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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sunshadow21" data-source="post: 6352977" data-attributes="member: 6667193"><p>I disagree. The name used to be enough to get automatic sales within the community itself, but not anymore, meaning that more people already in the hobby are willing to play something else, and most new players don't just appear, they are recruited by existing players (or in the times that good computer games were made, through those, but those have been few and far between lately). If existing players don't see a reason to switch to 5E, they are going to keep playing what they are already playing and recruiting people into those systems, not D&D. The only way that 5E will be guaranteed a #1 spot is if 1)they get the movies, video games, boardgames, etc. aspect off the ground this time and provide another legitimate way into the system and hobby and 2)they successfully translate those other successes into getting people to buy and play 5E. The first has proven to be very difficult in the past, and hasn't gotten any easier; the second is just as tricky, and has proven to be equally sporadic in it's success rate. That leaves people actually playing the game as the most common method of expanding the hobby, and there is no reason right now for existing players to see the D&D brand as a golden standard that all must play. It's popular, to be certain, but far from a clear #1, and only an extraordinary system would cause existing players to see it differently. 5E, for all that it is a solid and good system, is not extraordinary or amazingly unique enough to do that. In the end, that means that the chances of 5E, or even the brand as a whole, being an overwhelming force that will sweep away all competition and regain it's place at the top as the clear king remains a nebulous dream that I doubt WotC even really cares about at this point as long it does well enough to meet their own internal goals. Just because it's the name most non-players are familiar with doesn't mean that it's going to be enough by itself to sell books to new players. New players tend to look for existing groups, and if existing groups tend to play other systems, so will the new players, because that is what is actually being played.</p></blockquote><p></p>

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