Open Letter to WotC from Chris Dias

[renau1g]

I think story ideas, NPC's, etc would be easy to grab. I do it all the time from my old Dungeon mags. I still read them despite not playe 3e anymore. Paizo's NPC's are very well developed and I find it a huge time saver. I've grabbed some stuff from WotBS even if I don't likely plan to run it from start to finish.

Oh, and maps. Maps are always great to have, even if you can't use the encounter they're built for.

 

[renau1g]

No. People only type wotc. In typed searches wotc totally eclipses "wizards of the coast".
OTOH the presence of the term "wizards of the coast" eclipses the term "wotc" within news articles.

Am I reading it wrong then? I thought the blue line represents "wizards of the coast", the red wotc. In the top box, the blue is higher than the red.

The bottom box I thought represented the news references (which is in red, therefore I thought wotc).

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I will admit that I completely lost interest in Zeitgeist when I saw that it was going to be 4e only...

I know absolutely nothing about Zeitgeist, having left the page as soon as I saw the 4e logo.

Same thing here.

Here I am going through my old 1E and basic modules trying to figure out where to place Hommlet, the Temple, The Caves of Chaos and the Keep in Golarion. So something that wasn't already set in Golarion isn't an issue for me. Converting from 4E to Pathfinder tho? So not worth it for me at all.

To be fair though, even if they did come out with a Pathfinder version I probably wouldn't pick it up as it would be done as an afterthought. EN World hitched their wagon to the 4E horse and seems to be fine with that. They don't need my money.

Of course, all of that goes out of the window if the adventure is really awesome though.

 

[xechnao]

Am I reading it wrong then?

Ehhh, realy? I am not sure anymore. In that article reference "Wotc" is in the title but "wizards of the coast" in the text.

 

[dmccoy1693]

That's interesting. I thought - from the tone of this thread - that it was more than that. WotC does exactly the same thing:

Not exactly.

This is what Paizo has done in the past month: Rite Publishing Roundup, Super Genius Roundup, A print book from Skortched Urf' Studios/Mongoose, Another Rite Publishing roundup.

Granted, these all link to the Paizo store so they are selling these items so they are making money from it. But I have to tell you, the quantity of exposure this gets translates into ALOT of sales. As in, products of mine that don't make it into Paizo's blog sell 2:1 better at DriveThruRPG while those that make it into the blog sell 2:1 better at Paizo, with roughly a consistent number of gross sales a DriveThru in both cases.

Then there's email. I've sent emails to James Jacobs, Vic Wertz and Jason Bulmahn about products of mine and they answer them. They have been very helpful. Thats on top of the emails I send Jeff Alvarez, Ross Byers and plenty others about technical issues and other non-game related issues who are exceptionally helpful.

A prime example of one such email concerned my best selling series: Book of the River Nation. The series takes the rules of the Kingmaker exploration, kingdom building and mass combat rules and reprints them for players so they do not have to buy the adventure to get the rules they are going to be using. About a month before the first installment launched, I sent Vic an email asking if Paizo had any issues with me doing so. I made sure to state that I took out all of Paizo's product identity and that if Paizo was uncomfortable with what I was thinking of doing, I would be willing to scrap the whole project. After reviewing the project, Vic emailed me back saying that Paizo had no problem with what I was doing.

I don't believe any of 3rd party 4E publisher has had similar contact with Wizards. It was very nice knowing in advance that Paizo was perfectly ok with what I was doing before launching, riding so close to their IP.

EDIT: Dang, I told myself that I was not going to participate in this tread anymore.

 

[Morrus]

Not exactly.

This is what Paizo has done in the past month: Rite Publishing Roundup, Super Genius Roundup, A print book from Skortched Urf' Studios/Mongoose, Another Rite Publishing roundup.

Granted, these all link to the Paizo store so they are selling these items so they are making money from it. But I have to tell you, the quantity of exposure this gets translates into ALOT of sales. As in, products of mine that don't make it into Paizo's blog sell 2:1 better at DriveThruRPG while those that make it into the blog sell 2:1 better at Paizo, with roughly a consistent number of gross sales a DriveThru in both cases.

I'll agree that having a web store as a large part of your business will encourage this type of behaviour. It's the same stuff RPGNow/DTRPG does (weekly emails, etc. - although they have so many titles that it's hard for individual publishers to stand out) and it's common sense store behaviour. I'd do it, too, if I had a store.

As a contrary data point, I'll note that I've sold very little of WotBS at Paizo - so I'd guess their marketing is centered around their own brand. That's totally reasonable, though.

I don't believe any of 3rd party 4E publisher has had similar contact with Wizards. It was very nice knowing in advance that Paizo was perfectly ok with what I was doing before launching, riding so close to their IP.

I'll agree with that - with the caveat that I haven't tried to do so. But no, I wouldn't expect that from WotC.

 

[dmccoy1693]

As a contrary data point, I'll note that I've sold very little of WotBS at Paizo - so I'd guess their marketing is centered around their own brand. That's totally reasonable, though.

To highlight plenty of stuff that nothing to do with Paizo's IP and would be difficult to use it with Pathfinder (again the last month): Boardgames, Cthulhu mints, Various DVDs, D&D Fortune cards, The D&D Board Game, and Munchkin.

I have the PDFs to my Traveller print book there as well but they don't sell, not a one. Reason I have them there is so customers that buy the print book there get instant access to the PDF for free. I wouldn't bother putting them there if it were not for that. I just wouldn't expect them to sell there. Those that frequent the Paizo boards aren't huge Traveller players. Same reason why I don't have any products at YourGamesNow.

 

[enrious]

Converting stuff to 3E is a bother. Check.

Snarky or serious?

 

[Morrus]

To highlight plenty of stuff that nothing to do with Paizo's IP and would be difficult to use it with Pathfinder (again the last month): Boardgames, Cthulhu mints, Various DVDs, D&D Fortune cards, The D&D Board Game, and Munchkin.

I'm not disagreeing that Paizo does not promote products it's selling in its store. I'd be gobsmacked if they didn't - that's what stores do.

As I said above, the prime difference between Paizo's and WotC's strategy seems to be rooted in the store. It'd be interesting to see how WotC would handle it if it were in the online RPG store marketspace, but that's not really their thing.

 

[dmccoy1693]

As I said above, the prime difference between Paizo's and WotC's strategy seems to be rooted in the store. It'd be interesting to see how WotC would handle it if it were in the online RPG store marketspace, but that's not really their thing.

They have their own online store. It sells DDI subscriptions and they don't sell anyone else's products.