Is WotC playing 4d Chess with the 5.1 SRD CC?

[overgeeked]

If this benefits them somehow in future, it will be because they lucked into it or paid very smart people to think about it long and hard. This wasn’t a long con. This wasn’t their plan all along. This all looks more like pure corporate flail to me. Throw a bunch of things at the wall until something sticks after their initial plan of bullying the industry into compliance failed.

 

[Haplo781]

No.

 

[Clint_L]

I think we have to understand that Hasbro is not a hivemind. What happened was (almost for sure) not some master strategy, but the result of one faction pushing a plan through, only to be met with ferocious push-back that enabled another faction to push its counterproposal through. Internecine warfare, not 4d chess.

 

[Parmandur]

I think we have to understand that Hasbro is not a hivemind. What happened was (almost for sure) not some master strategy, but the result of one faction pushing a plan through, only to be met with ferocious push-back that enabled another faction to push its counterproposal through. Internecine warfare, not 4d chess.

Exactly, the wrong metaphors.

Rather than a external chess move, it was an internal office politics Check Mate.

 

[Blue]

2) If D&D can't make the numbers needed to be a big tent IP, it will likely be mothballed. So while we might still see a 5.5/6e officially, it will be very similar to 5e's launch and then some. Far fewer releases of both splat and adventures. Less design work (lower design hours spent on it due to fewer designers on staff).

Umm, I think you are mistaking cause and effect here. They intentionally slowed down the release schedule for 5e and it was much more profitable than the hardcover-a-month from 3.x & 4e days.

This wasn't in response to poor numbers, this was intentional.

Less errata and support for products once released.

One big complaint about 4e from players who liked 4e was the overly aggressive errata making print books obsolete quickly. Whole subsystems like flight got replaced. This was something the community wanted scaled back.

Please, if you are trying to use historical changes to justify your statements, you need to have an understanding of the actual causes of those changes, not just ascribe whatever narrative supports your statements.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Not 4d chess. They had an idea that they thought would make them more money. Then they realized it would cost them money, so they changed plans.

 

[Parmandur]

Not 4d chess. They had an idea that they thought would make them more money. Then they realized it would cost them money, so they changed plans.

Pretty basic 2D Chess.

 

[Jer]

Pretty basic 2D Chess.

Honestly it seems less like Chess and more like Dodgeball.

 

[Haplo781]

Honestly it seems less like Chess and more like Dodgeball.

If you can dodge a boycott you can dodge a ball!

 

[Scribe]

Honestly it seems less like Chess and more like Dodgeball.