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

[Jester David]

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... :/

It's a fairly typical fan response to a bad property.
See: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ruined_FOREVER

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.

While saving some Wrecan threads from the WotC community, he posted usenet links to people complaining that 2nd Edition was inspired by video games. So that complaint is just that old.

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.

It doesn't hurt.
But it doesn't help. A good D&D video game would be excellent for the hobby and the game. One that tied into the storylines might direct players to the tabletop game. Which is kinda disappointing.

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.

WotC's strategy for storylines is based around events that occur in both the tabletop game as well as other media like board games, miniatures, and the video games. It's a big part of how they present the game. It's not that unlikely that they released the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide now rather than another book to coordinate with Sword Coast Legends, just like they tried to do with Neverwinter (both the book and the game) and the Book of Vile Darkness.
If WotC partners with poor companies it does impact the tabletop game. You only need to look at the response to SCAG.

 

[Shasarak]

This may come as a surprise, but even among people who consider themselves nerdy D&D players are stereotyped as socially awkward basement dwelling turbovirgins.

Hey, I know that guy!

 

[Shasarak]

While saving some Wrecan threads from the WotC community, he posted usenet links to people complaining that 2nd Edition was inspired by video games. So that complaint is just that old.

The Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast, Bill Slavicsek said it was and he should know.

 

[Valdier]

First, nice disqualification attempt with "nerd rage". That never gets old. :/

And it never stops being true. They go hand in hand that way.

Secondly, links to the game developers' explicit promises to create a game faithful to the 5E rule set have been posted in these discussions like 20 times now. Are you just deliberately ignoring them?

Anyone that watched a trailer or saw anything they ever released showing game play *clearly* knew it wasn't a 5e tabletop simulation. If you somehow saw a Diablo-esque action game and said "that looks like how we play D&D", and were *still* surprised when it came out... well, I guess you are right.

 

[darjr]

The Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast, Bill Slavicsek said it was and he should know.

Never heard of this podcast. Thanks, listening now.

 

[Pauper]

WotC's strategy for storylines is based around events that occur in both the tabletop game as well as other media like board games, miniatures, and the video games. It's a big part of how they present the game. It's not that unlikely that they released the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide now rather than another book to coordinate with Sword Coast Legends, just like they tried to do with Neverwinter (both the book and the game) and the Book of Vile Darkness.

That makes sense, but not because it's an effort to get people who play the video game(s) to also play the tabletop game, but because it's an attempt to catch people who don't play the tabletop game with a type of game they're more likely to try. In that sense, it makes perfect sense that Sword Coast Legends would be much more like a familiar video game than a representation of the unfamiliar tabletop game.

That doesn't change that the marketing guys still want to try to get tabletop folks to try the video game (and vice versa), but that's marketing -- and by now we should all know not to trust marketing people as far as we can physically toss them.

If WotC partners with poor companies it does impact the tabletop game. You only need to look at the response to SCAG.

Well, that's true, but it's hard to say how the team that did Sword Coast Legends can have any impact on the tabletop game. Response to the SCAG has been mixed, but again, I'd argue that a lot of the complaining has come from people criticizing the SCAG in their heads rather than the one that was published.

WotC knows that the tabletop game will suffer if they partner with the wrong companies -- so most of the companies they've partnered with are staffed with former WotC folks. The few that aren't have track records of doing good stuff, like WizKids and GaleForce9. I mean, if they came to me to produce the next hardback adventure, I'd be worried, but they're not crazy enough to try *that*.

--
Pauper

 

[Zardnaar]

Apparently the launch of 3E was bolstered by Baldurs Gate and Torment. A stinker of a D&D game probably won't hrt the brand that much except for opportunity cost/dashed corporate hopes.

 

[seebs]

Apparently the launch of 3E was bolstered by Baldurs Gate and Torment. A stinker of a D&D game probably won't hrt the brand that much except for opportunity cost/dashed corporate hopes.

It seems very weird to me to say that games based almost entirely on 2e, with no 3e-isms at all, helped the launch of 3E.

 

[Zardnaar]

It seems very weird to me to say that games based almost entirely on 2e, with no 3e-isms at all, helped the launch of 3E.

It raised awareness of the brand, BG was a big hit and was followed by BG2 and expansions+ Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance 1 and 2. AD&D lent itself to easy adaptions of a faithful D&D type game. The best "D&D" game was actually Knights of the Old Republic in terms of a good d20 RPG that was somewhat faithful to the actual RPG.

 

[seebs]

The Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast, Bill Slavicsek said it was and he should know.

I don't necessarily trust what management people say. I mean, they may have intended that, but it doesn't seem to have come out that way in reality.