D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Staffan]

The syllogism is exactly as I said it:
Slow is good
Slower is better
Therefore, slowest is best.

And what is the slowest possible publication speed? Zero. Stopping.

That's just nonsense.

The truth is that customers have different amounts of money and attention to devote to D&D books. If you're releasing things at a really slow pace, you're probably going to see most potential customers buying everything produced. If you release a few more books, people will be pickier with what they buy, but you might still get most of them to buy most books. And if you release a lot of books, people are going to start becoming real picky. Somewhere along this scale you'll find a pace that maximizes your profit, and that's where a good capitalist would want to be.

 

[payn]

Discussions like this are why content producers make clickbait titles.

QFT. ITs not like this is anything new. Folks been talking mothballs and 5E for 10 years.

 

[Parmandur]

QFT. ITs not like this is anything new. Folks been talking mothballs and 5E for 10 years.

10 years ago the jury was out so the conversation at least made sense.

 

[MichaelSomething]

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[Sparky McDibben]

That's just nonsense.

The truth is that customers have different amounts of money and attention to devote to D&D books. If you're releasing things at a really slow pace, you're probably going to see most potential customers buying everything produced. If you release a few more books, people will be pickier with what they buy, but you might still get most of them to buy most books. And if you release a lot of books, people are going to start becoming real picky. Somewhere along this scale you'll find a pace that maximizes your profit, and that's where a good capitalist would want to be.

Thank you for taking time to explain that so I didn't. There's a name for this, and it's called the Laffer Curve.

 

[Morrus]

I think it's fairly clear that D&D is as successful as it's ever been in 50 years. The current release rate has been working really well for a decade.

"D&D books are coming out too slowly" was 2015's conversation; I've no idea why it's suddenly an issue yet again today and I don't think a professional publisher like Matt Colville would suddenly come to this opinion 10 years after everybody else. Can we go back to "are hit points meat?" or something?

 

[mamba]

It is literally a syllogism. It's not illogical. You may disagree with the premises, but the logical form is valid.

"X-state is good."
"Making Y-change to the current state improves it."
"Therefore, applying Y-change as much as you can makes the best result."

it is illogical, because it takes something that may be true to absurd extremes. Just because one thing is maybe an improvement over another does not mean that going to the maximum extreme of that one thing is the largest possible improvement.

Food is good.
More food is better.
Therefore eating 24/7 is the best result.

 

[Parmandur]

it is illogical, because it takes something that may be true to absurd extremes. Just because one thing is maybe an improvement over another does not mean that going to the maximum extreme of that one thing is the largest possible improvement.

Food is good.
More food is better.
Therefore eating 24/7 is the best result.

Fallacy of the excluded middle, IIRC

 

[mamba]

The truth is that customers have different amounts of money and attention to devote to D&D books. If you're releasing things at a really slow pace, you're probably going to see most potential customers buying everything produced. If you release a few more books, people will be pickier with what they buy, but you might still get most of them to buy most books. And if you release a lot of books, people are going to start becoming real picky. Somewhere along this scale you'll find a pace that maximizes your profit, and that's where a good capitalist would want to be.

agreed that more books is not always better, but the idea that most people buy all books is contradicted by the sales data. Adventures sell less than PHG, DMG, MM, Xanathar, and so forth, to the tune of PHB having sold 1.5M vs Curse of Strahd as the best selling adventure at 150k based on BookScan

 

[Parmandur]

agreed that more books is not always better, but the idea that most people buy all books is contradicted by the sales data. Adventures sell less than PHG, DMG, MM, Xanathar, and so forth, to the tune of PHB having sold 1.5M vs Curse of Strahd as the best selling adventure at 150k based on BookScan

Yes, and for people who are selective, a smaller selection will make purchasing easier. Hence, more sales.

This has been explicitly what the WotC team has laid out as their strategy, and every indication is that it is working as they theorized...better really.