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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 5912939" data-attributes="member: 10479">Yup, as I said.  You could argue that if there isn't a majority of opinion steering in a particular direction then WotC should go a different way.  I see from your sig you play 4E and I assume you like what you see in the direction of the new edition.  Let's assume you like what they eventually produce and, along with some portion of the current base as well as a minor portion of lapsed players, you buy into the new edition.  Then, let's say WotC doesn't feel the turnout is enough to support that new edition after but a couple/few years.  I don't think those folks, maybe including yourself, are going to be all that happy having spent a hundred or more dollars on the new edition.However, if they wish to recapture lapsed players and only a small percentage of the feedback is coming from lapsed players, do they ignore that small percentage in favor of a lot of feedback from current players?  Do they abandon their plan to recapture the ones who are not giving feedback but WotC knows are out there and WotC wants if they are going to be as successful as they need to be to not just give up on this edition after a few years like the last one?  I suppose the correlated question would be, how does a company unable to get feedback from some segment of the market manage to produce a game for that segment of the market if it really needs to reach them?It seems they have created a slippery slope for themselves.  They say they want "everyone" on board, but the early feedback is driving them toward creating a game with many of the features that were rejected by the very fans they want to recapture.  The more they show they are going in that direction the less likely those lapsed players are to follow along, playtest, and give feedback.  As that progresses, WotC works with the feedback they have and continues further in the direction away from pleasing the lapsed fans.  The cycle accelerates.  It might become a self-fulfilling failure based on the inability to see beyond the early, current fan feedback.One way to adjust for the situation would be to make sure the feedback they do receive is weighted in such a way that sheer numbers from any one school of thought won't tilt the design process in a given direction.  If they wish a design to ultimately please, let's say, five different editions' fans, then the feedback from each fan base would garner 20% of the design priority, regardless if any given edition had an overwhelming number of fans giving feedback.  Wthout such an approach, they are bound to never have a chance to bring certain segments on board during the design phase and probably not once they reach the point when they plan to publish.</blockquote>

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