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Can Wizards turn around their D&D support?
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
After gettin my Econ degree in the 80's, I was admitted to the Tx state bar in 1996: I have yet to see an economic analysis that concluded there was no measurable negative impact on bottom lines due to piracy. Where they differ is in amounts.
Having seen bands break up and small indie labels stretched to near failure due to piracy, I can say that number is off- at the very least, it is a statistical average that does not hold true at all scales of the industry. IOW, while it may eat up only 10% of big labels- which I'm not conceding, BTW- smaller entities are getting chewed up.
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I'm with Merric, a former fanboy and buyer of almost everything this company puts out, who feels like they are just half bleeping it now.
DDI quality and quantity is not half what it was when launched, magazine wise.
The MB is not a MB....it is barely even a printer as you now have to use an entire sheet of paper to print a monster.
The CB is a decent tool, but as a DM......not sure I need to keep using DDI.
The books, what books? they don't even release product for us to buy anymore.
DDI quality and quantity is not half what it was when launched, magazine wise.
The MB is not a MB....it is barely even a printer as you now have to use an entire sheet of paper to print a monster.
The CB is a decent tool, but as a DM......not sure I need to keep using DDI.
The books, what books? they don't even release product for us to buy anymore.
The short answer has little to do with what the models- the ones with actual solid theoretical work underpinning them- say and more to do with how their results get twisted or ignored. I could go on about how particular things in the US's role in this current crisis was screwed up by idealogues & loose cannons on both sides, resulting in underregulation or overregulation of certain markets, but that would run smack against site policy.
Some intersting stuff, to be sure, but I'm not pursuaded. Just looking at the Canadian study, for instance, I can see some problems. They noted that where previous studies looked at macroeconomic scale of the impact of sales, they decided to look at the microeconomic scale: examining data derived from self-reported survey responses regarding recalled CD purchases over the course of a year (2005).
IOW, instead of comparing the change in sales in given geographical areas, sales by particular retailers or what have you- hard, verifiable numbers- they were asking people to remember & report how many CDs they bought in 2005. That's squishy at best. (I know how many I do, but I've got a 5k+ collection to catalog- I use tools.)
*** Going further offtopic ***
How much of the decrease in cd sales, has more to do with music having a hard time getting any traction or attention? (ie. Less eyes and ears being aware of it in the first place).
The internet is flooded with tons of free legal or low cost music of widely varying quality.
How much of the decrease in cd sales, has more to do with music having a hard time getting any traction or attention? (ie. Less eyes and ears being aware of it in the first place).
The internet is flooded with tons of free legal or low cost music of widely varying quality.
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Oh, that is definitely a factor as well, as is a perception of a drop in overall quality of releases...and others besides.
Those factors don't explain early studies showing drops in CD sales around institutions where the market was otherwise demographically ideal corresponding with increases in fast Internet access (before the rise of legal downloading sites).
IOW, there's a lot of reasons behind declining sales, some of which are definitely not attributable to piracy...but some that are.
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
It might be worth noting that a lot of people who legitimately bought WotC products ALSO pirated them because WotC refused to continue selling PDFs, and a significant portion of buyers use their product in that way. How many of that 1-in-10 ALSO bought a print copy? There are no stats for that.
Granted, this is a thin "excuse" for piracy, (just because you bought it doesn't make it legal to download a copy) but I won't hold it against them either - they were not given the option to buy a PDF at all (after PH2). Give people what they want at a reasonable price and they will buy, or don't and let them go out and get it illegally anyway. It was a lost opportunity for WotC, but this argument has been had to death.
Granted, this is a thin "excuse" for piracy, (just because you bought it doesn't make it legal to download a copy) but I won't hold it against them either - they were not given the option to buy a PDF at all (after PH2). Give people what they want at a reasonable price and they will buy, or don't and let them go out and get it illegally anyway. It was a lost opportunity for WotC, but this argument has been had to death.
Ampersand999
First Post
I'm more interested in this perception that Wizards seems to be taking regarding piracy and their support that they have to do everything they can to not lose a sale. Why are they so against piracy? Copyright protection and a 10 to 1 loss in sales.
I suspect they are doing the same thing with cancelling books and the like: they aren't willing to risk publishing books if they can not turn a profit with these books.
It seems to me that the problems seems to be that the choices that Hasbro is making for Wizards are ones where they want to make the most money with the fewest risks possible, and at least to me, this seems to be backfiring. And I bet they are most disappointed not that they are getting a lot of money from what is working, but that Wizards had projected a larger revenue from these projects and it seems like it's not generating the amount Hasbro is expecting.
I suspect Hasbro has found that the brand works for marketing tangent products and not for the actual products themselves. So you're going to see more D&D video games, board games, and novels. Those work, those get Hasbro the profits they are looking for. 4th Edition and Essentials? Not so much.
I suspect they are doing the same thing with cancelling books and the like: they aren't willing to risk publishing books if they can not turn a profit with these books.
It seems to me that the problems seems to be that the choices that Hasbro is making for Wizards are ones where they want to make the most money with the fewest risks possible, and at least to me, this seems to be backfiring. And I bet they are most disappointed not that they are getting a lot of money from what is working, but that Wizards had projected a larger revenue from these projects and it seems like it's not generating the amount Hasbro is expecting.
I suspect Hasbro has found that the brand works for marketing tangent products and not for the actual products themselves. So you're going to see more D&D video games, board games, and novels. Those work, those get Hasbro the profits they are looking for. 4th Edition and Essentials? Not so much.
