FR Update at WotC-Year of the Ageless One

[Wormwood]

I wonder if there in an internet rule that no matter how wretched an idea is, at least a handful of people will ardently support it… sight unseen.

That's rule 119*, I believe.








*Not to be confused with Rule 118, which states that you can find someone willing to crap on any new idea . . . sight unseen.

 

[JohnSnow]

First, even in so far as that is true, it does not mean we are required to have faith in WotC or their products, particularly before we have seen the product. Further, possessing copious amounts of market information does not actually mean they are properly making decisions and implementing plans based on that information. Frankly, it would be easier for them to do what ever the hell they wanted and then point to hidden numbers as justification for what ever they are doing.

I find it hard to believe that you believe the WotC people would so readily shoot the dog that feeds them. Whatever you want to think, they're running a business. For those who don't know, that means that you invest resources in profitable areas and drop unprofitable ones.

If re-scoping Unther, Mulhorand, et. al. would cost them money (and it would), then they're only going to do it if they believe there's real demand for the product. At the bare minimum, those areas draw development time from other parts of the Realms that are a lot more popular. There's no way the designers are just doing whatever the hell they wanted.

What they are doing is following the best market research they have. And they're making decisions based on that information. Will they always make the right decisions? Well, that's a matter of opinion. But if the product doesn't sell well, somebody's job will be in trouble.

But hey, believe what you want. Even if it does just reek of sour grapes.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

It's Skarka's Law, actually, usually invoked when people defend monstrous ideas that touch on topics we're not allowed to discuss here.

 

[Voss]

I find it hard to believe that you believe the WotC people would so readily shoot the dog that feeds them. Whatever you want to think, they're running a business. For those who don't know, that means that you invest resources in profitable areas and drop unprofitable ones.

If re-scoping Unther, Mulhorand, et. al. would cost them money (and it would), then they're only going to do it if they believe there's real demand for the product. At the bare minimum, those areas draw development time from other parts of the Realms that are a lot more popular. There's no way the designers are just doing whatever the hell they wanted.

Does re-scoping it by air dropping the new and different (and apparently unrelated) dragonborn cost them any less money? Was there a demand for a giant mountain erupting in Thay? Random mutations?

Heck, what about the time jump and the spell plague itself? They certainly can't poll the not-yet-existent new and returning customers to find out how high the demand for that is!

I don't think your argument makes much sense.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I find it hard to believe that you believe the WotC people would so readily shoot the dog that feeds them.

I've never heard it in terms of "the dog that feeds them."

As for WotC, well, people have a deep capacity to fool themselves into believing that what they wanted to do all along is legal, moral, a matter of good sense, practical, viable and so forth and so on when what they want to do might be none of those things (reading these boards lead one to witness some truly stupendous feats of spindling logic to justify something). That is a significant factor is why so many new business, products, market strategies and the like fail.

 

[Teemu]

I have a hard time believing any "true hardcore" FR fan having a problem with Unther or Mulhorand going the way of dodo. I've always understood these areas were some of the less liked, since they're direct real world analogies that came with 2e and which were not part of the original Greenwood world (at least, not in their current incarnation). Chessenta, Mulhorand, Unther - Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

or I could also bring up the 'Fandumb' problems - things like the more... hardcore base of a fandom, who think there is One true way, One true canon, and doing any change is a betrayal, a blasphemy, a sin...

 

[JohnSnow]

Does re-scoping it by air dropping the new and different (and apparently unrelated) dragonborn cost them any less money? Was there a demand for a giant mountain erupting in Thay? Random mutations?

Heck, what about the time jump and the spell plague itself? They certainly can't poll the not-yet-existent new and returning customers to find out how high the demand for that is!

I don't think your argument makes much sense.

No? They can certainly have polled customers...

1) What do you like about the Forgotten Realms?
2) Where is your campaign set?
3) What aspects of the campaign do you enjoy the most?

etc.

What do you think all those damn polls they've been putting in the books and the website are about? WotC probably even brought in FR players and asked them about their favorite setting. They found out what those players (on average) liked, what they disliked, and what they wanted changed. This is not rocket science. It's market research. And any decent company knows how to do it.

 

[Voss]

1- I didn't say customers. Not-yet-existent new and returning customers. You know, the ones that all this 'removal of lore' is supposedly for.

2- What polls?

3- Is WotC a decent company?

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Wotc have louzy marketting and they could improves their proofreading, but othewise, yes. They are at the very least decent, and better than some companies....