D&D 5E I just don't see why they even bothered with the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

[Parmandur]

Not sure why folks are so down on Hasbro simply foe being a corporation. Corporations are neither good nor bad just for being corporations, and that applies to large and small. I work for a large company, much bigger than Hasbro, and it is awesome.

 

[Hussar]

Since we're talking about how iterations of a game are bad for the game, it's not unreasonable to use 3e as an example is it?

All the information we have points to the 3.5 players roughly equal long the number of Pathfinder players. Look at the VTT numbers and various online polls for evidence of that. Meaning that PF is working from about half the player base that 3.5 had.

I'd say that's very bad for the hobby. Certainly bad for a company that expects 100k sales of every book.

 

[Mistwell]

Not sure why folks are so down on Hasbro simply foe being a corporation. Corporations are neither good nor bad just for being corporations, and that applies to large and small. I work for a large company, much bigger than Hasbro, and it is awesome.

They rank in the top 100 large corporations to work for, in fact.

 

[Mistwell]

Since we're talking about how iterations of a game are bad for the game, it's not unreasonable to use 3e as an example is it?

All the information we have points to the 3.5 players roughly equal long the number of Pathfinder players. Look at the VTT numbers and various online polls for evidence of that. Meaning that PF is working from about half the player base that 3.5 had.

I'd say that's very bad for the hobby. Certainly bad for a company that expects 100k sales of every book.

Why?

 

[Shasarak]

I remember Ken Hite saying something like: every time he goes to Gencon he is constantly amazed at how badly the RPG hobby is doing.

Next year is the end of the hobby for sure.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I remember Ken Hite saying something like: every time he goes to Gencon he is constantly amazed at how badly the RPG hobby is doing.

Next year is the end of the hobby for sure.

I suppose the companies could fail, and the industry would end.

But the hobby won't ever end.

 

[gyor]

Since we're talking about how iterations of a game are bad for the game, it's not unreasonable to use 3e as an example is it?

All the information we have points to the 3.5 players roughly equal long the number of Pathfinder players. Look at the VTT numbers and various online polls for evidence of that. Meaning that PF is working from about half the player base that 3.5 had.

I'd say that's very bad for the hobby. Certainly bad for a company that expects 100k sales of every book.

New iterations aren't bad at all, its just the natural evolution of games, its a sign of thier success.

Games are memes and memes are living creatures in a every real sense and evolution applies to them.

You look at copies of a game system as asexual reproduction, mostly clones, with a few mutations along the way (mutations being errata).

Then you supplements and settings which are a type of offspring via sexual reproduction, kind of like worker drones of an edition.

Then you have a new edition, its like a new queen via sexual reproduction (and her identical sisters via asexual reproduction) and the game is renewed and fresh supplements and settings are released, and the cycle is continued.

Its time to worry when this cycle starts to break down, its a sign that D&D is headed for an evolutionary dead end. Right now the fact that the 5e Queens are producing so few drones (supplments), and only 1 setting (a drone in one sense, within an editions, queen in its own right in another sense as setting can have thier own supplements) is a bad sign of health for 5e.

People complain about bloat, but the truth is bloat is a sign of health for a game, if there is no bloat its either a sign of coming edition change, or ill health of the game.

The NWOD was at this unfortunate stage not too long after CPP aquired White Wolf, when its plans for a WOD MMO died, its wasn't producing much in the way of offspring, its game lines weren't producing new supplements much anymore. Its ill health had fans upset.

Then Onyx Path saved the day, they bought Scion, Scarred Lands, and Trinity from them, and licienced WOD and Exalted.

And the life cycle of White Wolf's game lines were restored as was the health of the games.

They began releasing some new supplements, to boost the health of the game lines before transitioning to a new editions for them.

They now have a growing line of second edition NWOD settings, I think exalted has or will have, a new edition, they're working on Scion second edition, a new edition of trinity.

Even OWOD has been reborn in the form of a new edition, which has lead to White Wolf itself being reborn thanks to Paradox buying it remains from CPP, which I think might in part be because White Wolfs offspring Onyx Path saved its IPs from extinction.

This is the type of rebirth I want for D&D and FR, not a new edition yet obviously its too soon, but for it to start flourishing again and for it to start producing supplements and settings again at better pace.

People say that 1e/2e/3e/4e were failures, but they weren't they were all successful in thier time and you can see the genes as it were of all previous editions and even of outside games like pathfinder, in D&D 5e.

Those who want D&D to remain static are basically wishing for its death and mummification.

 

[Hussar]

Why?

Because it's splitting the consumer base. 3.5 players aren't likely buying Pathfinder books and Pathfinder players aren't buying 5e books.

In other words, paizo's audience is about a third or so in size of what WotC had before 4e came along.

 

[Hussar]

Just to be clear. New iterations are fine. No problem. Rapid new iterations are bad. That is what we're talking about right?

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Looking at pathfinder it also went to a slower release scedual compared to WOTC 3.5, not counting published adventures bot both paizo and wotc.
pathfinder released 16 hardcover books in 6 years.

While wotch was on a relase scedual where they had at 8 hardcover books each year.