Tovec
Explorer
[MENTION=81511]Mercurious[/MENTION] I think most of my would-be responses to your reply were covered in the mean time, mostly by [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]
I want to add that the reason I quoted Hussar and not you is that I understood your original intent, so I waited until the thread was skewing towards the supposed "golden age" that you firmly believe is at our doorstep. I think it is too early to judged one way or another. As was said, it might be a success (by many points of view and metrics, not just financial) or it may be a quick flash in the pan before fading (perhaps even more quickly than 4e). I don't know. I couldn't begin to predict something like that. As I've repeatedly said, I was quite happy with 4e until I actually read it - you know, saw the actual books. So, I don't trust anyone's opinion of how good 5e is until I can see and judge it for me.
Now, as for legacy, any future cross-media plans will greatly depend on the 'brand' of DnD more than the game. This (to me) means that the success of the game only matters to the extent of giving them money to pursue those plans. Even then, WotC isn't a movie studio and so they'll likely farm it out. Either way, the brand, worlds, or whatever term is used to define marketable content of DnD is the key. The problem is that I don't see that they are working on them. They're giving certain underused aspects greater visibility - Ravenloft is now a regular part of cosmology - but so far they haven't been fleshed out to any detail. This might change, but past experience has said that at best we'll get some world books, which I don't think really helps as far as a movie goes. Maybe Tyranny of the Dragons will be a good step in that direction, I don't know, I have no experience with it nor many other APs (they're just not my bag). All I have seen so far is that they're rehashing a great deal, going backwards and trying to find a middle ground when possible. That is good appeasing a playerbase, not so great for advancing the cosmology.
The player/consumer side of brand recognition is also concerning to me. From what I have seen the game is fine. (I haven't had access to enough to really tell what my hot button issues will be. I've had some big problems with the game since the first playtest and those haven't changed but some have become less prominent.) However, the issue isn't getting me to play. It is getting new people into the game. As someone else said, they need a kid friendly game. I disagree with 'kid friendly,' but I agree with the sentiment. In order to grow the player-base I don't think the game is quite where it needs to be. Again, 'the game' I'm talking about isn't even out yet. Perhaps the DMG will have those tools built in. I don't know. Maybe it will take a later splatbook to deliver such things. Either way, while I do see a lot of older players coming back to the game, I'm not seeing any "I've never played DnD but 5e made me buy" type comments. If I had then I might agree with 'golden age' comments. At this point I don't think it is enough to get a larger slice of the pie - the hobby needs more pie entirely and I don't see 5e doing that based on the Basic rules, the playtests, or any discussions I've heard from WotC. That is why I think it is a fair bit premature to look to the next wave of this, [hyperbolic] the most successful edition of the game thus far [/hyperbolic].
I want to add that the reason I quoted Hussar and not you is that I understood your original intent, so I waited until the thread was skewing towards the supposed "golden age" that you firmly believe is at our doorstep. I think it is too early to judged one way or another. As was said, it might be a success (by many points of view and metrics, not just financial) or it may be a quick flash in the pan before fading (perhaps even more quickly than 4e). I don't know. I couldn't begin to predict something like that. As I've repeatedly said, I was quite happy with 4e until I actually read it - you know, saw the actual books. So, I don't trust anyone's opinion of how good 5e is until I can see and judge it for me.
Now, as for legacy, any future cross-media plans will greatly depend on the 'brand' of DnD more than the game. This (to me) means that the success of the game only matters to the extent of giving them money to pursue those plans. Even then, WotC isn't a movie studio and so they'll likely farm it out. Either way, the brand, worlds, or whatever term is used to define marketable content of DnD is the key. The problem is that I don't see that they are working on them. They're giving certain underused aspects greater visibility - Ravenloft is now a regular part of cosmology - but so far they haven't been fleshed out to any detail. This might change, but past experience has said that at best we'll get some world books, which I don't think really helps as far as a movie goes. Maybe Tyranny of the Dragons will be a good step in that direction, I don't know, I have no experience with it nor many other APs (they're just not my bag). All I have seen so far is that they're rehashing a great deal, going backwards and trying to find a middle ground when possible. That is good appeasing a playerbase, not so great for advancing the cosmology.
The player/consumer side of brand recognition is also concerning to me. From what I have seen the game is fine. (I haven't had access to enough to really tell what my hot button issues will be. I've had some big problems with the game since the first playtest and those haven't changed but some have become less prominent.) However, the issue isn't getting me to play. It is getting new people into the game. As someone else said, they need a kid friendly game. I disagree with 'kid friendly,' but I agree with the sentiment. In order to grow the player-base I don't think the game is quite where it needs to be. Again, 'the game' I'm talking about isn't even out yet. Perhaps the DMG will have those tools built in. I don't know. Maybe it will take a later splatbook to deliver such things. Either way, while I do see a lot of older players coming back to the game, I'm not seeing any "I've never played DnD but 5e made me buy" type comments. If I had then I might agree with 'golden age' comments. At this point I don't think it is enough to get a larger slice of the pie - the hobby needs more pie entirely and I don't see 5e doing that based on the Basic rules, the playtests, or any discussions I've heard from WotC. That is why I think it is a fair bit premature to look to the next wave of this, [hyperbolic] the most successful edition of the game thus far [/hyperbolic].