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<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5433725" data-attributes="member: 59082">It is great to have you here, Ryan, and I will add my gratitude for the innovation that you helped midwife into the industry all those 11 years ago.I will ask a question that, I would guess, many here are curious about, especially in light of your now (in)famous &quot;Death Spiral&quot; comments on RPGPundit's blog. And that is: what do you think about the recent goings-on with WotC and how they've been handling D&amp;D? Specifically, the roll-out of the Red Box and Essentials line, the change of Character Builder to online only, the lack of new material and cancellations of planned books, etc. The general view is that WotC is focusing on D&amp;D Insider, which would seemingly be the most lucrative aspect of D&amp;D. My personal fear is that this will lead to the gradual whittling away of actual books, even the outright demise of D&amp;D books altogether except for an &quot;evergreen&quot; line like Essentials, with the new, true core of D&amp;D being DDI. If this is true, one wonders what will happen with the RPG industry as a whole - whether it can survive and thrive without WotC producing books, or whether we tabletop RPGers will soon be as outdated and anachronistic as model railroaders, stamp collectors, and fans of Big Band music. On the other hand, I also wonder if tabletop RPGs downsize a bit, the industry may return to a more &quot;for the people, by the people&quot; feeling, which may in turn improve its health and vitality and sense of community (Paizo's &quot;mom and pop&quot; moderate-sized company approach, as compared to WotC slick big businessy feel, comes to mind).So what do you think? Is the sky truly and finally falling? If we can all agree that, at the least, the industry is undergoing a major transformation, what is the nature and likely outcome of that transformation? After Yeats, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Lake Geneva to be born? I look forward to your response.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 5433725, member: 59082"] It is great to have you here, Ryan, and I will add my gratitude for the innovation that you helped midwife into the industry all those 11 years ago. I will ask a question that, I would guess, many here are curious about, especially in light of your now (in)famous "Death Spiral" comments on RPGPundit's blog. And that is: what do you think about the recent goings-on with WotC and how they've been handling D&D? Specifically, the roll-out of the Red Box and Essentials line, the change of Character Builder to online only, the lack of new material and cancellations of planned books, etc. The general view is that WotC is focusing on D&D Insider, which would seemingly be the most lucrative aspect of D&D. My personal fear is that this will lead to the gradual whittling away of actual books, even the outright demise of D&D books altogether except for an "evergreen" line like Essentials, with the new, true core of D&D being DDI. If this is true, one wonders what will happen with the RPG industry as a whole - whether it can survive and thrive without WotC producing books, or whether we tabletop RPGers will soon be as outdated and anachronistic as model railroaders, stamp collectors, and fans of Big Band music. On the other hand, I also wonder if tabletop RPGs downsize a bit, the industry may return to a more "for the people, by the people" feeling, which may in turn improve its health and vitality and sense of community (Paizo's "mom and pop" moderate-sized company approach, as compared to WotC slick big businessy feel, comes to mind). So what do you think? Is the sky truly and finally falling? If we can all agree that, at the least, the industry is undergoing a major transformation, what is the nature and likely outcome of that transformation? After Yeats, [I]what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Lake Geneva to be born?[/I] I look forward to your response. [/QUOTE]

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