D&D 5E How badly did Sword Coast Legends damage the brand?

[Pauper]

The difference is that WotC's strategy is banking on the multi-media approach, which has failed miserably. Up to the end of 4th, video games and other content external to the P&P were not central. This time around, it's a much bigger part of the picture.

Sorry, I missed the part where WotC announced that all future RPG material would be only released for Sword Coast Legends and development on books, novels, and other traditional media would stop in favor of SCL electronic delivery.

Sorry to hear that the D&D brand in your head is doing so badly, but the one the rest of us play out here in the real world is doing just fine, thanks.

--
Pauper

 

[hawkeyefan]

I don't think it's damaged the brand directly.

But let's imagine the game was a huge hit. Does everyone here think the impact on the tabletop game would be exactly the same as it is now? If the game was a big success, wouldn't at least a little of that translate into new interest in the tabletop game? Isn't that part of the point of WotC's approach? Whether or not the multi-media thing is the best approach.

Or looking at it from another angle...let's imagine they took all the money invested into SCL and directed it elsewhere...do we all really think that nothing better for the game and this hobby overall could have been produced? Just for the sake of discussion, take all the money and manpower that went into SCL and instead invest it in an online tabletop designed specifically for DnD. Or for the money I'm sure they could have come up with a line of short, softcover adventure modules in support of the core books.

And although I'm sure people will shoot those ideas down, those are just a couple off the top of my head. There are likely many more.

So it's more that SCL has failed to help the brand. It's a missed opportunity. Personally, I'm not at all upset about it. I bought it and then requested a refund, an I got it. And honestly, if the whole hobby collapsed tomorrow, I'd still be fine with what I have to play to the end of my days. But I do see SCL as a failure (so far, maybe they can salvage it) and any such failure impacts the business.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Seriously? Speculating about how much a bad video-game will damage a brand that is still strong after three very bad movies and a whole campaign of "D&D is evil" in the 80's? I can't believe how much some people here want D&D to fail... :/

 

[jgsugden]

First of all: 4th edition was built specifically to be portable to electronic gaming systems. It was WoW -> D&D. Saying that 5th was designed for online play is ridiculous as it was a move AWAY from focusing on online play.

Second: The brand is not damaged at all. There are decades of D&D games. Some were pretty good representations of the game (all the way back to the first major game: Pool of Radiance), others were so abstracted from the Pen and Paper version that it was a joke to call them D&D games. The Pen and Paper game can get a boost from the video game exposure when a game gets popularity outside of the pen and paper fans, but the pen and paper players do not leave the role playing game because the video game sucks. If anything, not playing the video game gives them more time for the pen and paper game and makes them more them more willing to spend on the pen and paper.

Third: This is the roughly 89,725th message board thread claiming that the D&D brand has been hurt by the release of XXXXXX peripheral product. They all get the same responses. Until WotC releases the guidebook on how to incorporate D&D into NAMBLA "role playing", we're not going to see the brand damaged by the release of inferior peripheral products. The game lives and dies on whether the PHB (and to a small extent the DMG and MM) works. It does for 5E. The game will be fine until 6E.

 

[Reinhart]

Or looking at it from another angle...let's imagine they took all the money invested into SCL and directed it elsewhere...do we all really think that nothing better for the game and this hobby overall could have been produced? Just for the sake of discussion, take all the money and manpower that went into SCL and instead invest it in an online tabletop designed specifically for DnD. Or for the money I'm sure they could have come up with a line of short, softcover adventure modules in support of the core books.

I agree with most of what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that WotC/Hasbro didn't spend money on this game. Quite the opposite; they were paid for their license and cooperation on this project and they likely had an agreement where they got a cut from the sales at a certain point. So the fact that SCL didn't impress many people means it's a squandered opportunity. It probably isn't going to generate the return that justifies their efforts coordinating with N-Space and promoting the game on their site, apps, and social media.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

It does hurt the brand, just not the RPG portion of it. Sword Coast Legends reinforces the idea that D&D video games aren't good.

Just like the DungeonScape failure reinforces the idea that Wizards of the Coast is bad at anything digital.

5E is good, and I'd selling well. But the other aspects of D&D are struggling.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I agree with most of what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that WotC/Hasbro didn't spend money on this game. Quite the opposite; they were paid for their license and cooperation on this project and they likely had an agreement where they got a cut from the sales at a certain point. So the fact that SCL didn't impress many people means it's a squandered opportunity. It probably isn't going to generate the return that justifies their efforts coordinating with N-Space and promoting the game on their site, apps, and social media.

Thank you for putting it far more clearly than I did. I know that the cost is on N-Space, but WotC seems to be pretty involved with the marketing of the game.

Just seems like the effort could have been better spent elsewhere.

 

[Corpsetaker]

I think this could be the start of the brand taking some damage. If SCL continues to decline then more pressure begins to build around the future movie and how well it does. The video games and the table top game were supposed to be connected and the stories were supposed to be that connection.

 

[seebs]

Nope, the uproar has been pretty bad for awhile. And huge swaths of people still can't play it due to crashes.

(I'm replying to your pre-edited post, which was a question)

Honestly, given that I'd never even heard of it, I'd guess the answer is "this will have no effect whatsoever on the brand, it is simply not big enough to matter". Nothing to do with what I'm interested in.

 

[seebs]

First of all: 4th edition was built specifically to be portable to electronic gaming systems. It was WoW -> D&D. Saying that 5th was designed for online play is ridiculous as it was a move AWAY from focusing on online play.

I've seen people say this, and I'd sort of buy the "portable to gaming", but I have played a lot of MMOs, and I've played 4e, and 4e was no more MMO-like than any other D&D was, really. It just got attacked a lot for explicitly naming the tank role.