D&D General Interview with D&D VP Jess Lanzillo on Comicbook.com

[Clint_L]

WizKids is a partner of WotC and have a license to create D&D miniatures - it is not a heck of a leap to envision WotC themselves participating in the same model elsewhere, and as for collecting miniatures, there is a distinct difference between knowing what miniature you are buying and purchasing a blind pack in which you are not sure what you will be getting.

There really isn't - Wizkids has been selling blind boxes for years and they're fun. I don't buy them as much anymore because the price has gone up more than I think they are generally worth, but I've purchased my share in the past. In general, I have found them an affordable way to get my hands on miniatures for repainting, often cheaper than buying the unpainted version, even when I knew exactly what I was getting. As well, depending on rarity you can get some really great miniatures for cheap on the resale market (though, again, those prices have gone up a lot in the past few years).

And anyway, what's it to you? If I want to spend my money on miniatures, analogue or virtual, sight unseen or not, why is that anyone else's business? If WotC want to enter that market, then people with either buy their stuff or they won't. Same with the VTT - it'll either be good enough to get folks to pay for it, or it won't. I'm not seeing the issue - D&D is basically free to play, with the basic rules, or really cheap with the three core books, and anything after that is gravy. I spend a fortune on miniatures and terrain because that's my jam, but lots and lots of tables have as good a time with pencils, paper, and their imagination.

 

[Hussar]

more powerful = more valuable, generally speaking, so yes. You can translate that to a rare MtG card just as well however. Rarity is its own value


yeah, they were totally altruistic with that, I am sure they did not make more money from it

Seriously? One of the most successful rpg products of all time and now it’s a bad thing because they made money?

It’s simple. They could have gone the GW route and you’d pay two or three times as much for a figure. Or they could go random and the prices are lower meaning more people got to play.

Random packs for less money is not a morally unjust business plan.

Good grief.

 

[mamba]

Seriously? One of the most successful rpg products of all time and now it’s a bad thing because they made money?

not sure where you think I said that, I do not for a second believe that they did the random packs to reduce the price for consumers however, they did it to make more money

It’s simple. They could have gone the GW route and you’d pay two or three times as much for a figure. Or they could go random and the prices are lower meaning more people got to play.

sorry, that does not add up, if that were what it is, they could have sold you the figures for half the GW price just as well. I assume they subsidized some mini with others, but you did not overall pay less for them

Random packs for less money is not a morally unjust business plan.

agreed, that is no business plan at all, and it is not why they randomized it. That is always done to eke out more money. That is why MtG did it, that is why everyone else does it too

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Let's remember the serious risk of piracy in the digital market. The companies and publishers have to earn the loyalty by the customers who spend their money.

The market of the videogames is changing. Players aren't too happy with certain new titles, or they don't want to spend money in a game that will be cancelled several years later.

Some titles only can survive if they are the number, and that is too risky. Soon the gamers can be interested into other titles.

And D&D players don't like to feel they are being tricked or scammed.

 

[Hussar]

not sure where you think I said that, I do not for a second believe that they did the random packs to reduce the price for consumers however, they did it to make more money


sorry, that does not add up, if that were what it is, they could have sold you the figures for half the GW price just as well. I assume they subsidized some mini with others, but you did not overall pay less for them


agreed, that is no business plan at all, and it is not why they randomized it. That is always done to eke out more money. That is why MtG did it, that is why everyone else does it too

No. It really wasn't. This was gone over many, many times in the past. The reason for randomizing minis is to be able to sell them a lot cheaper. So, no, you'd not be able to sell the figures for half of GW's price. That's not how it works.

When you have randomized packs, that means that you have zero unsold minis - so long as the entire run sells out. So, you don't have to worry about having a bunch of unpopular minis left over that you never get rid of, while you sell out of the popular ones early, meaning that you basically have to charge for not only the sold mini but charge enough to pay for the unsold ones too. Again, I'm not making this up. This has been common knowledge for years. Random packs are cheaper to produce. If you want to be able to buy exactly the minis that you want, that's why GW prices are they way they are.

Think of it this way. If they were only doing randomized packs to make more money, do you really think GW wouldn't do it? If randomized packs are a better way to make money from selling minis, you really think Games Workshop would leave money on the table?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Dude, I'm not the one who brought it up either, so why the personal insult?

Pointing out hypocrisy isn't "personally insulting" someone, my guy, he was responding to your post, and didn't go into areas you didn't.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Think of it this way. If they were only doing randomized packs to make more money, do you really think GW wouldn't do it? If randomized packs are a better way to make money from selling minis, you really think Games Workshop would leave money on the table?

GW would never intentionally leave a single penny "on the table", but their approach to minis means it's not physically possible for them to do randomized packs without incurring huge extra costs (they'd need to take an entirely different approach to sprues). Nor does it fit with their heavily army-based approach.

(They have done it when trying to offload minis from dead/dying lines before, but always as a one-off.)

And GW consumers are often fairly savvy re: pricing - point per dollar is a major concern for a lot of armies - and that would factor in to the perceived value of randomized minis. If they were selling a randomized flat-chance box, and like, there was a 60% chance of getting a mini that was for a very much non-ideal unit type, the value of that random box would be perceived by consumers as being vastly lower than one where there was maybe an 80% chance of getting a pretty useful one. As such, the "probably bad" box would likely just not sell through. And because GW often change the meta with codexes, rules-changes, etc. and do so in an uncoordinated way a lot of the time, it's very possible they could plan an "good" random box and then blows themselves out of the water by de facto nerfing enough of the minis in to make the value proposition terrible.

Lest anyone think GW are too cunning, basically every pairing of codexes they've put out for 10th has been "Good one/bad one", which means they might increase sales for one, but they damage sales for the other.

The reason for randomizing minis is to be able to sell them a lot cheaper.

This isn't quite true. The reason is to sell through lines as you explained well. The aim isn't to make them as cheap as possible - it's to make them as profitable as possible. Sometimes making something cheaper makes it more profitable. Sometimes it destroys profit.

 

[mamba]

Think of it this way. If they were only doing randomized packs to make more money, do you really think GW wouldn't do it? If randomized packs are a better way to make money from selling minis, you really think Games Workshop would leave money on the table?

I am with you that the calculation is different because of the different approach / selling everything, making the average mini cheaper than it were if you could pick them.

I disagree that the approach is solely about making it cheaper for the customer, that is only a byproduct however. If it were solely a way to make less money, why would anyone do it?

 

[Hussar]

This isn't quite true. The reason is to sell through lines as you explained well. The aim isn't to make them as cheap as possible - it's to make them as profitable as possible. Sometimes making something cheaper makes it more profitable. Sometimes it destroys profit.

Well, yes, that kinda goes without saying for any business. But, the point is, the idea that random packs are somehow gouging the consumer is simply not true. Randomized packs are not necessarily a bad thing.

I was always under the impression that loot boxes were a problem because MMO's and various other games used the Pay to Win model, forcing users to continuously buy random boxes in order to get that "whatever" that lets you move on to the next level of the game. That's where it becomes predatory..

Simply having random packages isn't predatory.

 

[Hussar]

I am with you that the calculation is different because of the different approach / selling everything, making the average mini cheaper than it were if you could pick them.

I disagree that the approach is solely about making it cheaper for the customer, that is only a byproduct however. If it were solely a way to make less money, why would anyone do it?

Are we seriously at the point where companies should be losing money in order to not be seen as predatory? I mean, duh. A company wants to make the most profit it can. That's like saying rain is wet. Your arguement though seemed to be that WotC will use predatory models to gouge the users when there isn't any actual evidence of that.

And as far as the VTT or D&D Beyond having an impact on the writing of books, I would point you to this thread: WotC - WotC Removes Digital Content Team Credits From D&D Beyond where the former Senior Producer from D&D Beyond says that she and her team,

"While at Wizards (so after D&D Beyond was purchased) - with numerous books, my digital content team and I worked directly with the book team on the content, reading through rules drafts, suggesting changes, giving ideas, and catching issues. We had a full database of the content and understood exactly how it interacted.

Given that we were contributing to the content in the books, I felt it reasonable to request that team be added to the credits"

Considering this has been going on for several years and the D&D Beyond team has been given writing credits as far back as 2022 with the Radiant Citadel. So, it's not like this hasn't been the case for some time.