D&D Needs WOW Players, Not Us

[Delta]

If you look at a game like World of Warcraft, with its 9 million players, and compare that to the size of these boards, don't you feel like we're in the minority?... WoW has built an empire of potential D&D players. My MOM plays WoW. (I however, do not.) At work, I know dozens of people who play WoW... D&D is changing. It has the potential to grow and earn revenue from millions of adult gamers who've never rolled a d20 in their life. I think WotC knows this.

Unfortunately, chasing after the lead MMOG is somewhat of a fool's errand. MMOGs are the highest-risk venture in maybe the entire entertainment industry. Blizzard got it right, but there are numerous of companies who lost tens of millions of dollars chasing them the same way.

From Mulligan and Patrovsky, "Developing Online Games" p. xxviii:

We're at a point where hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted since 1997. Some major publishers, such as THQ, won't touch a massively multiplayer game with a 10-foot-pole right now.

 

[EricNoah]

It is definitely a smart move that they don't make their plans on me or people like me. I would drop out of the hobby before I participated in an online version of D&D, no matter how good the interface/software/recordkeeping was.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

It is definitely a smart move that they don't make their plans on me or people like me. I would drop out of the hobby before I participated in an online version of D&D, no matter how good the interface/software/recordkeeping was.

While I am quite far away from the kind of concerns people have with online versions of d&d or anything similar, I do understand them. There are a fair amount that would say 'it just isn't the same'. Is this where you're coming from?

 

[Khairn]

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.

I agree that they've answered it to their own satisfaction (if not to their customers), and I also believe as you've said "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 that comes across very strongly.

I'm not certain how much of the existing player base they'll keep. Paying for content that is currently offered for free, paying for erratta, and not being able to support the myriad of play styles that the core rules can usually support are just a few of the big challenges that WotC faces with the DI. Paying for monthly subscriptions, 1 time content charges, and the physical books themselves is going to be a real stretch for many. And with such a big part of 4E apparently being linked to the DI, if you can't afford to pay it all, then you are only going to get a part of the game.

It is definitely a smart move that they don't make their plans on me or people like me. I would drop out of the hobby before I participated in an online version of D&D, no matter how good the interface/software/recordkeeping was.

QFT

We're just the faceless grognards that WotC has let go in their search for that elusive pot of gold at the end of the MMORPG rainbow.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

I agree that they've answered it to their own satisfaction (if not to their customers), and I also believe as you've said "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 that comes across very strongly.

I'm not certain how much of the existing player base they'll keep. Paying for content that is currently offered for free, paying for erratta, and not being able to support the myriad of play styles that the core rules can usually support are just a few of the big challenges that WotC faces with the DI. Paying for monthly subscriptions, 1 time content charges, and the physical books themselves is going to be a real stretch for many. And with such a big part of 4E apparently being linked to the DI, if you can't afford to pay it all, then you are only going to get a part of the game.

If this is how it will go down, where things that could -easily- be offered for free without hurting the company become charged, then I'm afraid I'll stick with 3 and 3.5 after all. The rest of it I can understand (optional subscriptions to new, optional content and new, purchased content that is worth the money and was intended to be as such from the start). But if errata and normally free content gets nickel-and-dimed, well, I will not be willing to continue with it.

Also, I'm no economist, but I'm not sure if WoTC needs to put all their energy into formalistic appeasement and direct imitation. Regardless of one's need for capital, and regardless of what's being directly imitated, it usually ends up a Faustian deal. Also, the smart consumer will spot such a copyjob straight-away.

 

[Corinth]

"Why play this when I can just play WOW?" is exactly the question that WOTC has to beat to make 4E a commercial success.

 

[EricNoah]

While I am quite far away from the kind of concerns people have with online versions of d&d or anything similar, I do understand them. There are a fair amount that would say 'it just isn't the same'. Is this where you're coming from?

Yep, not the same, not fun (for me). I like hanging out with the guys and gals in my kitchen or their homes.

 

[takasi]

not being able to support the myriad of play styles that the core rules can

Can you elaborate? I don't understand this.

Also, people are mentioning "bugs" in the Game Table. Now personally, I'm not a fan of automated rules calculations at all. I just want everyone who plays D&D to know about MapTool (or WotC's version), have it pimped tremendously to everyone, and make it incredibly easy for players to find each other.

In addition, I would like a separate product that is used for storing characters. It doesn't have to be very complicated, and I'd like it to include freeform entries. My biggest thing is having the format the same. It's tough to sift through several character sheets when the AC, to hit and hit points are in entirely different places from sheet to sheet.

Also, for running online adventures it would be EXTREMELY helpful if adventures had hyperlinks in them. For example, if you're on a page that references an enemy with a stat block on another page, or if an NPC is referred to from some description, or if you're looking at a map and want to click on the description in the key to see what it is. It would make running the game much, much easier online (and at the table, if you had a laptop) without taking a lot of work to implement.

I think all of this will increase the health and wealth of the hobby. D&D for the next generation.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

Yep, not the same, not fun (for me). I like hanging out with the guys and gals in my kitchen or their homes.

It's also easier to have some of the longer games, and more established lengths of time, when going local. On the other hand, the non-local way makes it easier to come together at all. It's a matter of preference and varying mileage.

I'm quite relieved that I hear more of this argument from the strictly-local school of thought, rather than the kind of Rem's Law thinking I've heard before from other sources (the extreme formal argument that states that even accidental similarities to electronic games are detrimental, for their own sake [as opposed to more practical concerns such as your own]). I'm proud to be a member of your "world", EN.

Edit: Did Remathilis originally write the pseudo-Godwin's Law in his sig, or did he get it from a pre-existing source?

 

[takasi]

"Why play this when I can just play WOW?" is exactly the question that WOTC has to beat to make 4E a commercial success.

Because for many WoW doesn't offer many options, but what it does offer (like any computer game) is the convenience and anonymity that D&D current doesn't provide. People have "been there, done that" with the WoW game mechanics, and want something more intellectually stimulating. However, they may not have the time nor the energy to outreach to a game table.

As fun as it is to hang out with guys and gals at home, it takes a lot of time, energy and social committment to do that. And as a brand new player this can be very, very difficult to do for many people. We have nearly 100K people in our area and about 35 people in our Meetup group. Of those, only about 15-20 play at regular tables. Many of them just don't have the time, and I've seen emails from lurkers who are too shy to try it out. The online game is perfect for them and I think that's the bigger market.