D&D 5E D&D pateau-ing?

[Ruin Explorer]

Movies always come at the end of a franchise’s popularity and are followed by a downswing. Just look at the GI Joe, Transformers and MLP movies.

Ouch that is kind of true, historically. There are exceptions. Marvel would be the primary one. Marvel comics peaked in what, the late '90s? The mid-'90s? Somewhere in there I think. And then over a decade later the movies arrive and totally revive and embiggen the brand.

I'm sad about what this means for Bob's Burgers but yeah, I think better to die whilst its still good that go into an eternal purgatory like The Simpsons.

I suspect 5.5E may actually see a contraction of D&D's popularity, not for any reasons actually related to 5.5E, but rather simple cultural ones and the passage of time. Of course people, including WotC, will blame 5.5E...

 

[Blue Orange]

I'm sad about what this means for Bob's Burgers but yeah, I think better to die whilst its still good that go into an eternal purgatory like The Simpsons.

I kind of disagree. A franchise may cease to be new and exciting but still produce a supply of interesting content for its fans. There's too much emphasis (particularly in American culture IMHO) on novelty; nothing wrong with East Enders, Last of the Summer Wine, or Doctor Who.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I kind of disagree. A franchise may cease to be new and exciting but still produce a supply of interesting content for its fans. There's too much emphasis (particularly in American culture IMHO) on novelty; nothing wrong with East Enders, Last of the Summer Wine, or Doctor Who.

Two of those never went into eternal purgatory, though, because they kept changing. The characters on East Enders are not, by and large, the same ones I grew up with, simply because the actors age, die, get better jobs, and so on. Doctor Who died and was reborn, and different showrunners have had wildly different takes on it.

Last of the Summer Wine... wait HOLY HELL 31 SEASONS!??!?!?!? I thought that died in the '90s. I literally had no idea it kept running until 2010. That's amazing. I can't comment on it because I am only familiar with it up to about 1992, and like I literally never heard it mentioned, in any way that implied it was still running, post about 1998. I really thought that was dead. Wild.

At least I learned a fascinating thing! 31 seasons! God the younger characters from the show must have been older than the oldest characters when it started by the time it finished. I assume it saw plenty of change too, because of the actors ageing.

I would personally say The Archers did enter "eternal purgatory" though, not that you mentioned them, but as a similar British mainstay. I used to love listening to that whilst I did stuff, but in the last twenty years it just got increasingly dull and ridiculous.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My suggestion is 6th Ed should starts as a "pilot episode" to test the reaction of the market, with a no-D&D videogame, for example based in Gamma World.

5Ed is too focused into the crunch, and the fandom doesn't want to spend too much money in something that will be "obsolete" relatively soon. It would be as if after buying a lot of expansions and DLC of the sims 3 you don't want start again with the sims 4, missing the updated version of your favorite expansion. And let's remember a bad choise in the marketing strategy could cause a wave toward Pathfinder 2 or other retroclones.

And we can't forget the works by the 3PPs, someones with really fresh and original ideas.

 

[Nikosandros]

Oh, the stock market in general? Well, it was a way to raise money for companies. It's not clear privately held companies are any better; private equity firms have done quite a bit of damage. Privately held companies don't have to appeal to stockholders, though, so there is that. I mean, Gygax got tossed out by the Blumes because they initially sold them shares in the corporation to raise money. But then the only real alternative is to have the company funded by a wealthy individual--and you're then dependent on that wealthy individual's preferences. There's no real good answer, I think.

We could have the State control all the means of production and instead of those boring UA polls we could have a Five Years Plan for the Development of Dungeons and Dragons.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'll wait till Honour among thieves comes out before I'm willing to say its peaked.

 

[payn]

I'll wait till Honour among thieves comes out before I'm willing to say its peaked.

Right, if its super bad, but popular anyways, that would be interesting.

 

[Stormonu]

I just have to get this out of the way because the title has been bothering me…

Spoiler

pateau-ing seems like the sound someone would make when spitting on the ground.

 

[Ondath]

We could have the State control all the means of production and instead of those boring UA polls we could have a Five Years Plan for the Development of Dungeons and Dragons.

Given that my biggest gripe with post-Tasha's 5E was that they seemed to do a 180 in the middle of an edition's lifespan... I might not mind five-year plans for D&D, honestly.

Also the hammer and the sickle can finally get a much-needed damage buff.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don't agree with this. Human population seems as if it can expand infinitely for all intents and purposes. Technology generally powers that expansion. As long as the population continues to grow there can be more and more new customers.

No. This is a huge misunderstanding. Human population and growth of a company cannot expand infinitely (at least, not while we're all stuck on Earth). They can expand, but not infinitely, and there are tons of companies/corporations that make plenty of money from year to year but still try to grow infinitely, which just isn't feasible and often makes them turn to sketchy business practices that actually make them lose money in the long run. (cough, Netflix, cough)

D&D can continue to grow, especially when it comes to countries where it's not very well-known or popular (which would require more support for translated versions of the rules, especially online), but it cannot grow infinitely. That's just not possible.