Being threatened by products you aren't interested in

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Good heavens... Think about sports fans and grass vs. artificial turf or domes vs. open air or even day games vs. night games.

Or the designated hitter!

 

[drothgery]

When Robert Jordan delays finishing the Wheel of Time series while writing Conan and civil war novels, there's an opportunity cost for fans of WoT.

Jumping slightly off-topic here, this never happened. The non-WoT novels Jordan wrote were all written prior to WoT; they were reprinted later to capitalize on his popularity, and any delays with the concluding volume of WoT are mostly related to Jordan's health.

 

[Henry]

I don't see this much in any other area. I don't see people complaining that Random House is putting out a Tami Hoag and not putting more effort in getting George R. R. Martin to produce more. I don't see complaints that Sony is putting out Across the Universe and not putting enough into a new Spiderman movie.

Is it just me, or is this becoming more common?

I can understand it, and I'd even posit that your example isn't as close to the mark as it could be. A closer example: Patricia Cornwell. My wife is a big fan of Cornwell's "Scarpetta" novels. Any time she writes about any other characters, or genres, or settings, my wife turns off completely, and mildly complains about why Cornwell "isn't doing more Scarpetta", which she'd pick up in a heartbeat. I see it with fans complaining about Paramount trying Andromeda, about Stargate having two franchises, Atlantis and SG-1, etc. The phenom does exist in other venues.

I can understand it because people recognize that writers, RPG companies, and brand-makers only have so many resources to throw at new projects. Every "Eberron" hard cover is one FR hardcover that doesn't get made. Every "hobgoblin" common mini is one "dark creeper" common that wasn't designed and produced.

By the same sword, I also recognize that companies have to try new things, be innovative, and attempt new market segments. The larger you are, the more fans you have, and the more complaining you see when the "tried and true" isn't revisited. These fans would love nothing better than to see 24 Forgotten Realms hardbacks a year, and three releases in December. However, some people are disingenous too, when they slam a product that's not up their alley, claiming it's "boring", or "not innovative" as reasons for not wanting it. They need to be honest -- they want the tried and true, not the experimental and new!

But WotC and other companies have to break out of the mold, try new things, and respond to fans. I'm fine with them complaining, but complaining bitterly gets them nowhere.

 

[Shade]

Jumping slightly off-topic here, this never happened. The non-WoT novels Jordan wrote were all written prior to WoT; they were reprinted later to capitalize on his popularity, and any delays with the concluding volume of WoT are mostly related to Jordan's health.

Fair enough! Thanks for setting me straight.

 

[Hussar]

That's kind of my point. The marginal value to WotC at this point may not be approaching zero, but it almost irrefutably has to be less than the value of another Eberron book or Complete X or whatever -- if it wasn't,they'd be using it. You have to trust that they're acting at least mostly rationally. If they thought there was any residual value, you'd think you'd at least see novels using that IP, since that stuff is largely contracted out and wouldn't be the drain on limited internal resources that a setting book would be.

But what's marginal to WotC could be huge to a smaller third-party publisher. And I think the continuity concerns would be pretty minimal at this point.

However, there is also a large risk inherent in licensing something out. The licensee might very well screw it up. Which 3rd party publishers would you trust to do, say, Planescape or Dark Sun? The ones that could likely do a good job have their plates pretty full as it is. The risk comes that you hand the license over to someone who does a hack job, poorly edited, full of mistakes and alienates the existing fan base. Now your IP is worth exactly zero because everyone blames you for letting some hack break your idea.

 

[hong]

Diaglo and his piles and piles of 'plasticrap' D&D minis?

Diaglo is WotC's dream customer. He bitches about everything, but he also buys everything.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Diaglo is WotC's dream customer. He bitches about everything, but he also buys everything.

I'm pretty sure WotC's true "dream customer" doesn't bitch.

 

[Nightfall]

I stick with my original post:

Give me FC III and I'll be pretty darn happy.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'm pretty sure WotC's true "dream customer" doesn't bitch.

They like the bitching. They created message boards for that very purpose

 

[RFisher]

It's the Internet.

80% porn, 20% bitching.

Yep.

The ability for me to conceive of & post worthless rants about meaningless topics on the Internet is what I call "quality of life". I celebrate this achievement of humanity.

YMMV.

They like the bitching. They created message boards for that very purpose

Yep.

There is no bad publicity. A customer who bitches is at least (if not more) valuable than a customer who raves. Both are significantly more valueable than a silent customer.