WotC President Chris Cocks Talks Magic and D&D

[Parmandur]

Umm... so M:TG could do a Hearthstone move and introduce a D&D themed set? Sounds interesting

Honestly, I've always thought of that as a matter of "when," not "if."

 

[pogre]

Or could it be that they are calling for DMs because of the level of demand? Spoiler: it is.

I think ONE factor is a lot of veteran DMs are turned off by the new AL system. Generally, there are lots of players wanting to play - especially new people. So, I think demand for DMs has increased because of both factors.

Naturally, I have no hard data to back this up. However, the coordinators calling for DMs in my area say we have lots of new folks who want to play and a fair number of their regular DMs are giving it a pass. I suspect as [MENTION=6793324]AriochQ[/MENTION] has mentioned, many veteran players are passing on it too.

Clearly, I have one local impression. It may be very flawed and the new AL system may be wildly popular and doing wonders for growing the game. I have my doubts...

 

[abirdcall]

Does anyone have the numbers for AL?

Is it even a large enough % of the player base to matter?

 

[darjr]

Don’t know the numbers but AL matters. The largest collection of AL games in a single weekend is happening at GameHoleCon and look at the guest list.

https://www.gameholecon.com/guests

 

[abirdcall]

Don’t know the numbers but AL matters. The largest collection of AL games in a single weekend is happening at GameHoleCon and look at the guest list.

https://www.gameholecon.com/guests

We should make a distinction between advertising and player counts.

Conventions provide what I think would be some cheap advertising. As far as player base though, they don't matter. If every player stopped playing at conventions the dip in the player base would not be significant enough to be noticed.

Similarly, I bet a dip in the popularity of AL (if there is such a thing) has such a minuscule impact on the player base (and growth of) to not matter.

 

[darjr]

Could be, but I think the number of players at conventions is a smaller part of the number that want to go. So large player numbers swells the ranks of convention goers, AL included.

I also think that it’s significant that the other big conventions D&D “goes to” have a large AL turnout, like winter fantasy and origins.

But I do suspect AL is a fraction of the larger player base. I wish I knew how much. Maybe WoTC does?

 

[BoneMan]

Could be worse

What an unfortunate last name. Worse than mine..:

I don’t care about MTG but I AM interested in revisiting classic worlds with books like this...

He could have been named Harry.

 

[gyor]

Yeah. A poorly crafted game whose biggest draws were the D&D logo & using recycled D&D art.
I also remember their promotion of trading in your MTG cards for Spellfire cards. Why do you ask?

Given that D&D and MtG are owned by the same company and share resources and IPs now, it's funny that they were briefly rivals.

 

[The Big BZ]

Spoiler: It isn't. My LFGS has fewer tables in season 8 than in season 7. It is due to a lack of players, not DM's. For the last three weeks we have had to combine two tables to meet 3 player minimum requirements. Imagine being a new player and walking into an AL game:

Point buy
PHB+1
ok, we are good so far
oh, you don't get treasure...ever...you just get gold when you level
ummm...ok...
speaking of leveling, you level every 4 hours, or 8 later on so you out level any hardcover content pretty quick...but you can go slow...but you will still likely out level the content
ummm...sure...sort of like the worst version of milestone ever
Now you get it!...also, magic items are look but don't touch. If you want them, you just save up some points and them buy them. Nothing like the excitement of shopping for magic items, amiright?
ummm...so I go through adventures but it doesn't really matter what I do since I level based on play time, don't get gold (or any other treasure) and have zero chance of getting a magic item?
Now you got it! Just the way Gygax intended the game to be played!
[Lighting bolt from above incinerates AL DM]

The plural of anecdote is not evidence. We just went from 7 to 8 tables and having people approaching us to DM. With regards to the way Gygax wanted to game to be played, I would estimate that around 6 of our 60 players have heard of him.

 

[Cergorach]

True, but it was a product that had a rather severe slump when the fan base fragmented with 4e and Pathfinder. I see this more as a recovery with a newly introduced product - not just a new version, but a new business model (slow and steady) which reduces barrier to entry. My *guess* is that AL is also doing a better job of introducing new players + welcoming returning ones then the 4e in-store initiatives, but I don't have numbers for that.

Slump, you can call it a crash with 4E. When Icv2 is noting that in their top 5 RPGs, D&D isn't mentioned, something is seriously wrong*... 2010-2014 wasn't kind for D&D...

*ICv2 is seriously flawed, but in this case Paizo does a serious amount of direct sales, WotC doesn't and both have their primary markets in the US.