GenCon 2011? What do you think?

[wlmartin]

WotC often use GenCon as a tool to setup their releases for either the rest of the year and into next year.

With the announcement earlier in the Year that they
a) Are no longer producing Miniatures
b) Have axed a bunch of '11 release books
c) Removing the digital download of content you own
d) Focusing more on the board games (cough Hasbro cough Monopoly cough)
... what is next in store for us?

I am hoping that they have some really exciting developments. I don't agree with those that think 4e is at its best before date and either 4.5 or 5th edition is needed... The content for 4e is still fresh and I can't think of any major game shaking developments they could come up with to justify a change to a completely new edition... Dark Sun is still new and considering that 4e really only has Eberron, Dark Sun & Forgotten Realms... We still have Spelljammer, Al Quazim, Ravenloft, Greyhawk and many other Campaign Settings to revive in need be in 4e.

Encounters seems to be going well for them, its continuing to run even with time gone by allowing well enough time for it wobble into nothing.

So many people have a negative view of WotC because they seem to make business changes that don't appeal to fans and whilst I believe some of that is true (no more minis? wth?) I do believe that they are a power house of creative souls that have fantastic ideas about making the game of D&D better... more classes... more races... more campaign settings... there has to be something more around the corner than .... boardgames??


Anyone have an ideas on what GenCon could hold this year?
Anyone have any inside scoops on what they know will be rolled out in the Convention that would wet our appetities?

 

[Zaran]

I can't really get into the alien thinking of WotC so I will instead post what I would do if I owned the company at this point.

1) I would put out more DM content. Adventures, Setting
Sourcebooks, Monster Manuals, Builder's Handbooks (dungeons, cities, strongholds, Worlds). These are items that DDI can't replace and wouldn't compete against online services. I think 4e is lacking greatly in these products.

2) Non-Random Miniatures! I never bought any DnD miniatures that didn't have the miniatures in full view. I don't buy miniatures and then design my adventures around them. I design my adventures or buy a module first and then I'll go get miniatures that I am missing.

3) I would keep Player Content to a minimum. (Pretty much already doing that). DDI serves the player best. And we already have plenty of player books out there.

4) Book Reader downloads for all the books.

 

[Herschel]

I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I'll have to check online afterwards to see what was announced because I'll have been so busy.

And I'll likely nab the Neverwinter Campaign Guide there.

 

[TerraDave]

I have posted elsewhere that I am not going to "call" anything for the con.

But I am sure they will say something.

 

[wlmartin]

I can't really get into the alien thinking of WotC so I will instead post what I would do if I owned the company at this point.

2) Non-Random Miniatures! I never bought any DnD miniatures that didn't have the miniatures in full view. I don't buy miniatures and then design my adventures around them. I design my adventures or buy a module first and then I'll go get miniatures that I am missing.

I know! - Unfortunately that is what you get when you have a Tabletop RPG Company owned by a TCG Company. WotC appreciate the massive value there is in marketing products like you are undertaking some sort of lucky dip at the fair. They know that people are like drug addicts, they crack open a booster pack and see the non-randoms, see that they didn't get the Orc Skirmisher they want and will go back into the shop to buy another booster and another booster. I mean they even "call" them boosters as if it is some kind of Collectable. Sure, people collect them but MOST people that buy Mini's do it to get the ones they want and use them, not to collect 1 of each type!!!!!


Want to hear something weird. In the UK we have a law that protects consumers and says that you are free to open (most, excluding DVDs and CDs) products to test them out... like buying a hairdryer.. if it didnt blow as well you could take it back for an exchange or refund.

So, all i need now is to find a Gaming Shop in the UK that has enough stock of minis for me to go in there and just crack open as many as I want and keep cycling the refund until I found boosters with the minis I wanted. Unfortunately there are practicaly no gaming shops any more and the only real chain is Games Workshop which is 100% Warhammer anyways.

... besides, since the Gaming Shop would have to write it off as a loss of doing business in our crazy "Try-It-To-See-If-You-Like-It" consumer country, I couldn't do that to any Gaming Shop... A faceless corporate supermarket perhaps but not a Gaming Shop.



WotC are a business at the end of the day and as much as we dislike their attitude with a lot of the ways they do business, they are always going to be struggling against the WoW's of this world not to mention other Wargames and such so their only real choice is to make as much money out of us that they can and since the downside is them killing the D&D brand off - its a tax I think a lot of us would be eager to pay.


Some people are cynical about WotC. They believe that the concept of Minions was designed to sell more Mini's... Whilst I don't think they are going to put up a sign that says "Buy less Mini's, just use Tokens" - I really don't think that they invented core rules just to make money. If that was the case I am sure they would have found a lot more ways to screw with us to get our money out.

I do dislike the direction WotC is going, the tentacles of Hasbro and Magic : The Gathering are seen at every turn but they are stuck at present... they have stopped selling Mini's, are releasing less and less books so they really need to come up with a new idea to make money from 4e, otherwise we could see them become one of the latest casualties of the global recession.

 

[wlmartin]

Sorry for necroing this thread but it beats me posting a new one since I had a question and anyone going will probably spy threads with GenCon in the title

So... is anyone going to GenCon 2011?
If so - could you either
a) Send me a PM with any juicy info in relation to D&D you encounter there
b) Post something here once you can telling us some info on the Con

Dead Jealous, wish I was able to get the US but cant

 

[Dannager]

Sorry for necroing this thread but it beats me posting a new one since I had a question and anyone going will probably spy threads with GenCon in the title

So... is anyone going to GenCon 2011?
If so - could you either
a) Send me a PM with any juicy info in relation to D&D you encounter there
b) Post something here once you can telling us some info on the Con

Dead Jealous, wish I was able to get the US but cant

Frankly, the best way to follow news coming out of GenCon is going to be to follow some of the foremost names in the 4e community on Twitter; even if they aren't going to be at GenCon themselves, they'll be retweeting announcements from those who are there, and discussing the developments as they happen.

 

[Lexeme]

Any recommendations on who the best to follow are?

 

[Dannager]

Any recommendations on who the best to follow are?

From my followed list:

geeksdreamgirl
matt_james_rpg
WolfStar76
Wizards_DnD
criticalhits
gregbilsland

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few from my own list (I just pulled the ones who tweeted recently), but that ought to be an okay start.

EDIT: Whoops, I think I just @ mentioned a bunch of people. Removed the @s.

EDIT EDIT: You're kidding me. There's someone here with the user name "ment"? Fixed, again.

 

[wlmartin]

From my followed list:

geeksdreamgirl
matt_james_rpg
WolfStar76
Wizards_DnD
criticalhits
gregbilsland

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few from my own list (I just pulled the ones who tweeted recently), but that ought to be an okay start.

EDIT: Whoops, I think I just @ mentioned a bunch of people. Removed the @s.

EDIT EDIT: You're kidding me. There's someone here with the user name "ment"? Fixed, again.

I dont use Twitter Danager, It wont let me +1 XP you (I keep +1ing you as your posts are spot on, it says I have given you too much!) but the above looks like quite a good post and would help anyone following it on twitter so if anyone else could +1 Danager for me, I would appreciate it