A New Digital Direction for Wizards?

When Chris Cocks, the recently-named CEO of Wizards of the Coast, took on his new position we speculated how his digital gaming background, strongly grounded in Magic: The Gathering, might influence the company's vision. Thanks to a letter he released in January, we have a bit more insight into how he plans to translate his vision into reality.

Virtual Magic​

Cocks mentioned Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons in the same paragraph, implying equal footing. This is new for the CEO role, who previously focused primarily on the money making card game:

We will bring our characters and worlds to other games and experiences. What would it be like to throw fireballs as a Planeswalker in an MMO, or quest for treasure with your friends in a D&D augmented-reality game? We want to play games like this too, so we hired David Schwartz, an industry veteran with 25 years of experience leading projects at Microsoft, Electronic Arts, THQ, LeapFrog Enterprises, and Midway Games. He is building a publishing team to explore partnerships and collaborations that will bring Magic and D&D to unexpected settings, genres, and platforms.

There's good reason for why past CEOs have been cagey about discussing the two brands in the same breath -- the tension between the Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons divisions is well-documented. There have been no less than three attempts to make a Magic: The Gathering role-playing game, all thwarted by concerns that one brand would somehow harm the other. That seems to have changed with Cocks' arrival, which precipitated a Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign supplement that roughly sketched out a Magic: The Gathering setting. It was warmly received. There's no way to know for sure if Cocks' influence was the reason for the sudden change of heart, but it seems likely that the CEO's background certainly helped pave the way for future cross pollination of Wizards' most successful franchises.

Cocks also specifically referenced augmented reality gaming. We discussed how D&D in particular is ripe for an augmented reality supporting app that helps visualize certain aspects of D&D through a user's phone.

Digital Yet Again​

Wizards' frustrating inability to launch a comprehensive digital platform is well-known amongst D&D fans. Cocks focuses primarily on Magic: The Gathering but he does reference "other Wizards games":

We are reimagining digital versions of Magic and other Wizards games. We recently created the Digital Games Studio, a group of all-stars led by industry veteran Jeffrey Steefel. Jeffrey's team includes experienced Wizards game designers and industry talent from Dire Wolf Digital, Valve Corporation, Cryptic Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Activision, BioWare, and many others. The Magic Online team is now included in this group, as well as digital art and game design. They're all thinking about how players might tap mana and prepare spells in the future, and I can't wait for you to see what they're working on.

For D&D, the virtual tabletop is probably the most likely candidate for a "reimagined digital version" -- and in this regard WOTC has largely ceded ground to Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. You can read more about the history of WOTC's attempts and failures at replicating D&D online in this article.

The Return of Forums?​

Finally, Cocks referenced connecting players online:

We will make your Wizards experiences more efficient, connected, and convenient. From getting matched in a big tournament to tracking your achievements to simply getting friends together for game night, there's a lot that goes into a good experience with a game outside of the game itself. A revamped technology team led by longtime Wizard Arron Goolsbey will be focused on connecting these kinds of in-store and online interactions so you will have cohesive and connected experiences with our games.

Again, WOTC's track record here isn't great, with the most recent issue being the complete removal of all of WOTC's digital forums for D&D .

Where Do We Go from Here?​

Scott Thorne at ICv2 notes one curious discrepancy :

One thing I do not see in Cocks’ vision of the future of Magic and Dungeons & Dragons: any mention of the physical products on which the digital versions are based. Given his background with Microsoft and digital gaming, that is not really surprising, though he does say he plays both. Hazarding a guess, I think Wizards has looked at the success Marvel and DC Entertainment have had with movies and online games based upon their comic book properties and hope to leverage the Magic and D&D IPs into success in the digital realm. The physical versions of Magic and D&D will remain important, in much the same way that Superman and Spider-Man are, important as source material but providing comparatively little revenue to the company.

Cocks' letter is grand on vision and short on details, but directionally it addresses three major weaknesses in WOTC's attempts to move D&D and its other properties to the next stage. In a connected, digital world, WOTC's D&D remains stubbornly analogue with much of the need to play and connect filled by third parties. Cocks' record as a digital gamer and his willingness to experiment is a promising sign that WOTC will return with a comprehensive digital strategy in the near future. We can only hope.

 

[Henry]

With regards to Fantasy Grounds - I don't want to buy an online subscription just to get what amounts to an ePub. I sink quite a bit of money into Hero Lab -- yet also own every Pathfinder Hardcover in pdf. I don't buy Hero Lab to have access to the rules, I own the pdfs for reference, and I have Hero Lab to make the character easier to play. I don't want fantasy grounds just to have some cumbersome, online-only monthly subscribed way to have the rules at hand.

I'll pay $15 -- hell, even $25 per book to have the privilege not to haul around 20 pounds of books in a backpack. But I'll not buy a piece of software I'll never use and pay monthly to have that privilege. So I'll keep lugging around my 20 pounds of books until Wotc gives me an avenue that Almost EVERY rpg publisher besides them does these days; in fact, that they even do with all of their previous editions! I can own a PDF of 1e, 2e, 3e, and even 4e from their own site, but I can't yet own a 5e ePub.

 

[Koloth]

Unless they have plans to do a cross-license with a company that already has a working product, there is little chance that WOTC can design, develop, test, and deliver any kind of useful system in time for D&Dv5. During the WOTC era, we are averaging between 3 and 5 years between versions. We are already a year and a half into V5's run. That leaves 3 to 4 years to get something out. Accomplished companies have trouble getting something out in 3 years. WOTC is not an accomplished software development house.

Now if they are talking about their software plans for V6, then the timelines make more sense. As others have pointed out, WOTC has problems getting PDFs and Character generators out in a timely fashion. Until they start getting the simple stuff working, plans for more complex things are questionable.

 

[smiteworks]

With regards to Fantasy Grounds - I don't want to buy an online subscription just to get what amounts to an ePub. I sink quite a bit of money into Hero Lab -- yet also own every Pathfinder Hardcover in pdf. I don't buy Hero Lab to have access to the rules, I own the pdfs for reference, and I have Hero Lab to make the character easier to play. I don't want fantasy grounds just to have some cumbersome, online-only monthly subscribed way to have the rules at hand.

I'll pay $15 -- hell, even $25 per book to have the privilege not to haul around 20 pounds of books in a backpack. But I'll not buy a piece of software I'll never use and pay monthly to have that privilege. So I'll keep lugging around my 20 pounds of books until Wotc gives me an avenue that Almost EVERY rpg publisher besides them does these days; in fact, that they even do with all of their previous editions! I can own a PDF of 1e, 2e, 3e, and even 4e from their own site, but I can't yet own a 5e ePub.

The monthly subscription ($3.99/mo) for Fantasy Grounds is there for people that prefer that instead of the one-time $39 license. You still may not be interested in the software, but I thought I would chime in there just in case you had a misunderstanding that the subscription was in addition to the software purchase. So it is (a 1-time software license or subscription) plus the Fantasy Grounds version of whatever digital content you wanted.


It's not the same as a PDF though. We think it is much better in most cases, but less portable, obviously. Instead of just pages and pages of tables from the DMG, you can open up a Treasure Hoard table and generate a an entire treasure hoard in a few seconds with links and values assigned to everything. You can then distribute out the stuff they want and click a button to sell everything else back to a shop at 50% (or another percentage) and have it tell you how much coinage you should distribute to everyone. You can do the same sort of thing using Story Templates for adventure frameworks, magic item backstories, random dungeons, etc.

 

[Parmandur]

Unless they have plans to do a cross-license with a company that already has a working product, there is little chance that WOTC can design, develop, test, and deliver any kind of useful system in time for D&Dv5. During the WOTC era, we are averaging between 3 and 5 years between versions. We are already a year and a half into V5's run. That leaves 3 to 4 years to get something out. Accomplished companies have trouble getting something out in 3 years. WOTC is not an accomplished software development house.

Now if they are talking about their software plans for V6, then the timelines make more sense. As others have pointed out, WOTC has problems getting PDFs and Character generators out in a timely fashion. Until they start getting the simple stuff working, plans for more complex things are questionable.

Current edition came out Summer of 2014; almost on three years now, and they are still talking about a ten year plan for the current edition...

Sent from my BLU LIFE XL using EN World mobile app

 

[darjr]

This isn't a swipe at FG or r20. I want the books in PDF.

I agree that the books are in a digital format, which makes the lack of a PDF version all the more perplexing.

 

[daplunk]

PDF's are so easy to pirate. I get why they have allowed it inside digital distribution methods as they have mechanisms in place to stop people sharing the content.

 

[daplunk]

I will update this comment to state that I believe their sales would increase if they offered PDFs for sale. Everyone pirates the PDFs currently out of necessity. Why not let people pay you for them. There will be less piracy than there is now.

 

[Henry]

This isn't a swipe at FG or r20. I want the books in PDF.

I agree that the books are in a digital format, which makes the lack of a PDF version all the more perplexing.

Same here; no disrespect to Fantasy Grounds, I just want the same book I bought, in PDF, so I can read and reference it, same as I do with Gumshoe, Pathfinder, Fiasco, Savage Worlds, or a number of any other current games I play. That's on Wizards. If their strategies or publishing realities don't allow them to satisfy this particular customer request, then it is what it is.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The problem with using D&D IP in movies is that the rulesets obviously don't translate and settings are more about building a sandbox than about a particular story. Since movies are all about stories and charaters, there's just not a whole lot "there".

The most recognizable character in the D&D IP stable is Drizzt (and Companions) with Elminster as a distant second. The Drizzt fanboy in me would love to see a series of movies or a TV show that mirrors the books, but the realist in me knows they'd probably be terrible. Terry Brooks did get a chance to turn his Shannara books into a (terrible, IMHO) TV show, so maybe R. A. Salvatore will get a similar opportunity.

I'd rather see a cartoon set in Eberron. Becaus it would make an excellent bridge between the rest of DnD, and the sorts of things people are used to seeing in modern cartoons.

And it has airships, pros that of built in room for all kinds of genres and story types, warforged, halflings that ride dinosaurs, a mile high city of towers, a kingdom whose borders are guarded by skeleton knights...

IMO, it also makes for a much better world for the kind of "multi platform, shared continuity" world that has worked so well for marvel, and I think the market is ready for something like it that uses characters and a setting they don't already know.

Also, the Houses. It has easily recognized factions, with their own imagery and animal, and symbol, and basic "personality". I hope everyone can see where I'm going with this. Don't exaggerate it or anything, I think people will latch on to it all on their own.

And Cyre. Seriously give me a cartoon with a young woman from Cyre, who was like 12 when the Mourning happened, and I'll show you a fandom that gets "What our dreams imagine, our hands create" tattooed on everything, and writes ten page think peices about what Lost Cyre means to them.

 

[Shasarak]

PDF's are so easy to pirate. I get why they have allowed it inside digital distribution methods as they have mechanisms in place to stop people sharing the content.

Not producing an official Pdf is a brilliant idea and explains is why Wizards have been so successful in stopping people sharing pdfs of their content.