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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5331123" data-attributes="member: 59082">Interesting post. I guess I'm one of those lapsed comic readers--I am 36-years old and stopped reading comics when I was about 19; I just had a hard time taking them seriously anymore, and this was at the height of Image Comics and the over-the-top stylizations of Rob Liefeld (one of the worst comic artists ever, imo). A few times since then I have picked up a comic here and there, but have never been drawn back in. Not long ago I picked up that Chris Clarement X-Men graphic novel where he goes back to where he left off in the early 90s, but it has gathered dust on my shelf, unread. I can honestly say that there is nothing (that I can think of) that will draw me back in. I suppose a really good fantasy comic like the old Adventurers comic or from the 80s might draw my interest, but probably not at $4 a pop. If I have time read fiction then I'll pick up a fantasy or sf novel.I don't really agree with you that WotC focused on the 30+ crowd with 4E; rather, I think they wanted to keep the 30+ crowd while trying to attract a younger generation, mainly the "Millenials" and current teenagers--basically those who grew up with computer games and are into World of Warcraft and anime. The problem is that they distanced many of the older generation with dragonborn and shardlings (or whatever they are called). So they came up with a CRPG-influenced version of the game that worked OK but was probably not a wild success in that it may not have appealed to either crowd quite as much as they had hoped; the WoW players weren't tempted away and many of the old-timers tried it but went back to 3.x or Pathfinder.WotC seems to be trying to rectify this with the Essentials line, which may appeal to both young and old. I certainly hope that they are able to establish a foothold in the new generation, but I'm doubtful. I think of the kids I work with (I'm a high school teacher) and very few seem to have the kind of focused interest and imagination to prefer tabletop RPGs to video games. I find this a sad truth. That said, one now graduated student discovered D&D last year and his eyes lit up whenever he spoke about it--it was like he had discovered gold. The hobby will survive, but it will probably drastically shrink as its main proponents, Gen-Xers enter their 50s and start losing interest.The core of D&D players are people born in the 70s. Next we have people born in the 80s (many of whom entered the hobby through White Wolf games), then I would say people born in the 50s-60s and 90s are about the same (I imagine there aren't many gamers born before the 50s or after the turn of the millennium...yet). With 3E, WotC sought--and succeeded--to gather the flock back in that had dispersed in the Dark Years of the late 90s. The strategy hasn't really changed in that all WotC can hope to do is re-solidify the 70s-80s base and try to appeal to the 90s generation. But how to do that? Maybe they're taking one from Warhammer, with its pseudo-wargame approach, figuring that kids like the stuff, the visual aids, etc. Maybe the Ravenloft and Ashardalon games are ways to draw people into the fringe of the hobby, hoping they want more and pick up the new Red Box. At worst you have the core buyers--the thousands of diehard DMs--who will buy anything that comes out (D&D is a hobby in which a small portion of its players purchase most of the products). It isn't a bad strategy, really, and I hope it works.Like Mistwell, I do think that 4E has been reasonably successful in appealing to young and old, but that there is a lot of room to improve. They need to both keep on making a product that will interest the 70s-80s base, which means coming out with new editions and/or lines of products (e.g. Essentials) soon enough to regain interest, but not too soon to piss people off. But they also need to focus on the younger generation. But it is a tricky thing, appealing to both young and old. Good luck!</blockquote>

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