Ampersand: 2011 releases officially gutted

[Droogie128]

Perhaps Essentials didn't do as well as they thought, and they need to change directions again? I liked most of what appeared in there, but it's just a thought.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm okay with going with individual articles rather than compiled zines, but it does seem to be an odd choice since it can't take very long to make those compiled zines. I can't imagine they're gaining much from this, but eh...maybe... (and that does cast that previous poll in a new light!).

As long as I can keep going back and referencing the old articles, I'm okay with it. It's not a big change.

I'm okay with ditching the plastic minis. I never did think they were a very strong idea. Though I do feel for those folks who loved 'em.

I'm weirdly OK with the schedule gap. Sure, it sucks that some books were dropped, but whatever, I can keep playing D&D (or not) or whatever. Maybe they'll use this gap to get the CB and the Compendium fixed. Maybe I'll give the VT a spin and see what I can see.

However, I see something a little weirder lurking at the edges here.

I see them using the sales data from the next few months to judge if they need to be printing many books at all.

"Board games and Fortune Cards and the DDI and boxed sets sell like hotcakes! Do we really want to keep selling books to places where shoplifters can steal them and pirates can pirate them!?!?!?!?!"

That's rampant speculation, so take it with a heap of salt.

I do find it sad, really, that they can't tell us wtf happened. I don't even.

 

[captainspud]

Speaking as someone who has precious few opportunities to actually play D&D (my groups are either long-term but sporadic, or short-lived and inevitably collapse), my enjoyment of this hobby comes largely through getting new materials to browse and theory-build with. I basically consume D&D releases like a magazine. It's not how I'd like it, but it's how it is and up to now it's kept me happy.

This news basically does kill the game for me this year. I get nothing to read in January, February, or March, and then nothing again in May, and then finally nothing for July through December. I am not a participant in the D&D hobby for ten months out of 2011.

I am completely depressed by this announcement, and that's before I even start thinking about the omen this strikes vis-à-vis the game's health.

Ugh.

 

[TarionzCousin]

This is more disappointing than only getting one present for Xmas and having it break on the day after (which just happened to me recently).

 

[Aegeri]

I am genuinely wondering how long 4th edition has now.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

After reading that I have a feeling that we will see most of the material we would have seen in the books coming out as DDi content. Just the feeling I got from reading that.

 

[caudor]

All I could do after reading this was stare into the screen and blink.

My optimism is starting to fade. I was OK with delays and schedule shuffling because I thought it meant they were planning to spring something cool on us.

So what has happened to cause them to pick apart the 2011 schedule and leave us wondering why? Something big I suspect.

For the first time in a long time, I'm starting to get worried about D&D

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I am genuinely wondering how long 4th edition has now.

Yeah, between this and the 5e playtest masquerading as a collectible cards "add-on" - it might not be long.

 

[renau1g]

I wonder what [MENTION=23977]Scribble[/MENTION] thinks of this, he's typically a "look on the brightside" kind of person...

 

[Ourph]

The Heroes of Shadow product, originally scheduled for March and presented in digest-sized, paperback format, is moving to April to accommodate a change to hardcover format.

Fail. The new digest format is one of the few things that I thought WotC had done right lately. They are nice quality, cheaper and take up less space on my bookshelf. Going back to the overpriced hardback format is a horrible idea.