Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I don't want 5E, I want a definitive D&D (the Monopoly model)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 5696986" data-attributes="member: 2205"><p>Pshaw. There's no rudeness involved just because I used the word demand, or just because I don't think his story holds up under a cursory glance. There's a far cry from being rude to being unsupportive of an idea that is missing enough key elements of reality to be unfeasible.</p><p></p><p>As to the beginning of your post, you missed the one that WotC have itself claimed; (although not quite in so many words) scope, fixed cost, and opportunity cost.</p><p></p><p>WotC have said--via Ryan Dancey--that because of their size and overheads, they cannot survive on the slim margins that modules and other marginal sourcebooks provide. Not only that, especially under Hasbro leadership, even if such an enterprise were profitable (barely) or could be made so, there is an opportunity cost in spending those resources developing those marginable products. Namely, that they can't deploy those same resources to produce something that's <em>more</em> profitable.</p><p></p><p>What the OP seems to be missing--almost deliberately now, given the many times it's been pointed out, it seems--is that losing market share is not the same as losing profit. Making decisions that bring back the "lost" 3.5 players at the expense of a business plan that is more profitable, simply doesn't make any sense. They're not worth it as customers. The resources to "regain" them aren't worth the revenue they would bring in.</p><p></p><p>Probably. Of course, I don't have access to the WotC accounting data that would prove this supposition. However, it's true in most industries, including those in which I work and others in which I have worked, and I believe it to be true in this case too.</p><p></p><p>It's a nice dream--make the "one" evergreen version of D&D that everyone will play. No doubt, WotC would themselves also love to find such an edition. At the end of the day, however, it <em>is</em> just a dream. It doesn't make any business sense to bring back 3.5 and sell it in conjunction with 4e, developing new products like Complete Fey for it, and the dream also ignores customer taste, presuming that everyone will in fact fall in line under one edition. All my experience suggests that that has never happened and never will.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 5696986, member: 2205"] Pshaw. There's no rudeness involved just because I used the word demand, or just because I don't think his story holds up under a cursory glance. There's a far cry from being rude to being unsupportive of an idea that is missing enough key elements of reality to be unfeasible. As to the beginning of your post, you missed the one that WotC have itself claimed; (although not quite in so many words) scope, fixed cost, and opportunity cost. WotC have said--via Ryan Dancey--that because of their size and overheads, they cannot survive on the slim margins that modules and other marginal sourcebooks provide. Not only that, especially under Hasbro leadership, even if such an enterprise were profitable (barely) or could be made so, there is an opportunity cost in spending those resources developing those marginable products. Namely, that they can't deploy those same resources to produce something that's [I]more[/I] profitable. What the OP seems to be missing--almost deliberately now, given the many times it's been pointed out, it seems--is that losing market share is not the same as losing profit. Making decisions that bring back the "lost" 3.5 players at the expense of a business plan that is more profitable, simply doesn't make any sense. They're not worth it as customers. The resources to "regain" them aren't worth the revenue they would bring in. Probably. Of course, I don't have access to the WotC accounting data that would prove this supposition. However, it's true in most industries, including those in which I work and others in which I have worked, and I believe it to be true in this case too. It's a nice dream--make the "one" evergreen version of D&D that everyone will play. No doubt, WotC would themselves also love to find such an edition. At the end of the day, however, it [I]is[/I] just a dream. It doesn't make any business sense to bring back 3.5 and sell it in conjunction with 4e, developing new products like Complete Fey for it, and the dream also ignores customer taste, presuming that everyone will in fact fall in line under one edition. All my experience suggests that that has never happened and never will. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I don't want 5E, I want a definitive D&D (the Monopoly model)
Top