Dear WotC: Be Blizzard

[DEFCON 1]

Do you think that's any different from what might happen inside Blizzard between developers/designers and managers (maybe from financial or marketing departments)?

Yes. Because Blizzard earns most of their money from the subscriptions and not the release of new products. So there's much less necessity to get expansions / new product out the door until they're truly ready to go. The financial and marketing departments work with this fact, not in spite of it.

The same could not be necessarily said of Hasbro to Wizards.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Release digiital version fast. Release print version very slow.

The digital version just needs to be moderately playable before release--enough that people aren't put off inordinately by the flaws. You pay the subscription, you get something that works about as well as 3E or 4E did at launch, and you see updates happening right away. (Of course, if it isn't in shape to support such updates right away, then it isn't ready for digital launch, either.) Nor does this mean that DDI must be completely functional. If you can get together workable characters, but without most of the options, that's fine. Maybe you have to work with a handful of monsters that are predone on the site. If none of this is acceptable to a person, then they aren't an early adopter and should be prepared to wait.

The print version will thus benefit from getting all the "found at launch" problems solved, before it is even ready for proofing. People who wait for it will get something as close to perfect as is human achievable on fixed budgets.

 

[Gryph]

Well, Blizzard's only RPG was an unfinished, buggy mess that has had so many changes to the game system over the last seven years it is barely the same game, mechanically.

I would prefer that WoTC not use that model.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

... And then there is Duke Nukem Forever.

Dude, it was in the title!

 

[Herschel]

I agree.

Do not release 5e until it is absolutely perfect.

I repeat, do not release 5e until it is absolutely perfect.

In the meantime, to maintain your revenue stream, I suggest you continue supporting 4e.

Must spread XP so I'll sent you an internet cookie the size of a stadium.

 

[Kannik]

D&D is a single drop in WotC's revenue stream which is driven by MtG and Pokemon.

As much as I support the idea to develop the game as much as possible before release -- and then develop it a month or two more for good measure if necessary -- alas the above statement is not accurate in that each of the WotC brands (Magic, D&D, etc) report to Hasbro as a separate line item/division. This means the wild success of MtG unfortunately, VERY unfortunately, has no impact on how WotC gets to say how they want to run D&D. Hasbro is looking for $100+ million brands. Anything less than $50 mil/year is potentially on the chopping block to be mothballed. D&D has to perform solely on its own performance, and Hasbro is interested only in huge brands. This is the Damocles sword hanging over the heads of all D&D staff, I'm afraid...

Note that by all of this I don't mean to say that WotC shouldn't, or even can't (on the contrary I think they are very capable), produce the most amazing D&D they possibly can, simply that they are caught in a rather difficult position.

peace,

Kannik

 

[Kzach]

Do you think that's any different from what might happen inside Blizzard between developers/designers and managers (maybe from financial or marketing departments)?

Blizzard's people all work together in the same studio and cross functions as designers, developers, owners, managers, etc. They don't have a traditional corporate structure. The accountant, HR guy and code-monkey all have a software dev background and are all invested in each project as if it's their baby, not their fiscal quarterly spreadsheet that they have to present to senior management to justify their existence.

At least, this is the story I've gathered so far as a formerly invested fan of WoW who read all the designer/developer/writer/marketing, etc. blogs and news about the company. As a fan of D&D I do the same with WotC and the impression I get from them is that Hasbro is the might Overlord of the Cash Fund and WotC is the Small Country Boy Who Must Justify His Existence Every Fiscal Quarter.

The two are stupendously different beasts. One is invested in creativity as the means to an end, the other is invested in fiduciary duty to its parent companies investors.

 

[Hussar]

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.

Y'know, it's funny how history tends to get ignored.

4e was a rush job? Really? Do we all forget that the 1st printing 3e PHB was so bad that they actually REWROTE large sections for the second printing? I'm not talking types and See Page XX type stuff, I'm talking large scale rewrites on pretty significant passages of the book.

The 4e PHB, the most errata'd document in 4e, has less than 10% of its stuff edited in errata and most of that is very, very minor stuff that very few would even notice.

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.

How about we have an open letter to fans.

Hey, realize that this is an RPG product. There WILL be typos. There WILL be mistakes in the math. It will NEVER be perfect. However, blowing a gasket because of minor verbiage that doesn't even affect your game, is not helping.

 

[Hussar]

So does that make Paizo, Blizzard?

Why? Paizo's errata documents are somehow significantly shorter than WOTC's?

 

[Andor]

How about we have an open letter to fans.

Hey, realize that this is an RPG product. There WILL be typos. There WILL be mistakes in the math. It will NEVER be perfect. However, blowing a gasket because of minor verbiage that doesn't even affect your game, is not helping.

While that was an impressive demonstration of dodging the point, D&D traditionally eschews active defenses.