Ampersand: 2011 releases officially gutted

[mearlus]

What is up indeed.

I had just gotten into the mini's w/ the latest release in preparation to starting a new campaign. I guess I can see those not being huge sellers or collectible as say MTG cards but I have to admit I started to get 'addicted' to buying a box every few weeks to see what I got

So far I have nothing to really look forward to buying this year from WoTC. They canceled/delayed/hidden/whatever the products I had planned on purchasing.

I guess my wife will be happier knowing I'll be spending much less money this year on D&D.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So who here dosn't see Paizo as taking the #1 spot for the 1st quarter of '11? What is WoTC even selling for the first quarter of '11? Bad move all around

 

[RangerWickett]

For nearly 3 years I've read WotC announcements on 4e, and about half the time I've been disappointed. But I still enjoy the game, and they still put out good products. And I know a lot of companies are going through crunches right now, so I'm not worried about the fate of D&D just because WotC is having to try to 'do more with less.'

The library where I work, we went from a staff of 28 in August of 09 to 16 now. We're still providing the necessary services. I figure WotC likewise is just weathering the recessionary storm.

I do wish they got better at PR, though. Actually, I wish I knew more about WotC's long term strategy. Give us more context to understand your decisions. But I trust 'em.

(In no small part because I'll send orc ninjas after them them if they repeat what happened when E.N. Publishing was releasing War of the Burning Sky. We got to adventure 6 of WotBS, and then they announced a new edition, which completely killed our sales and ruined our schedule for months. I do not want that happening with ZEITGEIST.)

 

[Mengu]

Q: Why have the Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium and Hero Builder's Handbook been removed from the calendar?
A: We are constantly striving to remain conscious of the way our fans consume our content. We felt that the material in these titles would best be presented in other ways and we have plans to make it available in the future.

Their spies are in my head! They knew I wasn't going to buy any of these products because I saw no point in it. I was just going to wait till the material hit the compendium and CB, and read it off there. I expect the material will be redirected straight to online media.

I don't need my shelves weighed down by heavy books that gather dust after a few weeks of browsing. Last D&D book I got was MM3, and that's mostly for the pictures. If they incorporate pictures into the Compendium/Monster Builder, we'll be golden.

I approve of this move, but I expect I will very much be in the minority for the vocal group.

 

[weem]

Just posted it seems...

"Website Columns" by Bart Carroll on the wotc site...

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Website Columns)

Essentially...

We feel we can do a better job communicating more regularly and consistently. To this end, we’re planning to bring a series of regular, weekly columns to the site. They’ll be free and in addition to the content we’re currently providing. Our goal with these columns is to create an ongoing dialogue with D&D fans, presenting thoughts and ideas that we feel are touchstones for segments of the community, and helping spark discussion on topics of interest to you.

 

[Siberys]

Crossposted from the WoTC boards...

Aww, class Compendium and Heroes of Heroic Tier looked good, too...

Also, I REALLY dislike the move away from compiled issues. Material is downloaded over the coarse of the month so people can get a look at it. Of course there'll be more hits on it! IME, I download each article at least once to get a look at it, but only saved the compilation. This'll just make archiving issues that much more difficult for me.

 

[Moorcrys]

There is a the possibility that they believe the crunch of the game is increasingly dependent upon using their online tools and that their in-house numbers show that most people who play are turning to the character and monster builder for all of the material they're releasing in the books. If they simply print their 10 product essentials line to bring new people into the hobby (along with other media tie ins like movies, crpgs, etc.) then sell new players on the online subscription for the scads of new crunch material they're planning on releasing through dragon etc. It saves them from printing material people are going to be logging on to access anyway. How will this hurt the local game stores? Is encounters and other wotc-supported methods of getting people to play going to be abandoned in favor of pushing their upcoming online tabletop? They certainly have very little material to get people in the stores to buy this year as of right now.

 

[Sutekh]

To be honest as a DDI subscriber, I dont purchase a lot of hard copy books anymore. I normally wait till I get my tax return back then buy in bulk (usually a years worth of books)from an online source (or spread it around so I can take advantage of free shipping).

I dont think the compiled issues will affect me too much as Ive never really been a huge Dragon/Dungeon reader. I read some articles because of their subject matter and not others. As I only save the articles that interest me, I dont mind losing the compilations at all.

Unlike Mengu though and probably because Im a Librarian, I do need shelves weighed down by lots of rpg books (and I do have this look going on already)

 

[frogged]

I'm a little surprised people are so upset that these three books were canceled. It appears that they would have contained very little actual new game material.

Hero Builder's Handbook: Next to no information was released about this book, but its description made it sound similar to the Player's Strategy Guide, a book containing zero new rules or game material and essentially no story material.

Class Compendium: This book was only revealed to us about two months ago and what was described was a book of mostly recycled content. The bulk of this book would have simply been five of the classes from Player's Handbook 1 in a slightly different format but identical mechanically. The only thing listed which was new material were multiclassing rules for essentials characters along with rules for swapping class features between essential and non essential builds of the same class. While that is definitely material I am interested in seeing, it is probably more appropriate in an online article.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Emporium: This book was billed as an Adventurer's Vault for the dungeon master, containing story, background and adventure hooks for (all?) of the items in this book. While this would have probably produced the largest source of new game material of the three books, it sounds as though it would have contained far fewer items than its predecessors. It appears as though the premise of this book just didn't fit the format. When the concept of an entire book is putting the focus more on the story behind the items and less on the items themselves, how do you even organize the items? Its content is probably better off being divided into a series of articles each containing a selection of related items and/or stories.

The canceling of books can be seen as a bad sign, but that's only really true if those books were worth publishing, especially if some or all of the content of those would-have-been books is released to us anyway.

 

[mach1.9pants]

As much as I don't like the new direction (unless they release those books as ebooks of some sort) I am really peeved about them not compiling the articles... it is just a simple fact of logistics, I don't want to click on every freaking article and DL it, then DL it again when it is amended, whilst organising them in folders etc etc. Every time I read them I will opening DPF after PDF, rather than one and reading it through. I reckon since it went digital I have downloaded at most a dozen articles, I wait for the compilation.

I am subscribed til Oct this year, so I will get some decent cash back if I cancel. As I am not playing 4E ATM the online CB is moot but I still LOVE reading game boks. So unless there is an ebook announcement very soon, I will get the last compilation (will January be compiled?) and I am off to no more 4E purchases.