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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5341223" data-attributes="member: 3400">I think part of the problem is that you're missing the point of the Coke/New Coke analogy. When Coke came out with New Coke, they underestimated the strength of the identification customers had with their own brand. After decades of advertising and building the brand, they decided to substantially change the core product around which that brand identification had been built. Despite doing well in taste tests, they got burned by Coca-Cola brand identifying customers angry about the change.The &quot;old&quot; Coke at the time of New Coke wasn't even the original formulation of the drink (though it probably wasn't far changed) so trying to tie old Coke to OD&amp;D really isn't more true to the analogy and doesn't serve as much of a criticism. I can see people viewing 3x D&amp;D as being close enough to an &quot;Old Coke&quot; stand-in in the analogy because 3e D&amp;D strove to fit the brand established in 1e AD&amp;D, the first member of the branch of D&amp;Ds that 3x belongs to. It was directly marketed as such with the Back to the Dungeon emphasis. There were new features to be sure, but they were spun as being the latest way to capture the same feeling, embrace the same fantasy settings and adventures, extend the same brand, and encourage the same brand identification.4e's got significant differences in design and play. The approach to the D&amp;D brand was different up to and right after product launch. For some customers, that's a positive, but for others with strong identity ties to the old brand, it has been vexing. And here's where the strength of the New Coke analogy applies: I suspect WotC has been surprised by the strength and depth of some of those vexed reactions and is now taking major steps to link back to other elements of successful D&amp;D branding like the D&amp;D red box.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 5341223, member: 3400"] I think part of the problem is that you're missing the point of the Coke/New Coke analogy. When Coke came out with New Coke, they underestimated the strength of the identification customers had with their own brand. After decades of advertising and building the brand, they decided to substantially change the core product around which that brand identification had been built. Despite doing well in taste tests, they got burned by Coca-Cola brand identifying customers angry about the change. The "old" Coke at the time of New Coke wasn't even the original formulation of the drink (though it probably wasn't far changed) so trying to tie old Coke to OD&D really isn't more true to the analogy and doesn't serve as much of a criticism. I can see people viewing 3x D&D as being close enough to an "Old Coke" stand-in in the analogy because 3e D&D strove to fit the brand established in 1e AD&D, the first member of the branch of D&Ds that 3x belongs to. It was directly marketed as such with the Back to the Dungeon emphasis. There were new features to be sure, but they were spun as being the latest way to capture the same feeling, embrace the same fantasy settings and adventures, extend the same brand, and encourage the same brand identification. 4e's got significant differences in design and play. The approach to the D&D brand was different up to and right after product launch. For some customers, that's a positive, but for others with strong identity ties to the old brand, it has been vexing. And here's where the strength of the New Coke analogy applies: I suspect WotC has been surprised by the strength and depth of some of those vexed reactions and is now taking major steps to link back to other elements of successful D&D branding like the D&D red box. [/QUOTE]

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