Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 7972136" data-attributes="member: 957">I think you are 100% correct from looking at their marketing (&quot;language&quot;) and their initial plan.But I also think that the &quot;luck&quot; was a lot more on the bean counters side and it was much less so on the D&amp;D design team side.The things they were saying at the time were very focused around preserving the IP and brand value.&nbsp; They were talking about media and other tangent revenue streams.&nbsp; And they haven't stopped there now, but the game itself is much more relevant than the language at that time indicated.&nbsp; They made a really big deal about a very minimal release schedule and how this was a great thing for players.&nbsp; But now that the game is selling super hot, they don't seem to have a problem burdening their fanbase with a more aggressive release schedule.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; IMO that was always a means to reduce investment in product that would result in a lower return (as opposed to just investing those dollars on more MtG or whatever else).&nbsp; The &quot;good for the players&quot; was just spin.And you are dead on about things like Critical Role.&nbsp; Though I'd expand that to simply the fact that culture has evolved past simply &quot;geek chic&quot; and into an age where it has stopped being &quot;chic&quot; and become commonplace and accepted.&nbsp; It went from mocked sub-culture to &quot;cool but geeky&quot; subculture to &quot;just another thing&quot;.&nbsp; And that last step is big.&nbsp; And the iron became hot for the striking.&nbsp;&nbsp; (And I say this as someone who has long been on the record that the % of society who would ever want to sit at a table pretending to be an elf is pretty much a fixed value.&nbsp; That held true for quite a while.&nbsp; But now I'm wrong.&nbsp; The needle moved.&nbsp; It didn't move a ton relative to society as a whole.&nbsp; But it lurched relative to where the needle was.&nbsp; And that it awesome.)So, yep, luck.&nbsp; And the changes in their language and behaviors now versus at release show that change in attitude.But I don't think the design team ever really cared.&nbsp; I think that they were given reasonably free reign to create a solid, sustainable game that reconciled a range of playing styles.&nbsp; And they killed it.&nbsp; That part was not luck.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BryonD, post: 7972136, member: 957"] I think you are 100% correct from looking at their marketing ("language") and their initial plan. But I also think that the "luck" was a lot more on the bean counters side and it was much less so on the D&D design team side. The things they were saying at the time were very focused around preserving the IP and brand value. They were talking about media and other tangent revenue streams. And they haven't stopped there now, but the game [I]itself[/I] is much more relevant than the language at that time indicated. They made a really big deal about a very minimal release schedule and how this was a great thing for players. But now that the game is selling super hot, they don't seem to have a problem burdening their fanbase with a more aggressive release schedule. :) IMO that was always a means to reduce investment in product that would result in a lower return (as opposed to just investing those dollars on more MtG or whatever else). The "good for the players" was just spin. And you are dead on about things like Critical Role. Though I'd expand that to simply the fact that culture has evolved past simply "geek chic" and into an age where it has stopped being "chic" and become commonplace and accepted. It went from mocked sub-culture to "cool but geeky" subculture to "just another thing". And that last step is big. And the iron became hot for the striking. (And I say this as someone who has long been on the record that the % of society who would ever want to sit at a table pretending to be an elf is pretty much a fixed value. That held true for quite a while. But now I'm wrong. The needle moved. It didn't move a ton relative to society as a whole. But it lurched relative to where the needle was. And that it awesome.) So, yep, luck. And the changes in their language and behaviors now versus at release show that change in attitude. But I don't think the design team ever really cared. I think that they were given reasonably free reign to create a solid, sustainable game that reconciled a range of playing styles. And they killed it. That part was not luck. [/QUOTE]

Verification