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<blockquote data-quote="pickin_grinnin" data-source="post: 6297800" data-attributes="member: 6697674">D&amp;D is not a well recognized brand that the general public likes.&nbsp; A significant portion of the public views it in a slightly negative way, in fact.&nbsp; It is a highly recognized and well-loved brand within the rpg community, but that has nothing to do with marketing to the general public.Superman, Spiderman, etc. are the big defining characters of the comic genre.&nbsp; Most people either read comics at some point as children, saw cartoons, played with action figures, etc.&nbsp; Most people don't know anything about the 99% of DC and Marvel characters that aren't the flagship ones, which is why you don't see much marketing centered around them.DC and Marvel's biggest mistakes throughout the decades (which almost shut them down, in Marvel's case) was a complete and utter disregard for the brand power of their major characters.&nbsp; They have only started to leverage that in a big way in the last couple of decades, and are reaping the financial rewards of doing so.&nbsp; Their core products - comics - continue to shrink in sales, but they have finally realized the true economic power of nostalgia and simple character recognition when monetizing things in other media and product lines.D&amp;D doesn't have any highly recognizable characters.&nbsp; It doesn't have an original setting or world that caught most of the general public's imagination when they were kids.&nbsp; It is a game system designed around a cliched genre.&nbsp; It is strong because it helped to define and create a hobby, and because it has been around so long, but all of that only matters to hobbyists.&nbsp; The general public could care less.The White Wolf universe, on the other hand, was extensive and different than most vampire/werewolf/etc. offerings at the time.&nbsp; It could have been monetized in a bigger way, and White Wolf tried to do that, but unfortunately it just didn't work out for them.&nbsp; Other people moved in and directly ripped off their ideas (and got away with it in court) because they had more Hollywood and publishing clout.&nbsp; What hurt White Wolf in that regard was that they were a small company.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pickin_grinnin, post: 6297800, member: 6697674"] D&D is not a well recognized brand that the general public likes. A significant portion of the public views it in a slightly negative way, in fact. It is a highly recognized and well-loved brand within the rpg community, but that has nothing to do with marketing to the general public. Superman, Spiderman, etc. are the big defining characters of the comic genre. Most people either read comics at some point as children, saw cartoons, played with action figures, etc. Most people don't know anything about the 99% of DC and Marvel characters that aren't the flagship ones, which is why you don't see much marketing centered around them. DC and Marvel's biggest mistakes throughout the decades (which almost shut them down, in Marvel's case) was a complete and utter disregard for the brand power of their major characters. They have only started to leverage that in a big way in the last couple of decades, and are reaping the financial rewards of doing so. Their core products - comics - continue to shrink in sales, but they have finally realized the true economic power of nostalgia and simple character recognition when monetizing things in other media and product lines. D&D doesn't have any highly recognizable characters. It doesn't have an original setting or world that caught most of the general public's imagination when they were kids. It is a game system designed around a cliched genre. It is strong because it helped to define and create a hobby, and because it has been around so long, but all of that only matters to hobbyists. The general public could care less. The White Wolf universe, on the other hand, was extensive and different than most vampire/werewolf/etc. offerings at the time. It could have been monetized in a bigger way, and White Wolf tried to do that, but unfortunately it just didn't work out for them. Other people moved in and directly ripped off their ideas (and got away with it in court) because they had more Hollywood and publishing clout. What hurt White Wolf in that regard was that they were a small company. [/QUOTE]

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