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General Tabletop Discussion
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Game Design and Pizza Analogies
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6258150" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>It really depends how many people won't eat pepperoni, and also just how serious they actually are that they <strong>won't</strong> eat pepperoni. If it's just a handful of forum posters who will end up grumbling but then buying the game anyway, they can be safely ignored.</p><p></p><p>But if it's a significant minority of your fanbase and they genuinely will not buy if the item in question is included, then WotC <em>have</em> to take their concern seriously, because <em>even if those people are utterly, objectively wrong</em> in whatever they are saying, the lost sales are still enough to kill 5e stone dead.</p><p></p><p>It's also worth noting that game design, just like pizza design, is more complex than "do we have pepperoni or not". There's a huge range of mechanics/flavours out there that can be used in certain combinations. So if there are 99 mechanics that are broadly agreeable and 1 that <em>really</em> splits opinion (as does seem to be the case here), that does rather suggest giving that 1 a miss and working with the other 99. Especially since that 1 can easily be added later by those who want it. (And, as with pizzas, it is much easier to add things to the mechanics of an RPG later than it is to take them away.)</p><p></p><p>--</p><p></p><p>Oh, also, since you mentioned ice cream analogies later in the thread, I would note that if you do a survey of favourite ice cream flavours, relatively few people will list vanilla as their favourite. And yet if you look at actual sales of ice cream, vanilla outsells the rest by a wide margin.</p><p></p><p>Two reasons:</p><p></p><p>- again, it's easy for people to start with a vanilla base and then add things to it</p><p></p><p>- the people who like other flavours tend to like <em>particular</em> other flavours, and to dislike a different set of other flavours. So the people who really like "Rum & Raisin" will hate "Mint Choc Chip", and vice versa. And so, while vanilla is their nobody's favourite choice it's also the one they're able to compromise on.</p><p></p><p>That's a rather important consideration when you're WotC and have to make certain sales targets or see the game cancelled.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6258150, member: 22424"] It really depends how many people won't eat pepperoni, and also just how serious they actually are that they [b]won't[/b] eat pepperoni. If it's just a handful of forum posters who will end up grumbling but then buying the game anyway, they can be safely ignored. But if it's a significant minority of your fanbase and they genuinely will not buy if the item in question is included, then WotC [i]have[/i] to take their concern seriously, because [i]even if those people are utterly, objectively wrong[/i] in whatever they are saying, the lost sales are still enough to kill 5e stone dead. It's also worth noting that game design, just like pizza design, is more complex than "do we have pepperoni or not". There's a huge range of mechanics/flavours out there that can be used in certain combinations. So if there are 99 mechanics that are broadly agreeable and 1 that [i]really[/i] splits opinion (as does seem to be the case here), that does rather suggest giving that 1 a miss and working with the other 99. Especially since that 1 can easily be added later by those who want it. (And, as with pizzas, it is much easier to add things to the mechanics of an RPG later than it is to take them away.) -- Oh, also, since you mentioned ice cream analogies later in the thread, I would note that if you do a survey of favourite ice cream flavours, relatively few people will list vanilla as their favourite. And yet if you look at actual sales of ice cream, vanilla outsells the rest by a wide margin. Two reasons: - again, it's easy for people to start with a vanilla base and then add things to it - the people who like other flavours tend to like [i]particular[/i] other flavours, and to dislike a different set of other flavours. So the people who really like "Rum & Raisin" will hate "Mint Choc Chip", and vice versa. And so, while vanilla is their nobody's favourite choice it's also the one they're able to compromise on. That's a rather important consideration when you're WotC and have to make certain sales targets or see the game cancelled. [/QUOTE]
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