Edition Fatigue

[Diamond Cross]

Palladium.

About the only one I can think of.

Although it almost went under when somebody embezzeled a bunch of money from the company.

 

[caudor]

When the 2e came out, I got excited and stopped playing 1e.

Then 3e came out, I got excited and stopped playing 2e.

When 3.5e came out, I didn't get excited but bought all the 3.5 books anyway.

When 4.0 came out, I was leary because of 3.5, but then got excited and embraced it.

When Essentials was released, I was simply confused. I like essentials, but I'm still not clear on the direction D&D is heading overall. My comfortable buying pattern has been broken.

I wish WotC would communicate more. They are a game company...not the Department of Defense.

 

[Nagol]

Palladium.

About the only one I can think of.

Although it almost went under when somebody embezzeled a bunch of money from the company.

Despite its 6 editions, Call of Cthulu is pretty much the same game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Question ( I am curious and I think it is relevant): What old rpg companies are still in the business and still making their primary revenue off their original rpg ip?

HERO RPG is still that company's primary source of revenue, AFAIK.

 

[Dice4Hire]

When the 2e came out, I got excited and stopped playing 1e.

Then 3e came out, I got excited and stopped playing 2e.

When 3.5e came out, I didn't get excited but bought all the 3.5 books anyway.

When 4.0 came out, I was leary because of 3.5, but then got excited and embraced it.

When Essentials was released, I was simply confused. I like essentials, but I'm still not clear on the direction D&D is heading overall. My comfortable buying pattern has been broken.

I wish WotC would communicate more. They are a game company...not the Department of Defense.

This is me except I did not go essentials. I do not mind new editions at all, even though I have lots of old editions in storage. This is still a super cheap hobby.

 

[M.L. Martin]

HERO RPG is still that company's primary source of revenue, AFAIK.

Different company, though. The original Hero Games is long defunct, after joining up with Iron Crown Enterprises, splitting off from them, partnering with R. Talsorian Games, and then being bought by Cybergames. The new company is actually "Defenders of Justice d/b/a (doing business as) Hero Games." However, they've managed to take a system considered pretty much dead and bring it back with steady support for nine years as of this year. In terms of edition count, they launched with a Fifth Edition in 2002 (although the manuscript's actually a couple of years older than that date would suggest), did a Revised Edition a few years later (mostly an expansion and errata collection), and launched a Sixth Edition in 2009. However, the changes are less dramatic than the 2E-3E or 3E-4E changes in D&D--the changes between HERO's 5th and 6th Editions are probably closest to 1E-2E.

Steve Jackson Games and Palladium are still around, but almost all SJG's revenue these days comes from Munchkin, and Palladium appears to be treading water.

 

[Votan]

So what if WOTC decided to just stick with 4E Essentials, regardless of whether or not it's the Platonic Form of role playing game systems? What if they just decided to go with it for a while (like, a decade) and see if it could gain traction? Is there a possible business model that could support that in this industry, or do we have to face the fact that, at heart, Dungeons and Dragons is so weak of a product that the only way it can last is by making the same few thousand people buy it over and over again every couple years?

One thing to keep in mind is that the complexity of Settles of Catan is much lower than any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. For example, it does not require a referee in order to play. Nor is the rulebook (for settlers of Catan)on the order of hundreds of pages (as far as I know) whereas all editions of D&D have tended to require a lot of reading and rules mastery.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

It seems to me that most folks just don't want to play RPGs. It isn't so much a matter of being weak or strong, as it is appealing to a particular kind of person who isn't particularly common.

So what you're saying is, we should use mass media to brainwash the masses into attending and playing D&D sessions with religious devotion. Then WotC won't need any new editions to make money. But we will need to appoint legally recognized clergy...er, I mean DMs. And we'll need to elect a DMP (Dungeon Master Pope) to organize our crusades against those heretical souls who resist the Word of Gygax and Arneson...

Sounds fun to me.

 

[Mark CMG]

We're getting to a point where the belief seems to be that every year a customer must replace their old gaming materials.

 

[Odhanan]

"Must spread XPs..."

This thread is spot on. Well done, Korgoth.

So what if WOTC decided to just stick with 4E Essentials, regardless of whether or not it's the Platonic Form of role playing game systems? What if they just decided to go with it for a while (like, a decade) and see if it could gain traction?

I'm going to surprise some people, but, although I would like for another iteration of the game to become a true long-lasting game classic, I would accept this compromise, and I think this is what actually should happen to the game at some point. Essentials being itself seen as something of a compromise by some people between the changes of 4e and traditional D&D, maybe it is indeed the version of the game that should become the classic D&D game.