Andor
First Post
I'm writing this as an open letter to WotC.
Wizards of the Coast is the most successful RPG company ever. They also have far more cash than any other RPG company, fueled as they are by Mtg and Pokemon. So take a page from the most successful video game company ever, Blizzard. To wit: Take your time and don't release 5e until it's bloody well done.
4e was a rush job and it showed. I remember the days leading up till it's release and you were posting new systems every two weeks, it was blatently still a work in progress, but you had already announced a street date and ended up having to ship a game with mediocre editing, rules examples from previous design cycles and some botched math. The results were not what you had hoped.
Don't do this again. Do what Blizzard does. Finish the game, polish it 'till it glows, then announce a street date. Take as many iterative design cycles as it takes. Take your time digesting playtest feedback. Listen to people who love it, hate it, and who have never played D&D. No one at WotC is going to starve if the game takes a week or a month or even a year past your goal date.
But screw this up and D&D might die.
You don't have to be exactly like Blizzard. Blizzard have never had an original thought in their lives, instead they take an existing concept and perfect it. WotC has often been innovative, it is a strength, but it's not enough of a strength. RPGs are not new or novel any more, they have not been for decades. So once you are done innovating put in the real work. The testing and redesign and retesting and redesign and retesting. Get feedback and then LISTEN to it. Do the polishing, the editing, the double and triple checking that prevents typos and botched references.
Please.
Wizards of the Coast is the most successful RPG company ever. They also have far more cash than any other RPG company, fueled as they are by Mtg and Pokemon. So take a page from the most successful video game company ever, Blizzard. To wit: Take your time and don't release 5e until it's bloody well done.
4e was a rush job and it showed. I remember the days leading up till it's release and you were posting new systems every two weeks, it was blatently still a work in progress, but you had already announced a street date and ended up having to ship a game with mediocre editing, rules examples from previous design cycles and some botched math. The results were not what you had hoped.
Don't do this again. Do what Blizzard does. Finish the game, polish it 'till it glows, then announce a street date. Take as many iterative design cycles as it takes. Take your time digesting playtest feedback. Listen to people who love it, hate it, and who have never played D&D. No one at WotC is going to starve if the game takes a week or a month or even a year past your goal date.
But screw this up and D&D might die.
You don't have to be exactly like Blizzard. Blizzard have never had an original thought in their lives, instead they take an existing concept and perfect it. WotC has often been innovative, it is a strength, but it's not enough of a strength. RPGs are not new or novel any more, they have not been for decades. So once you are done innovating put in the real work. The testing and redesign and retesting and redesign and retesting. Get feedback and then LISTEN to it. Do the polishing, the editing, the double and triple checking that prevents typos and botched references.
Please.
