC abandon yet another section of their devoted fanbase.

Really, the track record of WotC's digital offerings should speak for itself. There is no suite of online-only programs coming, just like there is no gleemax, no gametable, and no continued 4e support. My advice: get off the crazytrain/bandwagon and have some fun with a company you can trust.

Heck, think about it. Essentials in many ways is a white flag to old school sensibilities trying to get those lapsed players to return to the fold.

You can throw a new coat on paint on a ruined house but its still a ruined house.

I'm certainly not saying that 4e is a ruined house. I like it. But if it doesn't appeal to fans of the older system, some simplification and bone tossing is not going to get those old school gamers back in anything resembling a permanent fashion. That's on or offline.

 

[MerricB]

With Essentials, the biggest thing that I like about it is that the Slayer is an easy version of the fighter class to play, suitable for new players, or players who aren't interested in deep levels of mechanical complexity (which is what the 4e basic fighter suffers from).

I've got one player in my groups who is mainly there for the story and roleplaying. Being able to give her a simpler character will make things so much better for all of us.

While Essentials does give a nod to older editions, I do believe that the description of it being a version of the game for new players is very true, and something it succeeds at.

Cheers!

 

[DEFCON 1]

To offer an older business analogy, when Coca-cola test marketed "New Coke" back in the mid-80's the tiny but vocal segment of the focus groups that spoke out against the change was considered inconsequential. Despite New Coke's initially strong sales and overwhelming preference in taste tests, the minority who preferred old Coke fought the good fight. Coke Classic* returned to the market less than 3 months later, and New Coke slowed drifted into obscurity. Never underestimate a vocal minority.

I find it amusing you have to go 25 years back to find a situation that is relevant to your point of view.

Here's another one: The professional wrestling "smart mark" internet fanbase goes absolutely ga-ga over a small indy wrestling company called Ring of Honor because they do "real wrestling", and usually decries most of what the WWE puts on as utter crap. And yet one is a billion dollar company that aims its product to everybody and not just the internet wrestling geeks who think they know the business... while the other one is a small, little group that puts on good shows but pretty much survives going check-to-check.

I have no idea what the exact financial position at WotC is... I certainly hope it is healthy, but their dramatically different business decisions over the past year or so suggest otherwise. For good or ill most companies live by the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it motto. In my experience, business only changes rapidly when things are going very badly.

And what about the previous 10+ years of WotC making "dramatically different business decisions"? You should read what the other folks on these boards are saying, because they'll tell you this kind of thing has been WotC's modus operandi for years. What they've done this past year and a half is no different than what they've done since they acquired D&D from TSR.

I'm not one to suggest there is anything wrong with WotC making money, even their "cash grabs" are reasonable gambits for a business. But the Essentials, the new DDI strategy, the burst experimental product lines (race books, adventure sites, boxed sets, collectible cards)--some of which have come and gone, and apparently canceled or postponed products (Nentir Vale Gazetteer, Human racial book) strongly imply the bottom line is not looking good.

Whereas I could easily counter with the fact that their ability to produce and release all-new material for the D&D line, plus new games like Castle Ravenloft and Gamma World strongly implies that things are going very well, which is why they are able to spend a year and a half doing design and development on all these things. But guess what? My opinion about their financial status is just as much a bag of hot air as yours is. Only difference is... I don't actually believe I really know what's going on.

 

[DEFCON 1]

That's crazy talk.
If this was true, no one would ever go out of business.

I wasn't talking about other businesses, I was talking about WotC.

Oh, and don't mind me. I'm just watching the fireworks. It's kind of fascinating, in a viceral kind of way, to watch WotC abandon yet another section of their devoted fanbase.

If anyone is actually dropping DDI and/or D&D as a whole after just 24 hours of the CB being up... I wouldn't consider them all that devoted.

Really, the track record of WotC's digital offerings should speak for itself. There is no suite of online-only programs coming, just like there is no gleemax, no gametable, and no continued 4e support. My advice: get off the crazytrain/bandwagon and have some fun with a company you can trust.

Yeah, you're right... I suppose I should just sit in my room and bemoan the fact that WotC's never released any digital offerings, like a Character Builder or a Monster Buil-- oh wait...

 

[Aegeri]

It's a sad point that even though Wizards have currently turned their various tools into a train wreck, they are still lightyears ahead of anyone else really.

This doesn't change that I've been unable to make a single character in the new CB and it sucks loads of bandwidth (having a cap makes this very difficult to live with).

 

[fanboy2000]

"We know that things aren't going to be perfect out of the door so we're allowing everyone to use it for xx amount of days and listening to the feedback."

Knowing Wizards, if they did that, there'd still be an "xx" in the announcement.

It's a sad point that even though Wizards have currently turned their various tools into a train wreck, they are still lightyears ahead of anyone else really.

Doesn't 3.5 still have PCGen? I've never liked it's interface, but the program works. (And isn't it available for Pathfinder?)

Also, I believe that Hero System has a fairly robust Java program. I think GURPS has something, but I'm unfamiliar with it.

This doesn't change that I've been unable to make a single character in the new CB and it sucks loads of bandwidth (having a cap makes this very difficult to live with).

Is this a bad time to tell you I've made 7?

 

[darjr]

GURPS has a couple of them. A commercial one for GURPS 3 and new commercial one for GURPS 4 and a free java one for GURPS 4.

PCGen does do pathfinder. I'm looking at it now, and thinking of diving into the code.