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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rygar" data-source="post: 7658950" data-attributes="member: 6756765">Actually,  the subscription model (DDI,  PDF,  etc) is a model wherein one plans to fail.D&D is based primarily on the content of a set of books.  100% of the D&D customers buy some or all of those books.  If the business plan is then to continue the product primarily through digital initiatives we arrive at a major problem.  The problem is that only a percentage of those customers will want or need digital tools,  will be willing to pay a subscription price to play an offline game with friends that didn't advertise itself as requiring an ongoing subscription to play,  or be part of the small percentage of total book readers who purchase E-books.Essentially what happens is that some significant percentage of the total initial customer base is lost.  For tabletop products this is catastrophic,  tabletop products generally acquire new customers through introduction from existing customers,  when you cut the number of existing customers you cut the rate of gain for new customers.  Thus far it looks like WOTC is planning to fail,  as they're making all of the same mistakes they made at the end of 3rd edition by not really having any plan for how to grow their business other than "Lets throw some digital stuff out there,  I heard people like digital stuff".  There's a reason why Paizo uses both models,  and it isn't because digital only is a perfect formula for success.It's actually amazing to me.  This isn't all that complicated.  Purchasable adventures increase the customer base by removing the time impediment that comes with homebrewed adventures.  Periodical content vectors like Dungeon and Dragon let people continue to keep their games fresh with a low cost to the consumer and is perfectly marketable if your plan isn't "News stands" in an age of direct sales.  Novel lines keep people invested in settings and the product itself,  even if they can't play,  and in some cases even if they don't play (Dragonlance was always good for having a number of customers who never did and never would play the game but still bought D&D novels).I honestly don't think WOTC wants to succeed with D&D,  I don't think they have any intention of actually trying.  Their business plan is apparently to leave the lions share of their customers without product,  refusing to sell your product to people who want to buy it is a very good way to have your product fail spectacularly.</blockquote>

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