D&D General The New York Times on D&D

[Belen]

And yet, WotC, Paizo, Kobold Press, Darrington Press, and MCDM all have moved away from or started their new systems using another word besides race. So it would seem that they at least have some idea of what their customer base prefers, even if ENWorld is its own particular community.

That is just another selection bias. You assume they did market research before they made this decision. They could have easily just decided to placate the loudest online voices under the assumption that the majority just do not care or just do what they want anyway.

The designers may also have their own biases or be part of networks that hold those views.

WOTC is the only company with the real resources to do market research on scale.

I am not saying they are wrong but neither can we say that they represent the majority view.

The majority could just ignore them and use the material they need.

I am not saying that they do not represent the majority or plurality. I am saying that I do not assume that they do.

 

[Remathilis]

And yet, WotC, Paizo, Kobold Press, Darrington Press, and MCDM all have moved away from or started their new systems using another word besides race. So it would seem that they at least have some idea of what their customer base prefers, even if ENWorld is its own particular community.

Listen, how dare you remind people WotC is actually playing catch-up on this and most other D&D derived RPGs already did this and nobody raised a stink then.

 

[Divine2021]

Listen, how dare you remind people WotC is actually playing catch-up on this and most other D&D derived RPGs already did this and nobody raised a stink then.

Niche companies produce niche products for select demographics who make it a point of order to ignore voices or critique that makes them uncomfortable. This isn’t surprising, nor is it surprising that nearly nobody cared.

 

[Azzy]

And yet, WotC, Paizo, Kobold Press, Darrington Press, and MCDM all have moved away from or started their new systems using another word besides race.

True. And WotC is actually late to the party, so it's silly (at best) that this is a point of contention.

 

[Remathilis]

Niche companies produce niche products for select demographics who make it a point of order to ignore voices or critique that makes them uncomfortable. This isn’t surprising, nor is it surprising that nearly nobody cared.

If you think Paizo, Kobold Press, and Critical Role are niche companies, you have no concept of what the RPG space looks like...

 

[Belen]

Listen, how dare you remind people WotC is actually playing catch-up on this and most other D&D derived RPGs already did this and nobody raised a stink then.

Right.

Or they just made changes to differentiate their newer content/systems and people did not care because that is how it always was or they never engaged with the content.

I do not care, personally. I hate the species term and would have preferred ancestry or lineage or heritage because it sounds cooler.

 

[TiQuinn]

That is just another selection bias. You assume they did market research before they made this decision. They could have easily just decided to placate the loudest online voices under the assumption that the majority just do not care or just do what they want anyway.

The designers may also have their own biases or be part of networks that hold those views.

WOTC is the only company with the real resources to do market research on scale.

I am not saying they are wrong but neither can we say that they represent the majority view.

The majority could just ignore them and use the material they need.

I am not saying that they do not represent the majority or plurality. I am saying that I do not assume that they do.

I think it’s quite a statement to suggest that all of these companies in the fantasy TTRPG space do not have a better sense of their customer base’s preferences than us.

 

[MGibster]

If you think Paizo, Kobold Press, and Critical Role are niche companies, you have no concept of what the RPG space looks like...

If Kill Dr. Lucky didn't make Paizo a household name I don't think anything will. I tend to think of the TTRPG world as being rather niche in and of itself with D&D being one of the few games to attain mainstream recognition. If I were to tell my coworkers I was playing Pathfinder this weekend they'd have no idea what I was going on about. If I told them I was playing D&D they'd know what a big nerd I was.

 

[Divine2021]

If you think Paizo, Kobold Press, and Critical Role are niche companies, you have no concept of what the RPG space looks like...

I do? What a bizarre comment. Of course they’re niche compared to wotc.

There’s something naive in the comments here that just assumes everyone agrees with them.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

If you think Paizo, Kobold Press, and Critical Role are niche companies, you have no concept of what the RPG space looks like...

On the contrary Remethalis.