D&D 4E 4e price increase?

[Imaro]

Compared to nothing really. If you want to play D&D 4e you may be interested in buying the books - if you don't want to play 4e then you wont be interested. If you want to play another RPG you can buy that instead.

I did post a comparison that I think is relevant above howver - the core books for 4e will cost me less than a meal for my family in a local restaurant. For this amount spent on D&D books I'll get 3 hardback books 200+ pages each, in colour, which I will enjoy reading. Assuming I like teh system I'll also get an RPG to play - maybe weekly, with 3-4 of my friends, for 3-4 hours per session, sounds like excellent value to me.

If I don't like 4e they can join the other stuff on the shelves that I might read from time to time, and I wont buy any more 4e stuff.

People complaining about the 'extortianate' price of D&D 4e need to face facts - if you can't afford the game, which is a luxury item - nobody actually needs D&D, then you are not the WOTCs target audience. They want consumers who are going to actually buy their products.

Personally I think it's much more apt to compare it to other products in the same market.

Just because I can afford something doesn't mean I should auomatically accept or agree with the price someone has set for it. I could afford a small ball of aluminum foil that costs me $40...does that mean I will blindly buy one for such a price? As a thinking individual I should question these types of things, especially when the rpg market as a whole causes me to wonder why smaller publishers (who print and sell way less copies) are able to charge less for books comparable (or even larger) in page length, that are also full-color, hardbacks.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Compared to? I find this a pretty blanket statement to make when the many other roleplaying games give you a complete set of rules for 1/3 the price of the D&D complete rules? This also has the added advantage of promoting more than one person towards actually running the game.

Assuming that the average RPG costs $40 for a complete system, which of the following would make you happier?

1. D&D 4e
2. Three other RPGs
3. One other RPG and $80 to spend on anything you like
4. $120 to spend on anything you like

If the answer is 1, buy D&D 4e. If the answer is any of the other three, don't. And if the answer is 4, what in the blue blazes are you doing on a gaming forum?

 

[borc killer]

Tell me if my math is wrong… been a long time since math class. This is a real life example of my group of friends compared to an average movie.

D&D: 7 people. 7 player’s handbooks, 1 dmg, 1mm at $40 each is $360. We play about 20 times a year for about 6 hours each time. So 120 hours. $360 divided by 120 hours is $3/hour.
Movie: $8 for 2 hours is $4 per hour.

That looks like a no brainer to me. Plus I can talk to people while I play instead of sitting in a dark room being antisocial.

 

[Krafus]

Personally, it's the exchange rate between US and Canadian dollar that makes me grind my teeth when it comes to WotC - or rather, Wizards' seeming complete lack of care for it.

I agree that it would be too much to expect an immediate price change now that the loonie surpasses the US dollar. I also admit one could expect a slightly higher price due to customs and transport. But Wizards' Canadian prices for their most recent or upcoming releases are still as much higher over the US price as they were years ago when the loonie was flying quite low compared to the US dollar. A few examples:

The Spine of the World US price: 25,95 Canadian price: 34,00
Wizards presents Races and Classes US price: 19,95 Canadian price: 25,95
Elder Evils US price: 29,95 Canadian price: 37,95

I could stand a 10% price increase to account for customs and transport. Maybe even 15%. But more than 25%? That's way too much. And while I know the loonie has only recently reached parity with the US dollar, it had been climbing higher for a while now - plenty of time for Wizards to adjust their prices if they gave a damn. Now that the loonie exceeds the US dollar, Wizards' greed and/or lack of care where their Canadian customers are concerned is plain to see.

 

[Imaro]

Assuming that the average RPG costs $40 for a complete system, which of the following would make you happier?

1. D&D 4e
2. Three other RPGs
3. One other RPG and $80 to spend on anything you like
4. $120 to spend on anything you like

If the answer is 1, buy D&D 4e. If the answer is any of the other three, don't. And if the answer is 4, what in the blue blazes are you doing on a gaming forum?

I pick...

5. Paying a fair price (as determined by comparable products) for whatever it is I want...

 

[BadMojo]

$120 for years worth of fun isn't a bad deal. I'm sure I could find better "deals" for entertainment if I really wanted to but it doesn't really work that way with things like books, movies, music, etc.

I doubt many people are cross shopping D&D, Exalted and Savage Worlds; it doesn't really work for me to compare D&D to other RPG games. If I wanted to buy Exalted, that's what I'd buy. If 4E looks fun, I'll buy it.

You can easily get $30-40 a week by selling plasma if you REALLY want 4E but can't afford it.

 

[Imaro]

Tell me if my math is wrong… been a long time since math class. This is a real life example of my group of friends compared to an average movie.

D&D: 7 people. 7 player’s handbooks, 1 dmg, 1mm at $40 each is $360. We play about 20 times a year for about 6 hours each time. So 120 hours. $360 divided by 120 hours is $3/hour.
Movie: $8 for 2 hours is $4 per hour.

That looks like a no brainer to me. Plus I can talk to people while I play instead of sitting in a dark room being antisocial.

Or...you can all rent the DVD (about $3/7 or about $.50/hr) and talk as much as you want with the lights on. The best part is you'll probably miss parts of the DVD so you get extra use out of it by watchiing it again.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

I pick...

5. Paying a fair price (as determined by comparable products) for whatever it is I want...

If that's the case, you aren't in the market. You aren't a buyer, because there's no intersection between the price you're willing to pay and the price at which the seller is willing to sell. If enough people like you don't join the market, though, you'll surely be able to pick up 4th Edition at a more equitable price in the bargain racks when your FLGS finds it can't sell off its excess stock.

All of which is to say that you've necessarily picked 4, because you'll be using that $120 to make yourself more happy than D&D 4e would make you.

 

[crazy_cat]

I pick...

5. Paying a fair price (as determined by comparable products) for whatever it is I want...

Unfortunately for you, back in the real world, where real people live and where real world economics apply, option 5 isn't actually available.

D&D 4e is available at the price WOTC chooses to sell it at - not some 'fair' price that you've plucked out of thin air in your fantasy world.

Buy it. Or don't buy it. Your choice.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Remember: $120 if you want to pay full price. About $80 or less right now on Amazon.

If I really wanted to buy from my local gaming store, I can play some Magic: the Gathering or DDM tournaments, and every time you play a tournament, you get 40% off a single purchase. So, for $5 a tourney or $20 for a month of all the tournaments he runs (about 60 a month - 2/day), I can get them all for the grand total of 24$ each, or $72. This is more than my amazon pre-order, though, and I don't like my LGS that much anyway, so...

But, I find it hard to believe that most people here are going to pay full price. Do LGSs not run deals of some kind? Do you not want to pre-order or even shop on Amazon, which will likely give discounts? Or are people complaining about a theoretical MSRP that will never actually be used?

So, are people upset that they will actually be paying $120 or just that WotC has the gall to ask for that much?

1. D&D 4e
2. Three other RPGs
3. One other RPG and $80 to spend on anything you like
4. $120 to spend on anything you like

All of the above!