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[Forked Thread: The 3.5 renaissance!] Three Years in the future - What will WotC do?
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4710497" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>In this (very) hypothetical scenario, here's some of the dramatic ideas for a turn around.</p><p></p><p>1) Of course you continue to make 4e for now. However, as you're approaching the end of the edition, and the OGL/GSL problem was a nail in your coffin, you open it up with the OGL. You still produce a few years' worth of books, but you are gearing up for 5e.</p><p></p><p>2) 5e starts off and continues to be under the OGL. It is made as the "Last Edition," that is, there will be no 6e. To handle the rules updates and the like, the Internet is embraced as a compliment to the books: the web is for reference and recent knowledge, and the Wizards' website contains a a compendium of the mechanics information in all their books (perhaps still maintained via subscription fees, but entirely Open -- that is, it's OK to use this info in another contexts).</p><p></p><p>3) Table-top remains important, but it drops to a secondary importance. Primarily, you reinvent yourself as a videogame company, building on the VTT technology you developed under 4e. This probably means your rules still focus on grid-based combat, but at least, because they're Open, people can take them and modify them for easier use around the table (if they want). You're not worried about minis or dungeon tiles, instead releasing online modules and hosting "celebrity gaming tables" with the designers, and developing single-player and multi-player dungeons that you can release for an additional fee through an online streaming program. The VTT becomes the place that most people go to play D&D. The tabletop is still there, and still gets books, but at a slower pace, and they're mostly arty/fluffy books. The Third Party publishers should pick up the slack here, because they don't have the true capacity to reinvent themselves as a computer game company, and you do.</p><p></p><p>4) With this scenario, you have a 5e that maybe every 4-5 years gets "revised" PHB's, and maybe 6-9 big hardcover splatbook releases per year. You pull in most of your income from online tools -- the rules database you maintain and the main source for the game, the Virtual Table Top. You leave a place for the third parties to go, because your design is *intentionally* revolving around new things to do with the VTT, which means you're more ditigal than paper (though you still maintain a paper arm). Perhaps your paper arm goes susbcription-based, like your virtual arm.</p><p></p><p>You (a) get off the edition treadmill, (b) keep the game open for those who want to do other stuff with it, (c) build yourself a core fanbase who will buy your books AND use your online tools, and (d) do your best to reunite the editions under the aegis of the Virtual Table Top, which is edition-neutral but connected to 5e's dataset (but customizable with your own). If everyone who played 1e to 5e is using the VTT, and you're getting $20/month from them, the books become something that you keep around for the people who still can game in person, but they're not a core part of your strategy. They're and IMPORTANT part, but they're not the big part.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 4710497, member: 2067"] In this (very) hypothetical scenario, here's some of the dramatic ideas for a turn around. 1) Of course you continue to make 4e for now. However, as you're approaching the end of the edition, and the OGL/GSL problem was a nail in your coffin, you open it up with the OGL. You still produce a few years' worth of books, but you are gearing up for 5e. 2) 5e starts off and continues to be under the OGL. It is made as the "Last Edition," that is, there will be no 6e. To handle the rules updates and the like, the Internet is embraced as a compliment to the books: the web is for reference and recent knowledge, and the Wizards' website contains a a compendium of the mechanics information in all their books (perhaps still maintained via subscription fees, but entirely Open -- that is, it's OK to use this info in another contexts). 3) Table-top remains important, but it drops to a secondary importance. Primarily, you reinvent yourself as a videogame company, building on the VTT technology you developed under 4e. This probably means your rules still focus on grid-based combat, but at least, because they're Open, people can take them and modify them for easier use around the table (if they want). You're not worried about minis or dungeon tiles, instead releasing online modules and hosting "celebrity gaming tables" with the designers, and developing single-player and multi-player dungeons that you can release for an additional fee through an online streaming program. The VTT becomes the place that most people go to play D&D. The tabletop is still there, and still gets books, but at a slower pace, and they're mostly arty/fluffy books. The Third Party publishers should pick up the slack here, because they don't have the true capacity to reinvent themselves as a computer game company, and you do. 4) With this scenario, you have a 5e that maybe every 4-5 years gets "revised" PHB's, and maybe 6-9 big hardcover splatbook releases per year. You pull in most of your income from online tools -- the rules database you maintain and the main source for the game, the Virtual Table Top. You leave a place for the third parties to go, because your design is *intentionally* revolving around new things to do with the VTT, which means you're more ditigal than paper (though you still maintain a paper arm). Perhaps your paper arm goes susbcription-based, like your virtual arm. You (a) get off the edition treadmill, (b) keep the game open for those who want to do other stuff with it, (c) build yourself a core fanbase who will buy your books AND use your online tools, and (d) do your best to reunite the editions under the aegis of the Virtual Table Top, which is edition-neutral but connected to 5e's dataset (but customizable with your own). If everyone who played 1e to 5e is using the VTT, and you're getting $20/month from them, the books become something that you keep around for the people who still can game in person, but they're not a core part of your strategy. They're and IMPORTANT part, but they're not the big part. [/QUOTE]
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[Forked Thread: The 3.5 renaissance!] Three Years in the future - What will WotC do?
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