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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 5947145" data-attributes="member: 32740">Because that IS the differing effect of two such releases.&nbsp; The small, independent game release of a retroclone does not disturb &quot;The Force&quot;.&nbsp; Taking a new edition of D&amp;D, ceasing to support the existing edition and filling the shelves with ONLY releases of the &quot;New and Improved!&quot; edition with go-faster stripes has MASSIVE effects upon the gaming community.&nbsp;From the POV of a gaming consumer you mess with the status quo at your peril.&nbsp; The indie game is a welcome change for only those who care to try it.&nbsp; The new official version affects everyone and it's just about guaranteed these days that a LARGE percentage of people WON'T like it.&nbsp; Even if they might be amenable to it they are going to see support for the current version that their games are operating under yanked from under their feet.&nbsp; People tend to react poorly to that sort of thing making the new version an even tougher sell to a larger segment of the population.&nbsp;RPG's don't have an expiration date.&nbsp; They have a &quot;gaming half-life&quot; that is a LOT longer than the cycle that WotC is operating under where they need to sell a new edition.&nbsp; The older editions don't wear out just by taking them off the FLGS shelves.&nbsp; On a slightly different level TSR saw D&amp;D sales decline by producing too many SETTINGS for 2E.&nbsp; WotC, I believe, is seeing their D&amp;D sales decline by having introduced too many VERSIONS of D&amp;D without the ability to make everyone move en masse to only the newest one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 5947145, member: 32740"] Because that IS the differing effect of two such releases. The small, independent game release of a retroclone does not disturb "The Force". Taking a new edition of D&D, ceasing to support the existing edition and filling the shelves with ONLY releases of the "New and Improved!" edition with go-faster stripes has MASSIVE effects upon the gaming community. From the POV of a gaming consumer you mess with the status quo at your peril. The indie game is a welcome change for only those who care to try it. The new official version affects everyone and it's just about guaranteed these days that a LARGE percentage of people WON'T like it. Even if they might be amenable to it they are going to see support for the current version that their games are operating under yanked from under their feet. People tend to react poorly to that sort of thing making the new version an even tougher sell to a larger segment of the population. RPG's don't have an expiration date. They have a "gaming half-life" that is a LOT longer than the cycle that WotC is operating under where they need to sell a new edition. The older editions don't wear out just by taking them off the FLGS shelves. On a slightly different level TSR saw D&D sales decline by producing too many SETTINGS for 2E. WotC, I believe, is seeing their D&D sales decline by having introduced too many VERSIONS of D&D without the ability to make everyone move [I]en masse[/I] to only the newest one. [/QUOTE]

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