Comtemplating the Mearls articles - thinking out loud or 5E Design Ruminations?

[BriarMonkey]

If there is a 5e, or Ee, I hope that there is no direct tie to the electronic world. Meaning, let me buy my books and let me opt in if I want to for the electronic editions.

A book doesn't need cords or batteries or an internet connection. I want to be able to play when I want to play - not when the conditions of electricity allow.

 

[nedjer]

We are everywhere

Blimey, now a ninja spymaster I'm unavailable tomorrow - too busy fitting acoustic-dampening glass into every window.

 

[Aus_Snow]

A book doesn't need cords or batteries or an internet connection. I want to be able to play when I want to play - not when the conditions of electricity allow.

I dunno man, electric lighting can be pretty handy for roleplaying.

Just sayin'.

 

[BriarMonkey]

I dunno man, electric lighting can be pretty handy for roleplaying.

Just sayin'.

Candles. Camp fires. Lanterns. Moonlight. Torches. Sunlight.

Just sayin'.

 

[Mournblade94]

Seen the feature list that's being unrolled out for 5e before. 10.1" Tegra 2+, x4 core Android with a peachy screen is next summer's buy for likely to be well-pleased DDi subscribers Pathfinder can sell all the trees it likes; the future real estate's in digital - and html circumvents all the difficulties that caused grief when they tried to code their own proprietary software.

Made a mistake with a tree and it's Humpty Dumpty time. Make a mistake with Wordpress DDi and it's changed before Mr Mike's back from a streamlined business lunch.

And when we hit Peak oil, and China succumbs to environmental regulations and can no longer sell Ipads cheap, I will still have my books

 

[nedjer]

I dunno man, electric lighting can be pretty handy for roleplaying.

Just sayin'.

Books aren't going away, but risky wholesale models are. Overstocking is doom. POD distribution will keep customised trees on tap, including premium power-up image and other media options. You won't buy 'the book', you'll click through a wizard adding whole stylings, possibly matched to campaign add-ons that share the same graphics, maybe dropping in your own group's dedications and logos . . . then you'll get a cost proof to check and print for your group or campaign rule set.

Inevitably, some excessively wealthy dude will get the covers done in gold leaf and decorate the interior with exquisite parchments protected by wafer-thin watermarked transparencies.

It's OK I will kill him and put the book in a holy place when it happens.

 

[nedjer]

And when we hit Peak oil, and China succumbs to environmental regulations and can no longer sell Ipads cheap, I will still have my books

Batteries aren't relevant in the medium term

 

[Mercurius]

Why does it have to be one or the other? If I were in Mearls shoes, I'd be exploring design for a new edition and doing some thinking out loud--and probably a couple of other related things too, that from the outside would all fit into any of those buckets.

As far as what they need to do with a new editon, I'll add to the list:

1. Recognize that this is the internet age. This means, among many other things, that some people are going to be actively working to drag any new edition down. Won't matter if you do the best thing since sliced bread, someone will have motivations to tear it down. Your marketing team better be ready to accept this, and plan accordingly.

2. The best time to release a new edtion from a strictly business perspective will be right after the economy turns around. When people have been minding their budget carefully for several years, that first big discretionary income after the debts get under control is looking for a target.

Since I doubt anyone inside WotC is an expert on guessing on the turn around, a smart thing to do might be to quietly develop and playtest soon, with a small team, but not finalize and spend the big bucks until the economy improves. You want to launch after the recovery is rocking, but not start a two year development effort right as it is taking off.

Nice post, Crazy Jerome - I tried to give you XP but must spread the love around.

Anyhow, I'd like to think that 5E isn't entirely about business. Sure, that is always the driver behind the decisions made by large corporations, but I would hope that someone like Mike Mearls, while by necessity having one foot in the economic pond, is focusing his creative energy towards evolving the game that is D&D.

In that regard, 5E can't come soon enough. While I like 4E, it feels like a halfway point towards something greater, something that we're beginning to see the faint outlines of via this idea of "complexity dial."

So if I'm Mearls, I'm thinking: How can I make D&D a better game? That's his job. Micro-changes can come about through DDI and new splat books, but they can also be collected--held back, if you will--for a new edition. D&D is ripe for that next evolutionary step.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Anyhow, I'd like to think that 5E isn't entirely about business. Sure, that is always the driver behind the decisions made by large corporations, but I would hope that someone like Mike Mearls, while by necessity having one foot in the economic pond, is focusing his creative energy towards evolving the game that is D&D.

Oh, I'm not saying that Mearls should be worried about the business aspect of timing. But someone is worrying about it, and their decisions affect Mearls' ability to put out a good game.

Now, maybe I'm wrong about waiting until the recovery starts, but what if I'm correct, but no one considers that? Then we are most likely to get one of the three things:

1. They start it without regards to this and launch before the recovery. It's a great system! But then it doesn't sell very well, because people aren't buying games. Mixed signals. Or, It's not such a great system. The combined weight of customers with no money and a not very compelling product sinks the franchise entirely.

2. They wait. The economy recovers. Some suit at Hasbro says, "Put out a new edition within 12 months." Make your best guess on amount of playtesting and general quality control in this scenario.

3. They get lucky. They start working on it based on the list of other concerns. And it happens to be ready to release when right as the economy turns around. It sells like hotcakes. Everyone thinks the marketing team prints money. And the business guy who should have been considering this stuff looks like a winner! Everything is roses right now. 5 years later? Not so sure.

Not that those are all bad, but the game will get made based partially on business decisions whether we want it or not. I'd rather those decision not be allowed to adversely affect quality anymore than necessary.

The micro changes, followed by a consolidated edition, would be a good way to do what I said, given those business concerns. I still think a very open and open-ended "Beta" effort during a down time would be a good investment in both quality and goodwill, if they have the funds to float such a design without a set delivery date.

 

[delericho]

I also wonder how many people who are stating that the thinning down of the release schedule combined with the L&L articles mean 5E is coming out are the same people who complained that 4E was releasing too much too quickly and that the game would be better if they slowed down.

That's actually an entirely consistent line of reasoning. "They were releasing too much too soon. Now they've run out of topics to cover, so they're producing a new edition."

I'm not saying I agree (I'm really not sure), but there it is.