Eric Noah's Info

[spectre72]

Exactly! I don't care how high the production values are or what kind of economies of scale Wizard$ can muster, I want my books crappy and cheap!

The sooner we can eliminate this evil "profit motive" from the publication of RPGs, the sooner they'll really start to flourish.

I am thinking you are trying to be sarcastic in these comments, but sometimes things are hard to read on the net.

There are different levels of profit that different businesses are willing to accept.

Personally I would not mind books that do not feel as cluttered as what WOTC puts out if it drove costs down some, but at the same time I understand the need to make a profit.

In my earlier post I was not implying that making money is the root of all evil, but I truely believe that Hasbro has greater expectations for their product lines.

If you compare the profit from a D&D miniatures release and a non-core rulebook I think the profit on the miniatures will be much greater. If that level is your expectation then D&D in it's current business model will always be a disappointment.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Well, just to add fuel to the fire regarding "when" 4e hit, there is this post, from an author's blog. The blog entry mentions a psionics book, cancelled due to the "upcoming release of D&D 4th edition"--make of that what you will. (Note the date of the blog entry--December, 2005.) I am convinced we will get 4e by 2008.

Not sure what a sale would do to plans for 4e. A company could always buy the rpg and then sit on it, producing nothing for the acquired system, but still producing stuff for their own, competing system. (I seem to recall a company known for CCGs doing that to potentially "hot properties"--buying up the rights and sitting on them, just so they couldn't be produced to compete with the products they actually did produce. But doing that with the core product? Probably (hopefully!) not very likely.)

 

[I'm A Banana]

Let's just abandon this whole concept of bringing any kind of mass-market appeal to MY hobby. If I have to engage in one more normal, non-geek conversation with the mundanes I'm currently DMing for, I'm going to throw up.

Dear Wulf,

<3

Love Always,
KM

 

[frankthedm]

don't want a CCC business method applied to RPG books.

I am sorry, that was doomed too happen when Hasbro bought the company. Pokemoney swelled the company and Hasbro bought it for that reason. Magic was nice, but when pokemoney went bye bye, Hasbro wanted pokemeon level profits to continue out of wotc.

If they're not finding the game profitable enough, maybe part of the problem is that the margins are so slim on traditional RPGs that a sizeable company such as Hasbro has so much overhead etc.

It is not the overhead. They just demand nnnnn profit from a nn resourse. Wotc bought D&D when they were still a gamer company and called thier own shots. Pokemon is gone and nothing has come close to that yet. Wotc has to give profits to Hasbro or else. Hasbro is now accepting it is time to send in the maketing dweebs.

 

[pogre]

Hehehe. Touche.

Still, I stand by my point that it wasn't anything more than 3rd hand info that requires plenty of salt to swallow and is therefore pretty useless.

Ah, the hell with it, I may as well just let the 4E fervor wash over me and carry me away!

Thattaway! I've thrown myself in front of the train months ago!

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

For those unfamiliar, the RPGA has been doing tradable cards of actions that characters can do during an adventure. You bring three cards per character, and each card is playable once per adventure. You get more cards the more RPGA adventures you play. They have been working for the RPGA for a while, I could see WotC taking this concept, developing it and expanding it into core game.

 

[Umbran]

But really -- nothing all that surprising was said. I think we all knew that 4e had to be underway now or soon, and that minis were the wave of the future. I hadn't really considered the possibility of selling smaller "packages" of info, so that was a little surprising, as was the notion that Hasbro or WotC might be interested in letting go of RPGs entirely.

Well, part of this is a little surprising - you usually don't do development on a product you are planning to get rid of. Doing so is wasted time, effort, and resources, and that means lost money. In a business sense, starting design and development on 4e is rather in conflict with the idea that they'd sell it off.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I am sorry, that was doomed too happen when Hasbro bought the company. Pokemoney swelled the company and Hasbro bought it for that reason. Magic was nice, but when pokemoney went bye bye, Hasbro wanted pokemeon level profits to continue out of wotc.

It's sickening.

What we need is more companies willing to go belly-up for the love of the hobby.

Somebody with a much smaller staff, no high-priced "talent," fewer resources, and much less desire (and ability) to market the game as widely as possible. Cut back on some of that crazy OVERHEAD and follow the "small RPG publishing" model that has been so successful so far.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Wulf, you are seriously cracking me up today.

 

[pogre]

It's sickening.

What we need is more companies willing to go belly-up for the love of the hobby.

Somebody with a much smaller staff, no high-priced "talent," fewer resources, and much less desire (and ability) to market the game as widely as possible. Cut back on some of that crazy OVERHEAD and follow the "small RPG publishing" model that has been so successful so far.

Like BadAxe!