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

[TwoSix]

Let's face it, if you're over 40 you're not in anyone's target audience, other than sellers of cars, ED drugs, and hemorrhoid cream.

 

[dave2008]

Curious. For pretty much the first two years, I almost exclusively used 1e adventures and setting material in 5e. And I found it exceptionally easy to convert. I could even do it on the fly. So I’m curious to know what your hurdles were.

Maybe @oreofox is talking about splat books and not adventures?

 

[bedir than]

I find it odd that so many people don't want to reach out to new players. Stranger Things was a perfect way to get 40-somethings playing the game for the first time. I loved DMing them and was exposed to new ways to approach the game specifically because of it.

D&D Essentials is about to do the same thing at work, where we are going to tack on some hour long sessions at the end of a busy day.

There are still new stories to tell together. D&D helps me do that. New players help tell new stories.

 

[aco175]

I found that 2e I bought a lot of things and played with the books a long time. I still have much of the FR books and stuff from 2e. 3e was a great syatem when it came out and I bought a lot of books as well, it seems a lot of 3pp as well. This may be part of why 4e came out. 4e saw less books that I bought, but still severalover the life of 4e. With 5e I have bought the core 3 books and some smaller things, but not any of the adventure books.

I do like the move with DMsGuild. It opens many of the older books and allows smaller adventures to be made. Many people do not like the quality or the legitimacy of the adventures since they are not made directly be Hasbro.

 

[schneeland]

I find it odd that so many people don't want to reach out to new players.

To be fair: I don't think that's the case - to me it seems more like, given the slow release cadence of 5e, some people would like to see stuff they are interested in prioritized over stuff that primarily attracts new players. Could also be fixed by WotC by releasing more books, but I don't think they will do that.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I find it odd that so many people don't want to reach out to new players.

Well, there’s two ways to look at it.

I’m very happy that the hobby is reaching new people. I hope that D&D continues to thrive and grow. I also hope that rising tide helps other games find an audience.

I’m all for that, and I don’t begrudge WotC trying to get new people involved.

The idea that they can continue selling to an ever shrinking and increasingly....I don’t know, ornery is probably the best way to put it...fanbase is silly.

All that aside, I personally am not looking for new players. I’ve been lucky enough to play with the same core group of people over the years. People have come and gone, and I’m sure that will continue, but this current swell in the hobby doesn’t directly matter to me at all.

I’m glad it’s helping others find new players and has brought many back to the hobby. I hope that continues. It just has little impact to me.

 

[MwaO]

The primary audiences for a luxury hobby are the ones with little to no disposable income? Interesting business model; not sure you could get a loan for that, though.

18-25 year olds are the gold standard for getting people locked into using a particular product. Because they will eventually have spending money.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Have you looked at Expanded Monster Manual on DM Guild? It is 3rd party, but it's the MM2 WotC should have made. It expands on the core monsters with hundreds of variants, really good stuff. There's a sequel now that does the same thing with Volo and Mordenkainen monsters. More powerful/alternate versions of the the official ones. It's pretty fantastic and should scratch your monster itch.

It's amazing. The best purchase(s) I've ever made on the DMs Guild, even at the price.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The target is the market sector who buys the new productos. Older generations would rather to be collector of previous editions. The remake of movie, teleseries or videogames are for the yougest fandom, not for who enjoyed the original ones.

The old D&D lines aren't buried in a sealed crypt, but they are neither the next of the list (and before they are the movies of the hasbroverse: Transformers, G.IJoe..). The old franchises need a lot of work to continue the metaplot but they aren't forgotten at all and they can't publish only rehash updated to the last edition. This doesn't work like this.

Teenage fans have got time but not enough money. Young adults haven't got enough money nor time when they are starting to work and create a family. Older have got lot of money but not enough time. They are lucky if they can play D&D with their little children.

 

[Harzel]

Let's face it, if you're over 40 you're not in anyone's target audience, other than sellers of cars, ED drugs, and hemorrhoid cream.

You forgot Medicare Advantage insurance plans. True, you have to not only be over 40, but also in the more leet over 65 demographic, but come September/October, I have to be very diligent about emptying my mailbox every day (mostly straight into the recycle bin).