D&D General Ray Winninger on 5e’s success, product cadence, the OGL, and more.

[SlyFlourish]

I have never worried about D&D failing.

Option 1: D&D keeps doing well, and there continues to be a steady stream of D&D things for me to spend money on.
Option 2: D&D fails, and I suddenly have more money.

Pathologically optimistic me just isn't seeing a problem here. Both options are great!

The only issue that matters to most of is is finding good groups to play with. If we have a good source for that, whatever happens to the company, the brand, or future products doesn’t matter too much.

 

[SlyFlourish]

But, that's the point. People have been telling me that WotC is failing, that D&D is doomed, that the game is ending for TEN YEARS now. I suppose, like the proverbial broken clock, you have be right eventually, but, sheesh, really? Zero evidence, zero actual facts, and we're STILL talking about how WotC is failing? How the hobby is slowing down? How things aren't just quite as good as they used to be?

FFS, at what point do we get to be shouting from the rooftops that this is the best D&D has ever been?

You’re right in one regard — even with the expert opinions we’re seeing in this thread. There’s Nobel-prize winning research talking about how experts suck at prediction.

The doom and gloom has been going on much longer than 10 years. I have memories of Gencon back in the mid 4e days where we were sure that D&D was going to die with the Gen-Xers. Everyone else was going to be full-bore into massive online games and no one except us grognards would want to sit around a table.

Boy were we wrong. And as awesome as I think 5e is, I don’t think any of us would say it was just the design of 5e that made it so popular. It was likely a combination of other things: liveplay sessions, Stranger Things, and maybe just a desire to get away from enshittified games and have a meaningful connection again.

Who knows what happens to Hasbro and WOTC and the D&D brand. One of my big focuses is to think about how our own games can be resilient to the whims of single big companies. We’ll see how that goes!

 

[Hussar]

They do not only release quarterly reports and otherwise say nothing at all… They have been telling us about the D&D growth, record number of players, etc. in marketing material / press releases (and sometimes explicitly in the reports, because their numbers in them are there to obfuscate). Have you not been paying attention? This should not be news to you


aha, so you know… Don’t think they said that the last couple of years though


you can stop whenever you want to, doesn’t sound like you are anyway

Me, I am not worried, it’s more tracking its performance out of curiosity

My posts are very short. Please stop breaking them up. It’s very hard to understand what you are saying.

So WotC is both claiming from the rooftops and also obfuscating. Basically for someone who only in it for curiosity you seem very determined to paint WotC in the most negative light possible.

A decade of the sky is falling. More really. This goes back to the 3e days too. The only thing that has been dying longer than DnD is SF.

 

[TiQuinn]

The only issue that matters to most of is is finding good groups to play with. If we have a good source for that, whatever happens to the company, the brand, or future products doesn’t matter too much.

I think the other point is that discussion of a slowdown != doom and gloom. So far, this has been all talk about typical ups and downs within a particular company, which is going to occur. There can always be a new product on the horizon that changes that conversation.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I have never worried about D&D failing.

Option 1: D&D keeps doing well, and there continues to be a steady stream of D&D things for me to spend money on.
Option 2: D&D fails, and I suddenly have more money.

Pathologically optimistic me just isn't seeing a problem here. Both options are great!

Great attitude! D&D's success isn't necessary for anyone but WotC/Hasbro, and even they don't need the levels of profit they want to stay in business.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Great attitude! D&D's success isn't necessary for anyone but WotC/Hasbro, and even they don't need the levels of profit they want to stay in business.

100%

If D&D went under right now (and even assuming you only ever play "official D&D" and nothing else) there's still more content out than you'd ever use. Plus, you know, you could make stuff up.

 

[Imaro]

100%

If D&D went under right now (and even assuming you only ever play "official D&D" and nothing else) there's still more content out than you'd ever use. Plus, you know, you could make stuff up.

This argument never makes sense to me... its a luxury/recreation product, nothing about it is needed. I buy it because I want and enjoy the products WotC puts out... I enjoy the ease of use and convenience when sharing all my digital books with my gaming group master tier DnD Beyond sub provides (amazing bang for your buck that rarely gets talked about)... And if they go under I loose both.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This argument never makes sense to me... its a luxury/recreation product, nothing about it is needed. I buy it because I want and enjoy the products WotC puts out... I enjoy the ease of use and convenience when sharing with my gaming group DnD Beyond provides... And if they go under it loose both.

So for you the answer is different, largely because of D&DB. Fair enough.

 

[Imaro]

So for you the answer is different, largely because of D&DB. Fair enough.

I enjoy their products as well... I mentioned that first.

 

[mamba]

So WotC is both claiming from the rooftops and also obfuscating. Basically for someone who only in it for curiosity you seem very determined to paint WotC in the most negative light possible.

they shout about the good things and try to sweep the bad under the rug, not really a difficult concept.

I can see how looking for the facts can feel like a negative light to those who want to celebrate D&D’s success, doesn’t make it that though I certainly did not talk about the sky falling for a decade, or even now