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Message: <blockquote data-quote="am181d" data-source="post: 5719274" data-attributes="member: 3576">The question is: What does D&D's target audience look like? Is it targeted to a broad audience or is it chasing an increasingly small niche audience? Let me use Doctor Who as an example:When the show came back in 2005 it was wildly popular (in the UK). Lots and lots of people were enjoying the show, but the diehard Doctor Who fans -- the folks going to conventions, buying a lot of the merchandising, gathering on message boards, etc. -- only made up a very small percentage of the total viewership.When folks on GallifreyBase.com complain that Doctor Who should do X or Y or Z or that it's betraying it's roots, etc. it really doesn't matter. There may be good ideas in there along with the bad, but ultimately BBC's job isn't to target that small percentage of diehards. Their job is to keep Doctor Who popular and satisfying for the total audience.That's pretty black and white because Doctor Who has been so popular. If D&D were a cultural phenomenon, I'd say "Ignore everything Enworld has to say." Since it's not, the question is really about sustainability. What does Wizards need to do to retain their current audience AND broaden the games appeal to a larger audience. I haven't seen sales figures, but I worry that we're reaching a dangerous point where those two goals are at odds. That the kinds of "broad appeal" initiatives are going to alienate customers at a time when we don't have customers we can afford losing."We're all grognards now." Or something like that.</blockquote>

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