D&D 5E What (if anything) do you find "wrong" with 5E?

[Umbran]

My father was an amazing man. He raised 5 boys all on his own, without the rest of us even knowing.

Folks, bring it back on topic, please and thanks.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

On the subject of quality, I don't see how we can say 5e is not a decent quality product from a business perspective.

If advertising budget and name recognition were all you needed we'd be sipping Crystal Pepsi or New Coke listening to our Zune while driving our Oldsmobile and waving at our buddy on a Segway. Our Google glasses would remind us that we were going to go to the new Ronin IV sequel based on that Keenu Reeves' smash hit 47 Ronin back in 2013.

Name recognition and advertising can get you in the door. To stay relevant and get year after year double digit growth you need a decent product.

Crystal freaking Pepsi! Looks and tastes like, made from…corn syrup! Epic product

Somehow not successful with a huge marketing push

 

[Oofta]

That's the thing. 5e is so popular that WotC no longer has to actually produce quality product to sell tons. They have no motivation to do their best work, because they're popular enough that it won't affect the bottom line.

Which is why they're announcing D&D One with modifications and play tests for at least the next year, obviously.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which is why they're announcing D&D One with modifications and play tests for at least the next year, obviously.

Announcing new product doesn't make it quality. They put out new stuff regularly. Jury's is well and truly out on this.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Crystal freaking Pepsi! Looks and tastes like, made from…corn syrup! Epic product

Somehow not successful with a huge marketing push

Tanked by a counter campaign with Tab Clear, tricking consumers into thinking Crystal Pepsi was a diet drink

 

[Minigiant]

That's the thing. 5e is so popular that WotC no longer has to actually produce quality product to sell tons. They have no motivation to do their best work, because they're popular enough that it won't affect the bottom line.

So they are in AAA video game publisher mode...?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Tanked by a counter campaign with Tab Clear, tricking consumers into thinking Crystal Pepsi was a diet drink

Well…actually the inventor of Crystal Pepsi said:

“I should have made sure it tasted good.”

Yes, you become very vulnerable to losing market share when you are not a good product.

So yes, negative trickery did not help an already not tasty product.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Tell that to Pepsi, who consistently won out in taste tests, but not the important 'has the Coke logo' test.

To the point where Coke made a product to copy the winning taste... and then promptly exploded due to a grassroot campaign of people angry that it was new.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I don’t have to tell that to Pepsi.

Crystal pepsi did not taste good

it was briefly popular due to novelty and brand association and fizzled out.

Not true of regular Pepsi, clearly.

Bottom line is this: the D&D thing is like a Rorschach. People are making all kinds of assumptions based on how they feel and what they like vs extant data. The best we have is customer satisfaction and longevity. That’s it.

And it’s all one direction, obviously. If you think it’s a bad game because…you think it’s a bad game…OK.

What data would convince you it’s a good game? None. That’s ok too.

But I realize again I have gotten drawn into a discussion from another thread. Above, I added to what I don’t like about 5e….What’s wrong with it.

 

[Oofta]

Announcing new product doesn't make it quality. They put out new stuff regularly. Jury's is well and truly out on this.

They're working on making it better for more people by investing in playtests and analyzing feedback. Not sure what else you can ask of any company.

In any case, I wasn't the one that brought up quality, I was just clarifying what I think on the topic. Feel free to disagree.

Have a good one.