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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Heap Thaumaturgist" data-source="post: 259421" data-attributes="member: 4516">Ahhh.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Here's where my field comes into play, sort of.  I'm a rhetoric major concentrating in Computer/Human Interaction, for the most part.  It's a buzzy sort of field, but really when I get into the industry sector my major job will be communication problems between managers, users, and developers.It's all mostly issues of knowledge and context.  The context for Bean Counters is trying to get the most beans they can, built up around alot of factors.  One of those factors is the people above the Bean Counters approve when the counters can show that they consistently bring in a high level of beans.  You get condensed data as you move up the tree.  To the people at the top at Hasbro, WotC is just a group of numbers.  If the D&D part of WotC makes a product that brings in TONS of beans, and then NOTHING they produce ever brings in that many beans again, it looks like a problem to them, because they want to keep bringing in the top number of beans.  It doesn't really matter that when it was TSR they made piddly beans with everything.  All they're seeing is that the Core Books brought in, say, 25000 Beans.  Then Forgotten Rums Setting brought in 15000 Beans ... Lords of Rumness brought in 7000 Beans.If you condense the data down you get:25000 Beans - Product X15000 Beans - Product Y7000   Beans - Product ZWell, this D&D part of WotC is certainly not living up to the Bean Expectation that the Donut Core produced, now is it?  If Hasbro's context doesn't contain the information that WotC's does, or that The Elves' does ... they have to work off those figures up there above.  Now, down here, our context has lots of information about what is going on.The Core sold big time because, to play the game, EVERYBODY has to have it.  You're never going to reach that number again.  Everybody doesn't need Forgotten Rums.  Even fewer need Lords of Rumness.  This doesn't mean, however, in the long run that Lords of Rumness is a bad product.  If you look back back back, to the age of T$R, you'll find that, say, all their products brought in 3000 or 4000 Beans.  Even the lowest selling book is still making more than it used to.  Really, you can say, 7000 Beans is about the average of what a D&D product will make, and you're really only in danger when you're not making 7000 Beans.  D&D should be trying to explain to The Bean Counters that what they should really be expecting from them is 7000 Beans per Elf Product, and that the 15000 Bean product is going to show up every three or four products.  Now, if some little Elf at D&D promised Haze Bros or Wotk that they could bring in 15000 Beans on a regular basis ... you've got problems.  (I certainly hope no silly elf did that.)  There's also alot of other variables that you really need to invent buzzwords for.  Really all "Buzz Words" are is a form of condensed data.  You're putting a concept into a short phrase that is easily remembered.  The Bean Counters' context needs to be changed to include information on other things, and they have to be convinced of the viability of these other ideas ... like "quality" (I'm not sure what that means, honestly, what's Quality about Lords of Rumness?  We should be shooting for "Quality" in all our Elf Product, no?) ... but things like the ability to generate sales of other products later ...If, say, Silver Munches will generate more sales of Secret Product Z later down the road, a way to explain that to the Bean Counters needs to be created.  If some of these books that have lower sales MUST be produced to keep interest in the hobby at a peak, THAT must be explained to the Bean Counters in a way they'll understand it.  Their context doesn't include playing role playing games ... the more information you can condense and bring to their table, the better you'll be.  If you can say:  "Alright, Silver Munches is what we call a product of 'Interest Maintenance'.  It will sell to a smaller demographic, but that demographic will in turn stimulate another market group to purchase Secret Product Z.  Without Silver Munches, Secret Product Z will bring us an estimated _____ fewer beans.  As you see, by producing Silver Munches we are, in fact, not only bringing in 7000 Beans but stimulating the market to bring an aditional 5000 Extra Beans from Secret Product Z."That sort of language brings your context into the context of the Bean Counters.  Now, end run, if Silver Munches isn't going to make a basic profit that should be expected from D&D Elf Product and isn't going to do anything down the line to stimulate the market for continued purchasing of later product ... then it really shouldn't be produced, no matter how much an elf really likes it.  In the end, you have to show the Bean Counters that, in the long run, Fluff adds to the continued viability of the D&D Product Line as a whole.... ... as a disclaimer I'll say I don't have alot of familiarity with Bean Counting (although I am picking up a Business minor this year), and I know even less about the internal workings of Hasbro/WotC/D&D.  I'm mostly demonstrating how language, knowledge, and context barriers between two groups can be overcome to the betterment of both groups.  You just need to find a good rhetorician with training in communication difficulties within industry and corporate America.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--HT (I really should go to sleep, it's 4am)</blockquote>

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