D&D is dying by the hour

[malraux]

I just want to publicly say that if any company wants to send me money in exchange for posting on random web boards, I'll happily take the deal.

 

[D'karr]

Reading this thread is making me die, by the hour.

 

[MaelStorm]

Reading this thread is making me die, by the hour.

Yeah, me too!

And it reminds me of my doom and gloom days, when I was listening to Bauhaus:

"Bela Lugosi's Dead.
I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead."

 

[BryonD]

Yeah, me too!

And it reminds me of my doom and gloom days, when I was listening to Bauhaus:

"Bela Lugosi's Dead.
I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead."

Heh

Its: "Undead Undead Undead"

 

[D'karr]

Heh

Its: "Undead Undead Undead"

I'm dying a little more right now.

 

[D'karr]

Heh

Its: "Undead Undead Undead"

and undying...

 

[MaelStorm]

Heh

Its: "Undead Undead Undead"

lol! All this time and I didn't notice. I think it's even more appropriate.

 

[Maggan]

The final Pathfinder RPG Hardcover will only be available in AUGUST 2009!

Which is in itself the greatest challenge that Paizo has set for themselves with the Pathfinder RPG. To sustain interest for one and a half year is quite a challenge, I believe.

I'm reminded of the run up to the release of Castles & Crusades. While it was still in development, the game was often described as everything for everyone. When reality set in, it proved to be a nice set of rules that appealed to a specific group of gamers. And it was successful in its own right, as its own game.

I think that Pathfinder is in the "it is everything for everyone" stage at the moment. The more fixed the rules become, the more people will drop off. Some will hop on of course. But I don't think that Paizo will be able to convert all enthusiasm now into sales over one year into the future.

/M

 

[The Little Raven]

Heh

Its: "Undead Undead Undead"

I'm suddenly 16 again and YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DARKNESS IN MY SOUL!

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

First off, an RPG doesn't need a big online component, 3rd party publishers, or even to win over every single player who is satisfied with an earlier edition. Even if there was no GSL or DnDInsider at all we'd still have D&D and it will live. The fact that we do/will have these things can only make it bigger.

Second, I'd hesitate to write off Gleemax and DnDInsider because they haven't even been properly launched yet. All we've had so far are alpha versions and early beta. If you can gauge the death of D&D from such things you must be some kind of prophet who can also do it by the stars and the entrails of boars.

Third, I doubt Paizo is a big blow against wizards. I have several reasons for doing so;

* Pathfinder mainly appeals to people who have found their ideal game in 3.x, and so these people weren't a good market for 4e to begin with.

* All of Pathfinder so far is alpha and freely available for all. Pathfinder so far does nothing but bleed money for art, salaries, and god knows what else without making any real bucks. When the time comes for Pathfinder to get a true profitable release, 4e is already out and established with plenty of time to win over those who are sitting on the fence or even those who'll cave in to peer pressure and the desire to play the Next Big Thing with a real book.

* I personally suspect the final release will be 95% similar to the latest free beta, providing little incentive to buy it.

* I also think the backward compatibility of Pathfinder will seriously suffer and has indeed already done so. The exact level of compatibility will swing around like a yo-yo as more changes get introduced or removed, which usually won't exactly build a lot of trust and faith with the fanbase. In the end people will stitch together a Frankenstein's monster out of 3.5, 4e, and all various versions of Pathfinder there are to create their own homebrews. In short, I expect that Pathfinder makes a grab for the fragmented sector of the market in a hope to bind them to itself only to end up pulverizing shards into dust.

I consulted the tarot cards and the flights of migrating birds to back me up on this.

I think that none of this really matters because the whole point of the exercise is to keep people buying the Pathfinder adventures and campaign setting books (when they come out). I think that the promise of continued support for a line of 3.5E products is what Pathfinder is about now. The Pathfinder core book, if and when it goes retail, is just there to gird up the rules after the WotC core books stop being sold. But it's not there to make money. They'll pay for art and salaries out of subscriptions. If I didn't have literally years of 3.5E backlog (including Rise of the Runelords) I might consider resubscribing. Who cares if they're publishing a core rules book? That's not why I was buying Pathfinder in the first place.