D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[generic]

I don't follow.

@3catcircus, not three cat circus. He's a poster.

 

[Xenonnonex]

I don't follow.

His username is 3catcircus and you know how cats are.

 

[Xenonnonex]

@3catcircus, not three cat circus. He's a poster.

That is the joke.

 

[generic]

That is the joke.

I got it, but Azzy did not. That's why I quoted him.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’m sure the shareholders disagree.

You are? I'm not!

Shareholders, like literally everyone in nearly every context, are not actually rational actors, but they are capable of basic examinations of past strategies and their objective measures of success or failure.

The old way failed, or at least under-performed compared to expectations. The new way is making more money than DnD probably ever has. It's an objectively good strategy to invite all players, and increase the pool of people who are playing any version of DnD. One of the things that hurt 4e was that it felt unfriendly to old players, and the marketing within the gaming community for it had designer commentary that basically made fun of older editions.

5e era wotc set out to be the biggest tent possible, including supporting older editions in the form of special reprints and DMsGuild PDF and print on demand support. And it's working. The hobby is bigger than it has ever been, and that can only profit wotc.

 

[Azzy]

So the answer to why no Greyhawk or Dark Sun isn't because there's no audience for those books, or that WotC wouldn't make money from them, or even that WotC cares only about fostering new players. The answer is Hasbro has no interest in dedicating X dollars to a book that will generate 1.3 X in profits when they know each of their two books a year will generate 1.8 X in profits.

I fully expect to see a Dark Sun product at some point (not sure on GH, but y'know) or other older setting. But they are less a priority for the reasons you outline. Any further campaign setting will likely follow the Eberron template—player-focused options (races, classes/subclasses/background/feats/spells) and DM-facing material (like DM advice and monsters) all wrapped up with the setting material. Dark Sun (despite that I've never liked that setting in the least) is the most likely candidate for the next setting to be revived because it has a lot of crunch attached to it (like the psion and psionic subclaseses and new races/subraces) that will make those that want more crunch buy it. It's also why I think Greyhawk is a low priority to WotC—there's not a lot of crunch that is unique to the setting (monsters, and maybe you could haflass some subclasses).

POersonally, I'd just prefer that they release all the mechanic you need to play the various setting in one big book and direct player to the DMsGuild to pick up the older edition materials for the setting fluff. However, I know that that's not going to happen.

 

[Azzy]

His username is 3catcircus and you know how cats are.

D'oh. I'm built way too low—it went way over my head. Thanks for spelling it out.

 

[SkidAce]

Eh, it's like almost anything else. If you're into it, you can get really into it. If you're not, you wonder what all the fuss is about.

bourbon...

 

[generic]

bourbon...

Chocolate milk...

 

[Azzy]

Chocolate milk...

Imma gonna hafta back ya on this one.