4e Extravaganza Seminar (with Cover Pics)

[Fifth Element]

There is nothing wrong with making money. WotC is a business; obviously that is going to be a priority for them. But the supplement mill is probably not the best way to do it. It might work now, but I have serious doubts regarding its sustainability.

An alternative might be a subscription-based model for online content. Such as they're trying with 4E.

 

[ggroy]

This has always been the business model (okay, so in the old days it was more the 'module mill').

Palladium was famous for its Rifts "treadmill".

No different than any other rpg "treadmill".

 

[AllisterH]

The thing is that I don't think a lot of people realize just how much stuff TSR used to put out on a monthly basis.

Gone are the _EARLY_ days of 1e when TSR only produced a few products per year.

(Ex: in 1982, TSR only released 10 adventures and that's it. This being 2.5 years since the release of 1e).

By the latter half of 1e, even TSR was shipping a steady state of products.

In 87, 2 years before the release of 2e, TSR released 18 adventures and 12 accessories.

In '92 for example, TSR released 22 adventures and _48!!!_ accessories

And people are worried about "quick burnout of 4e" with its generally once a month release schedule?

Even though in 2009, WOTC will have released 12 accessories and 9 adventures?

There's a very big disconnect between what people think is going on and what is actually occuring...

 

[Kelanen]

A great lineup and some fantastic artwork. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ggroy]

What does create this doubts?

One obvious scenario for such doubts, is that some people are shopaholics and/or hardcore "completionists" who are privately disgusted by their own compulsive behavior in "having to buy" everything for a particular rpg's line of products. This is the case even if they have very little to no use for a particular splatbook, module, card set, miniatures, novel, etc ....

I have a few gaming friends who have personally admitted that they have these types of personal behavioral problems and that they are personally disgusted by it. It took them a lot of self restraint and/or psychiatric treatment to NOT jump onto various new product "treadmills" such as Warhammer, D&D, Rifts, etc ... or any other new rpg type products.

 

[Jack99]

Really? That's where you're going to take that?

Perhaps an examination of the model itself would be in order. Perhaps something more sustainable would be more sensible, rather than pumping out book after book month after month.

There is nothing wrong with making money. WotC is a business; obviously that is going to be a priority for them. But the supplement mill is probably not the best way to do it. It might work now, but I have serious doubts regarding its sustainability.

People in school should be careful when speculating on how to run multi-million dollar businesses. Unless they want to look like fools of course. With that in mind, could you outline in an easily understandable format what WotC could do that is so much better and more sustainable?

 

[ggroy]

Perhaps an examination of the model itself would be in order. Perhaps something more sustainable would be more sensible, rather than pumping out book after book month after month.

Do you believe the "pumping out book after book month after month" model will disappear if the world was more egalitarian?

 

[Gothmog]

Wow, the products for this coming year look awesome- I'm really excited to get my hands on all of these! I really, REALLY hope they do full-length sourcebooks for the Feywild and Shadowfell at some point in the future, and a Devilnomicon (or whatever they would call it) would be really sweet too, especially considering Asmodeus' role and newfound prominence and power in the 4e cosmology.

 

[Baumi]

The Books look great, but what I find even more interesting was that they seem to bring the PDF backs and there will finally be a 4E Computer Game!

 

[coyote6]

I am excited for any possible 4e CRPGs. It would be like a dream come true. That is, if they do it right.

I would love a plot heavy, turn based 4e game set in the Nentir Vale or something. If they made that, and it was good, I could just die happy.

I'd be really happy to see a turn-based CRPG, but I would also be incredibly surprised. They don't seem to make 'em that way anymore, at least in the American market and for "major" releases. At best, you get a hybrid system, a la Fallout 3.