From Gencon Events - "All D&D games at Gen Con being placed with RPGA"

[catastrophic]

This is obviously nothing sinister and it's quite sad to see people pretending otherwise.

 

[guivre]

If WotC was actually interested in supporting a D&D Community irregardless of edition, then a move like this would be without reproach of any kind. But since WotC has made it clear that such a community is not a goal of theirs, I think its understandable that their actual motivation for making this would be questioned. Whether that motivation is to make certain the WotC hall is always packed, an effort to attract new players to 4E, or to keep Paizo and Pathfinder away, is an interesting, but probably fruitless exercise.

Anything to paint WotC as an evil megacorp I suppose. They can't win for losing, any edition of D&D is welcome in that single big ballroom. It's a good thing no matter which way you look at it. If it attracts more people to 4E then many there's a reason for that, or vice versa.

Of course they aren't inviting Pathfinder games to the room. Pathfinder isn't D&D no matter how many times some people say it, and no matter how many times someone tries to be cute and tack "to me" on the end of it. It's not, period.

Dungeons and Dragons is a brand and as owner of that brand WotC has a vested interest in promoting it. Maybe this is a sign of someone internal to WotC realizing that.

I'd like to see Pathfinder do the same thing. It's got a large enough following to warrant it, and as an attendee I like to be able to walk into a room and have the potential to join a game in a system I want to play. Grouping those properties that are large enough for something like that enables that possibility.

 

[Mark]

I walked through the WotC RPGA D&D hall several times while at Gencon last year and it seemed to me that about on fifth of the space was not being used at any given time. I'd estimate that about 30 to 40 extra tabletop games could be held in the additional space. While I am sure they sponsor that hall and pay an extra fee to have it to themselves and hang banners and set up a tourney judges area, I'm sure Gencon probably asked that they do something with the extra space or leave it to Gencon to decide. This is probably the solution they collectively decided to implement. I wonder if they will nix the DDM one-on-one tourney they had in there last year. It will be interesting to see how much space this year is available for non-RPGA games, how many are non-4E games, how often the full space is utilized, and what sort of reports are given regarding anyone who really would want to not be in the same hall for whatever reasons.

Here are my Gencon 09 photos -

Picasa Web Albums - CreativeMountain - 2009 Gencon Indy

The RPGA D&D (plus DDM) Hall begins here -

Picasa Web Albums - CreativeMountain - 2009 Gencon Indy

 

[Khairn]

Anything to paint WotC as an evil megacorp I suppose. They can't win for losing, any edition of D&D is welcome in that single big ballroom. It's a good thing no matter which way you look at it. If it attracts more people to 4E then many there's a reason for that, or vice versa.

~snip~

Dungeons and Dragons is a brand and as owner of that brand WotC has a vested interest in promoting it. Maybe this is a sign of someone internal to WotC realizing that.

I'm not saying WotC is an "evil megacorp", and I don't see anyone else doing it either. But if as you say someone internal to WotC is now realizing that promoting and supporting the brand is a good thing, irregardless of edition, that would be a significant shift in policy and attitude ... and very welcome. At least from me.

 

[BryonD]

very cool

 

[guivre]

I'm not saying WotC is an "evil megacorp", and I don't see anyone else doing it either. But if as you say someone internal to WotC is now realizing that promoting and supporting the brand is a good thing, irregardless of edition, that would be a significant shift in policy and attitude ... and very welcome. At least from me.

Fair enough. As far as I'm concerned this is definitely a good thing.

 

[Henry]

Yeah, Great gesture, and an opt-out. I'm not seeing the evil, here.

 

[Lanefan]

At first glance, this is excellent news.

Too bad there were so many empty tables in there last year; the open gaming area couldn't handle the demand and could have used the extra space.

Lanefan

 

[Dire Bare]

That's not cool.

But GenCon gives an opt out, which is.

I'll echo some others. Why exactly is this not cool?

I'm often perplexed by the negative opinions some folks automatically generate regarding anything WotC does or does not do.

Seems an overall cool thing to me.

 

[Dire Bare]

Of course, this will separate Pathfinder players from D&D players. Cunning move on WotC's part.

Cunning? Oh, that WotC, such a devious company. Sheesh.