Holy sheepdip - wotc to republish old editions

[Dragon Snack]

To add more fuel to the fire, yesterdays Wizards Event Reporter updates include, emphasis mine...

New Dungeon & Dragons formats
◦D&D RPG (Any Edition)
◦D&D Living Forgotten Realms
◦D&D Gamma World RPG
◦D&D Board Game

Wizards Play Network Official Home Page

This is the software used to report in store events to WotC (to be fair, it can also be used to report non-store affiliated events as well). I'll also say that I haven't updated it yet since I'm not at the store, so I don't know exactly what it means. But given the proximity of the announcement and the software update...

WotC does support in store play, if the WER has been updated to allow other editions of D&D then perhaps printed versions of older editions may not be far behind. If stores are going to run official events, they will want to monetize them - and the easiest way to do that is to sell books. Everyone worried about digital rentals may be jumping the gun.

But then again (speaking of jumping the gun), this could also just be a way of testing the waters to see what editions of D&D stores already have running. Market research directly from the people already running events for them!

Either way, another data point to mull...

 

[mudbunny]

I do hope the WotC folks are looking on this thread at least.
We are telling them how to get $$ out of our wallets into their accounts and what we won't even bat an eyelash to say no to, I hope they take it to heart.

I have told them about this thread.

 

[Orius]

WotC does support in store play, if the WER has been updated to allow other editions of D&D then perhaps printed versions of older editions may not be far behind. If stores are going to run official events, they will want to monetize them - and the easiest way to do that is to sell books. Everyone worried about digital rentals may be jumping the gun.

But then again (speaking of jumping the gun), this could also just be a way of testing the waters to see what editions of D&D stores already have running. Market research directly from the people already running events for them!

Possibly they're taking a page from M:tG here. I understand there are different rules formats for Magic tournaments, one format only allows the most recent up-to-date cards while there's at least one more that allows cards from older sets and editions. I don't know the exact terminology here because I'm not a Magic player, but it might be a similar approach. In this case, they may be allowing for official D&D gaiming events to support either the current 4e rules or older classic rules.

 

[Roland55]

I know that blog entry is hard going -- for some reason, he never went back and even ran it through a spellcheck, to say nothing of a more comprehensive clean-up -- but they appear to have given more details:

The older material will probably just be rented through DDI.

Sigh. Thanks for the info. I had hoped for more ... but I'm really not interested in merely 'renting' the old material through DDI.

 

[El Mahdi]

"Renting" books is 100% out. I can't even imagine they'd be thinking of doing this. If they are they're absolutely nuts.

Paying a subscription for a magazine, online tools and compendium, virtual table top, etc. - if they had support for older editions, I'm in.

Subscribing for access to books in the first place, that would just piss me off even more. If they did that, it would no longer be a matter of I won't buy WotC products at all until they return pdf's - it will be I will never buy WotC products again, Ever.

Please WotC, for once listen to your customer base and don't do this!

 

[Ettin]

I can't wait to see how dramatic people get over this when some actual details are announced.

 

[El Mahdi]

I can't wait to see how dramatic people get over this when some actual details are announced.

That's when things really get going...

 

[IronWolf]

I can't wait to see how dramatic people get over this when some actual details are announced.

It is the nature of discussion boards. We like to discuss rumors, things that have actually happened and game systems. It is what we do!

 

[RangerWickett]

Ideologically I see no problem with requiring a subscription to view old materials. From a utilitarian standpoint, though, it would probably be a technical challenge, and not worth the hassle compared to just letting people download the pdfs when they have a subscription, and keep the pdfs when they don't.

I work at a library. Some vendors do only provide their books in a format of one page at a time, loaded as an image so you can't copy it easily. And they're a totally pain in the ass to use.

 

[Umbran]

If they did that, it would no longer be a matter of I won't buy WotC products at all until they return pdf's - it will be I will never buy WotC products again, Ever.

I have never understood that sort of thing - I'm sorry, but it sounds a lot like, "You produced strawberry ice cream at some time, so I will never buy your chocolate!"

Voting with your wallet is a limited communication tool. If you don't like A, you don't buy A, and if A doesn't sell well, then they know not to do A again. If you don't buy B, they have no way to connect that with how you didn't like A. It fails to communicate your dislike, and so is of no service to either of you.

Plus, if you swear off them entirely, well, then they can write you off as customer - your concerns are no longer theirs. As far as they are concerned, you are no longer part of the market, and your needs, desires, and tastes can now be ignored.

Ultimatums are generally not a great negotiating tactic.