D&D Needs WOW Players, Not Us

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My MOM plays WoW.

I totally ganked your mom in Warsong Gulch.

 

[ST]

The question is how many existing D&D players will be willing to change to an MMORPG style of game play and support and how many gamers will WotC's plans drive away?

Respectfully, I think they've answered that question to their own satisfaction. It doesn't really matter how much of the established base they can retain if they can tap into a much larger market.

I think they'll retain plenty, though, since even if every person complaining about 4e actually followed through on some kind of WOTC lifetime boycott, that's a small percentage of the users on this site, much less the entire fanbase.

 

[Octal40]

The realization that you are no longer the target demographic for your hobby is always a hard one to take.

 

[bento]

The biggest stumbling block WoTC has to overcome with 4E is the fact that most people have dropped out because of scheduling constraints. When we were teenagers we could always find time during the weekend to play for hours, and in the summertime play for days.

Now that we're adults with jobs and families, when we have the urge to play the difficulty is (1) finding a group and (2) getting everyone to agree on a time and place.

WoW has picked up millions of folks like me because #1 & 2 are limitations like they are with pen-and-paper. Game play itself is an important consideration for CRPGs, but if a PnP game can't help me overcome the first two hurdles, CRPGs look more and more attractive.

If WoTC can come up with a better way for players to connect with players and provide a platform to run the game, I see good growth potential. Otherwise games like WoW or the new LoTR will continue attracting players who have always liked to play fantasy RPGs.

 

[der_kluge]

I'd rather see a million NEW people come into the game, than for WoTC to try to please -me-.

 

[takasi]

Attracting the WoW gamer is not a suckers bet. If so then the same gamers who play WoW would never play D&D, or Neverwinter Nights, or play Magic the Gathering, or do a host of other things.

In fact, many, many D&D players have, at some point or another, played WoW. I don't currently play it, but I did play it for several months after it came out.

I was also really big into D&D Online. I played it for a month in beta, then two weeks nonstop after it was released. After getting to 9th level I quit playing. I play Neverwinter Nights on occasion too. I was even thinking about buying a PSP for the new D&D Tactics game, but it was released yesterday and the announcement of 4E has turned me off slightly to the new 3.5 game.

I think people are underestimating the potential for an online D&D fully supported by WotC.

Imagine being able to create a character and store it in a persistent server, aka a Character Vault. All of the stats are validated automatically. You can point your DM to a web interface to view your sheet, perhaps through a direct hyperlink.

Now imagine being able to browse for MapTool-esque online games 24/7. Games are run by DMs rated by players, and when you browse for a game looking for players you see the rating of the players and the DM.

Now imagine an RPGA format of games, where each game is modular and lasts 3-4 hours.

This allows what games like WoW are missing and games like Neverwinter Nights try to emulate: freeform gameplay and customized content. At the same time, players can keep a level of anonymity and personal convenience they're used to from MMOs.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I think people are underestimating the potential for an online D&D fully supported by WotC.

Imagine being able to create a character and store it in a persistent server, aka a Character Vault. All of the stats are validated automatically. You can point your DM to a web interface to view your sheet, perhaps through a direct hyperlink.

Now imagine being able to browse for MapTool-esque online games 24/7. Games are run by DMs rated by players, and when you browse for a game looking for players you see the rating of the players and the DM.

Now imagine an RPGA format of games, where each game is modular and lasts 3-4 hours.

This allows what games like WoW are missing and games like Neverwinter Nights try to emulate: freeform gameplay and customized content. At the same time, players can keep a level of anonymity and personal convenience they're used to from MMOs.

I agree. I don't see this as D&D becoming a MMORPG. If it goes the way I hope, I will run my own campaign using the tools, not playing in a persistent world created by and controlled by WotC. Roleplaying and interacting with NPCs will not be limited by menu choices, but only by my mind and hand at the computer. I will get several of my friends who moved away to join the game. We can play from our own homes hopefully a couple of times per month. On those occasions two or three times a year when we are all in the same town, we can just continue our campaign playing face-to-face, then keep going online until the next time we get together. You can't do that with WoW.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I don't have a problem with a company making a profit, nor do I have a problem with a company that explores new avenues of revenue. What does bother me is when a company assumes that they have my business, and this is what it feels like. I mean it would be different if it was phased in as opposed to a jarring experience, which is what these last few months definitely have been.

Instead of bringing out D&DI as an online alternative to print and showcasing all the great aspects of of the site and then (once all the bugs have been worked out) not renew the licence to the print, they just said, if you want your cheap adventures, this is how you're going to get them from now on. But whenever D&DI comes online it will, as all things computer related, have bugs. No problem, but now those that sign on right away will whine and complain about how the bugs are terrible and it will leave alot of players with a bad taste in their mouth. They could have waited for a number of postive reviews of the place; they didn't.

They make a good game, but when it comes to public relations, WotC has a long way to go. I don't remember who said it, but some financial guru once said, "If you want to see how healthy a company is today, look at their sales figures. If you want to see how healthy a company will be in the future, look at their customer relations, because you can only piss off your customers for so long before they go elsewhere."

 

[borc killer]

I totally ganked your mom in Warsong Gulch.

Again Whiz you have made me laugh out load at work. /sigh

 

[avin]

I play D&D and I play Wow. I'd rather hate having my players asking "urz mnkirkz wifs?" ...