D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Oofta]

What a wonderful world you live in. I think it was different prior to Tasha's, but the current team has shown me no evidence they actually want to make a better game, just one that makes more money.

In other words, they’re terrible because you don't happen to be their target market? Because they didn't ask your personal opinion on what "better" looks like?

If a company produces a product that doesn't suit my needs, I'll find products from another company that does. There are plenty of fish in the sea.

 

[Oofta]

I’ll let you in on an extremely poorly kept secret: maximizing profit was the strategy from 2014 on, which is why they kept releasing material slowly. I forget which interview but Chris Perkins flat out said they were intentionally releasing material slowly because they found it performed better that way. They’ve slowly upped the release rate every couple years while likely carefully watching how the books sell to make sure they’re still making whatever profit margin they want from a book I’d guess. Good, bad, or indifferent 5e has been all about carefully maximizing profit basically since day 1.

(Goes without saying they’re obviously also watching other factors like customer satisfaction surveys to make sure the game stays healthy. Someone will read what I wrote above and think I’m saying they only care about profits and while I’m sure there are execs that are short sighted and only care about that, I don’t think the design team making the products are laser focused on squeezing revenue out of the game.)

Maximizing profits instead of cranking out excessive amounts of product that leads to oversaturation and a boom/bust cycle is not a bad thing.

Making a profit is how companies keep the lights on. There's no ponzi scheme here, no purposefully deceptive tactics, no price gouging. I don't agree with some stuff, but I'm not going to begrudge them trying to make a profit. But if they're making something I don't want, I'll just spend my entertainment money somewhere else.

 

[Velderan]

What a wonderful world you live in. I think it was different prior to Tasha's, but the current team has shown me no evidence they actually want to make a better game, just one that makes more money.

I’d agree there was a slightly different design philosophy prior to Tasha’s, sure. The game is definitely more on the radar of Hasbro’s leadership so there’s definitely more of effort to monetize it through licensing and a greater investment in digital, but acting like the design team is laser focused on profits over making a game that as many people as possible will enjoy just comes off as bitterness they’re not catering to your tastes. I’m not their target audience either, it happens.

 

[Velderan]

Maximizing profits instead of cranking out excessive amounts of product that leads to oversaturation and a boom/bust cycle is not a bad thing.

Making a profit is how companies keep the lights on. There's no ponzi scheme here, no purposefully deceptive tactics, no price gouging. I don't agree with some stuff, but I'm not going to begrudge them trying to make a profit. But if they're making something I don't want, I'll just spend my entertainment money somewhere else.

Yep, there’s definitely different ways to approach supporting a game and what WotC is doing seems to work for the majority. If it didn’t, people would spend their entertainment money elsewhere. Luckily there’s more alternatives than probably ever in the hobby if what they’re making doesn’t work for your (general your) table. Oddly I’d wager the vast majority of those publishers are trying to maximize profit too, weird how that tends to happen in a capitalistic society.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I have recently been informed in no uncertain terms that my faith in the ability of the public to understand math and that a sequel is in addition to and not the replacement for the original is misplaced.

I wish WotC could realize proper respect for continuity was just as important as doing new stuff, for coherence of story telling and keeping fandoms united and energized.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maximizing profits instead of cranking out excessive amounts of product that leads to oversaturation and a boom/bust cycle is not a bad thing.

Making a profit is how companies keep the lights on. There's no ponzi scheme here, no purposefully deceptive tactics, no price gouging. I don't agree with some stuff, but I'm not going to begrudge them trying to make a profit. But if they're making something I don't want, I'll just spend my entertainment money somewhere else.

Are those the only two choices? Is maximizing profit the same thing as "keeping the lights on"? I don't think so.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I’d agree there was a slightly different design philosophy prior to Tasha’s, sure. The game is definitely more on the radar of Hasbro’s leadership so there’s definitely more of effort to monetize it through licensing and a greater investment in digital, but acting like the design team is laser focused on profits over making a game that as many people as possible will enjoy just comes off as bitterness they’re not catering to your tastes. I’m not their target audience either, it happens.

Even if I'm wrong about my theories, I have no reason to think well of a company that suddenly decided to stop making products I wanted to buy, after twenty years of stewardship of a game I enjoyed for decades before that, especially given the errors they've made of late.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You mean the update they keep explicitly saying isn't a new edition? The one they have said they internally call "2024 5e" because they're desperate to avoid the stigma they believe is associated with an "X.5e" revision, and even more desperate to make ultra clear that this is definitely absolutely not a totally brand new edition, we pinky-swear?

That's the product they're writing almost nothing for, so they can avoid anger over writing content for a soon-to-be-abandoned edition?

Seriously?

You can’t fathom the sense of not giving the people who are already crying wolf the second a phb revision playtest is announced more fuel?

Also…y’all know Xanathar’s and Tasha’s are 3 years apart, right?

And Xanathar’s came out 4 years after the core books.

Meanwhile they put out a revised version of a bunch of stuff from 2 books they’re discontinuing and y’all keep trying to act like it isn’t a real product or something!

This entire discussion is just ridiculous.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I wish WotC could realize proper respect for continuity was just as important as doing new stuff, for coherence of story telling and keeping fandoms united and energized.

But, it isn’t. They can’t “realize” something that is at most a preference.

 

[Parmandur]

I wish WotC could realize proper respect for continuity was just as important as doing new stuff, for coherence of story telling and keeping fandoms united and energized.

I think they're doing a great job with properly utilizing continuity for an RPG product. And the fanbase seems pretty enetgized?