Conspiracy Theory: What is going on in D&D land?

[BlackMoria]

What is truly going in the ivory towers of WOTC?

We are told repeatly that the relaunch of D&D was successful beyond imagination....

Yet, in the two years since the release of 3E, the RPG division has taken major hits in cutbacks - something you don't do if your successful beyond imagination.

Illuminaries such as Steven Schend, Eric Boyd, Monte Cook, Sean Reynolds and Jim Butler, to name a few, have left or been let go.

Monte Cook and Sean Reynolds have hinted in some discussions that all is NOT well in D&D land - and that the problem seems to be at the decision making level.

The magazine division was sold off, despite being told that subscriptions in all mags like Dragon and Dungeon were up. Polyhedron mag got rolled into Dragon - almost like it couldn't stand on its own.

Star Wars Gamer was cancelled - again, despite the fact that we are told that Star Wars D20 is profitable.

Sean Reynolds has made allegory that the future of Forgotten Realms products may be at stake.

Chainmail was out less than a year and is now cancelled.

And WOTC is prepared to pay 100,000 for 100 pages to define a new campaign setting - - too good to be true .... or desperation?

Put this all together and I don't like the ramifications. I think we are being hoodwinked by the RPG sales are exceeding expectations party line and that we are to believe that D&D is doing well.

The above signs are not the signs of a healthy RPG division. They are signs of a company in trouble and looking for the means to stop the ship from going down.

I have visions of corporate suits running in dizzying circles and screaming that 'the Sky is falling, the Sky is falling'.

I may be wrong, but all these things combined tell me something is wrong and we are not being told the truth of what is really happening.

Birthing pains of the relaunch of D&D.....Corporate Restructuring...... or Conspiracy?

Comments?

 

[Piratecat]

Hey Chicken Little - better grab some cover. I hear the sky is falling.

Seriously, I think it's pretty clear that WotC is feeling the results of having been sold to a parent corporation. That doesn't mean that people should suddenly start panicking. They're taking steps to protect themselves, such as selling off the periodicals, and I find it hard to see how that's necessarily a bad thing. Change is scary, but not all change is bad.

 

[Hammerhead]

It probably has more to do with Magic and Pokemon. Now that those games aren't doing as well, WotC is trying to squeeze as much as possible out of other divisions to make up for lost earnings.

 

[Oracular Vision]

Hmmm....My friend who runs a gaming store says WotC is hurting for money. The promotional literature he is receiving has changed from slick full-color brochures to hastily-made cheap photocopies just recently. He has some inside knowledge of them too, which leads me to believe that The Toy Company is gouging all the money out of WotC...

Hope thats not true, but thought it was worth a mention...

 

[Alcamtar]

Well, speaking as someone who works for a giant corporation, they do a lot of things that don't seem to make sense. Like killing profitable lines because the margins aren't high enough. My company recently announced that while we could compete in a particular market and even dominate, we don't care because there isn't enough money in it to show up on our corporate radar. And we have a long history of cancelling successful products that made MILLIONS of dollars just because profit margins were below 50% or whatever.

We also have a tradition of reorganizing just about everything at least once per quarter. Every time a new VP gets promoted or even just makes a horizontal move he has to make his mark by reorganizing everything below him for little apparent reason than vanity. This is in addition to reorgs dictated by changing markets, reorgs based on changing policies, and reorgs dictated by changing products. Sometimes we have multiple managers trying to reorg the same division at the same time, and we lowly peons get traded around like a ping pong ball for a few weeks while they try out different structures and names until they find one they like.

As for the setting search, it makes perfect sense in light of the "elves and bean-counters" story. The bean counters want to only do just ONE setting book for each setting, one that will make millions of dollars, then they can cancel it and do another. In order to do one setting book, you need a new setting, and 120,000 is a small investment if you expect to make 1,200,000 on sales. After that one book is out, create a new setting using the second-choice winner, collect your profits, repeat... They'll keep this up until sales go down (because people stop buying the new-and-unsupported-setting-of-the-month) or until they decide that there isn't enough profit in this and turn to something else. Of course these setting books will probably mostly be crunchy bits -- feats and prestige classes and spells -- if the bean counters have their way, so as to maximize sales.

I don't see any of the above as a conspiracy or even cynical, any more than Microsoft's new "software rental" licensing is a conspiracy. Corporations maximize profits; that's their whole point of existence. It's not how much money they make, it's return on investment. Gotta entice those stockholders to buy!

D&D is safe in the sense that it is now owned by a giant corporation which knows how to survive. It is unsafe in the sense that they'll drop it like a hot potato if it fails to perform.

 

[Staffan]

Illuminaries such as Steven Schend, Eric Boyd, Monte Cook, Sean Reynolds and Jim Butler, to name a few, have left or been let go.

Nitpick: To my knowledge, Eric Boyd has never been an employee of Wizards of the Coast. He has just done freelance work.

 

[CWD]

"We trained hard, but it seemed that everytime we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

Petronius Arbiter (210 B.C.)

 

[JeffB]

I absoultely agree with the original post...have for some time...long before SKR's fairy tale surfaced...

I'm not so sure the sky is falling...but I DO believe Hasbro is pulling the rug out from under WOTC...

The sale of Dragon and Dungeon is huge deal..some may not think so...but it is..this is the first time in D&D history when such drastic measures have been taken...Sell off THE premier gaming magazines, and the mouthpiece for the game for ove 25 years...that should not be taken lightly..ESPECIALLY when subscription rates were deemd to be the best in years...

A Setting Proposal? This is a big deal too...basically they want something new, and then they will just let the R&D guys develop the crunch to sell the books since it's more profitibale(apparently) and requires less work...

These are not signs of healthy D&D business...

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I have to ask.

Does it matter? I have enough 3E gaming material in my basement to guaruntee I can play DnD till I am dead and rotting in my grave.

The tools are all already out. Nothing more is really needed.

 

[Hammerhead]

There needs to be some kind of support, otherwise new players face a substancial barrier. How can new people get into the game if they can't buy any books?