On the subject of it aiming primarily at the youngsters:
I disagree. Firing your existing customer base in a risky attempt to create a brand new one is the definition of corporate suicide. If I was in a boardroom and someone said to me "Hey, this brand's strength is that over 40 years it has built up a fervent and dedicated customer base! That's awesome; what an advantage! Many busineses would kill for that! Now - I have an idea. Let's get rid of all those customers we built up over 40 years, and just start again from scratch and try to get new ones instead!" then I'd fire them on the spot.
That experiment has been tried with 4E, and it failed. Half the player base went and played Pathfinder instead. Sure, some new blood came in to embrace the brand, but a lot of old blook left; result: Pathfinder now vies with D&D for the top spot. One great definition of insanity s to try the same thing repeatedly and expect different results.
Expansion of the customer base is great and all, but the first priority should be consolidation. Play to the core strengths and get those players back. There's a time and a place for opening up new demographics, but I don't believe right now is the time.
And those lost customers are probably easier to win than brand new customers. Not all of them, but enough will still have a vested interest that winning them back is at least something that has a reasonable probablity of success if they get it right.
D&D is an aging hobby. A large percentage of the customers - the ones with the most money, incidentally, and the ones most able to bring in younger players (their kids) - are older. Ignoring that would be a risky move.
Consolidate, then expand. Losing the older demographic would be more disastrous for the game than not bringing in a bunch of fresh youngsters right now.
I don't disagree that some more modern fictional tropes could be embraced; anime is too far off-track for me by a long way, but certainly there have been great fantasy properties created in the last couple of decades. Classics like Lord of the Rings, though, are also vitally important influences. Heck, there's a new Hobbit movie coming - Hollywood certainly thinks there's an audience for older material!
I disagree. Firing your existing customer base in a risky attempt to create a brand new one is the definition of corporate suicide. If I was in a boardroom and someone said to me "Hey, this brand's strength is that over 40 years it has built up a fervent and dedicated customer base! That's awesome; what an advantage! Many busineses would kill for that! Now - I have an idea. Let's get rid of all those customers we built up over 40 years, and just start again from scratch and try to get new ones instead!" then I'd fire them on the spot.
That experiment has been tried with 4E, and it failed. Half the player base went and played Pathfinder instead. Sure, some new blood came in to embrace the brand, but a lot of old blook left; result: Pathfinder now vies with D&D for the top spot. One great definition of insanity s to try the same thing repeatedly and expect different results.
Expansion of the customer base is great and all, but the first priority should be consolidation. Play to the core strengths and get those players back. There's a time and a place for opening up new demographics, but I don't believe right now is the time.
And those lost customers are probably easier to win than brand new customers. Not all of them, but enough will still have a vested interest that winning them back is at least something that has a reasonable probablity of success if they get it right.
D&D is an aging hobby. A large percentage of the customers - the ones with the most money, incidentally, and the ones most able to bring in younger players (their kids) - are older. Ignoring that would be a risky move.
Consolidate, then expand. Losing the older demographic would be more disastrous for the game than not bringing in a bunch of fresh youngsters right now.
I don't disagree that some more modern fictional tropes could be embraced; anime is too far off-track for me by a long way, but certainly there have been great fantasy properties created in the last couple of decades. Classics like Lord of the Rings, though, are also vitally important influences. Heck, there's a new Hobbit movie coming - Hollywood certainly thinks there's an audience for older material!
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