D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[mamba]

More and more books at a faster rate? Again, seriously? Good grief, for the past ten years all I've heard is the constant bitching about how WotC isn't producing fast enough for people.

I mean, they do want us to buy more, but the idea that getting us to do that is to release more books of diminishing quality to be able to keep up the pace is just nonsense

 

[TiQuinn]

I mean, they do want us to buy more, but the idea that getting us to do that is to release more books of diminishing quality to be able to keep up the pace is just nonsense

Yeah, I think there's definitely two camps. There's people who want more from WotC, while at the same time there are people who think that output hasn't been well designed recently and wants actually fewer releases.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Given the 50th year anniversary, it was also a bit darned if you do, darned if you don't.

If they did something with core rules, folks would call it a money grab/treadmill. If they didn't, it'd have been called disrespectful of the history and anniversary.

I'm sure they could have found an appropriate way to honor the brand's anniversary without issuing replacement core books.

 

[Hussar]

I mean, they do want us to buy more, but the idea that getting us to do that is to release more books of diminishing quality to be able to keep up the pace is just nonsense

Well, sure. I'm sure WotC would love for people to buy more books. Ok. I imagine that's true for every single publisher in the world. That's hardly nefarious or has anything to do with the notion of "planned obsolescence".

 

[Scribe]

Fans are conservative by default. That true in about all fandoms because it’s in a definition of a fan to love how something is now.

When you introduce changes, it is only logical that fans will be the ones noticing these changes first and resist it because it changes their relationship to the product as fans. This resistance can lead to protests and boycotts but more often than not, just nerd-fueled rage.

TL;DR: If you weren’t conservative to some degrees, you wouldn’t be a fan. Fans have different levels of tolerance to change but if you change something you loved, you might not love it anymore.

I'm sure they could have found an appropriate way to honor the brand's anniversary without issuing replacement core books.

Oh you know what, a clean up of the rules of 5e, but with the art style of black and white line art, maybe even get the old artists, reminiscent of older editions, call it Legacy Edition or something. I bet that would have sold great.

 

[NN]

Particularly not with a system as incredibly complex as D&D.

why is D&D so incredibly complex?

Youd think by the 8th (?) iteration the some designers might have stumbled upon simplicity.

 

[Umbran]

I'm sure they could have found an appropriate way to honor the brand's anniversary without issuing replacement core books.

I am not sure they'd have found a way that most of the customers think is appropriate, because I am not sure there IS a way that most customers would have thought appropriate. We are not a unified bunch, if you haven't noticed.

 

[Scribe]

why is D&D so incredibly complex?

Youd think by the 8th (?) iteration the some designers might have stumbled upon simplicity.

 

[MGibster]

D&D has been in a constant state of change since 1974.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which is just so crazy to me because as much as people get spun up over backwards compatibility, I think 2e remains the only edition that really had backwards compatibility baked in because TSR management was so adamant that it had to work seamlessly with 1e material - probably the last time executives for the D&D game were ever that deeply concerned about that issue ever again. I think we played nearly every 1e adventure, as well as several Basic adventures, with 2e over 10 years and it was pretty easy to use with the 2e rules.

Yup. My preferred game for decades was 1e/2e, and I still like a lot of what was done then over anything official since.