Heinsoo on Alignment & Rebranding

[dd.stevenson]

This exchange just popped up in my twitter feed. It's not exactly news, and I'm not particularly keen on reopening old graves. But no doubt it'll be of interest to some, and I don't think I've heard any 4E-era wotc employees talk about rebranding before now.

Q: I'm wondering if you know why forth edition dungeons and dragons changed the alignment system...?

Heinsoo: Rebranding imperatives, yen for new stories, & a serious misunderstanding of the value of traditional alignment language

 

[howandwhy99]

Wow! That's interesting. I've rarely met any group which uses Alignment Languages and I've been puzzling over its implementation in my own game. I understand the value of having Alignment Languages by creatures who share an Alignment, but the "language" is lost when alignment shifts and another Alignment Language is gained. I know this is really tightly tied into the Alignment system as a whole, so I'm thinking it gets deeply into the answer of "What is a language?"

 

[Tuft]

I suspect he meant the common terminology the classical alignment axises provided, not the alignment-specific languages of 1E...

 

[WhatGravitas]

I suspect he meant the common terminology the classical alignment axises provided, not the alignment-specific languages of 1E...

Hah, yes. And I think, in fact, that nails it.

I think int he context of "old alignment" where shifts meant something, alignment languages, influenced spells and so forth, a shift away from traditional alignment was sensible.

What the team didn't realise was that the concept of alignment to frame characters is something that got quite a bit of cultural traction, just see all these "alignment posters" with various pop culture characters.

 

[Dungeoneer]

I think their mistake was not coming up with a cool visual representation of the new alignment system, a la the iconic 3x3 grid. If they had made an Alignment Pyramid or an Alignment Wheel people would have gone bonkers for it.

 

[Alzrius]

Wow! That's interesting. I've rarely met any group which uses Alignment Languages and I've been puzzling over its implementation in my own game. I understand the value of having Alignment Languages by creatures who share an Alignment, but the "language" is lost when alignment shifts and another Alignment Language is gained. I know this is really tightly tied into the Alignment system as a whole, so I'm thinking it gets deeply into the answer of "What is a language?"

Let's also not overlook his shout-out to the vastly-undertapped Japanese market for tabletop RPGs, as he noted there was "yen for new stories."

 

[TerraDave]

Its pretty clear that the WotCies felt they really had to bring the new with 4E.

We could guess why. Delusions induced by WoW, or even the seeming success of other hobby games? The shadow cast by 3.5 and a feeling that a .75 would not be enough? That they had all burned out on 3E and wanted something more differenty and assumed everyone else did?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think their mistake was not coming up with a cool visual representation of the new alignment system, a la the iconic 3x3 grid. If they had made an Alignment Pyramid or an Alignment Wheel people would have gone bonkers for it.

Even my non-D&D playing geek friends are familiar with that grid, given that it's a recurrent meme for mapping the behavior of pop culture (and sometimes political -- oy) figures onto it. Definitely a sacred cow, however controversial it might be.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Its pretty clear that the WotCies felt they really had to bring the new with 4E.

We could guess why. Delusions induced by WoW, or even the seeming success of other hobby games? The shadow cast by 3.5 and a feeling that a .75 would not be enough? That they had all burned out on 3E and wanted something more differenty and assumed everyone else did?

Enough with the random WoW shots. It doesn't even make sense in this context.

And they're part of a public company, where other divisions vastly outperform D&D. So yeah, their corporate masters wanted them to do whatever was necessary to (theoretically) dramatically change their fortunes. That's an incredibly common story inside Corporate America.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Enough with the random WoW shots. It doesn't even make sense in this context.

And they're part of a public company, where other divisions vastly outperform D&D. So yeah, their corporate masters wanted them to do whatever was necessary to (theoretically) dramatically change their fortunes. That's an incredibly common story inside Corporate America.

That wasn't a WoW shot. In context, it's an important point. 4E was crafted in an era where WoW was the most widely played fantasy game. Computer RPGs were exploring new mechanics, and there was a lot of talk about game design from a videogame perspective. These absolutely had an effect on the development culture of 4E. The entire edition was an attempt to apply these modern methodologies to D&D, and a lot of refactoring of the game was done to accomplish this.

That isn't an attack. It's merely an observation.