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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6361583" data-attributes="member: 177">Except that &quot;recapture the target market&quot; may be a vast oversimplification of the goals here. It seems the long-term goal is to make profit of the *brand*.&nbsp; Not the RPG, specifically, but the Dungeons and Dragons name as a whole.&nbsp; Now, selling a lot of game books is *awesome*, don't get me wrong.&nbsp; But if the long-term point is to get people to buy stuff with &quot;D&amp;D&quot; on it, then whether you actually buy or play the current game is secondary to getting you to have a generally positive impression of the brand.If they had reinvented the 4e system, then all those 3e players would be left with a negative impression of the brand.&nbsp; This has *nothing* to do with how good the game is, or its technical qualities.&nbsp; Sticking with 4e was not going to be smart for that new long-term goal.Going for a 5e was a risk, I'll grant you - they did run the risk of fragmenting the players even further.&nbsp; That's what the massive playtesting was for.&nbsp; Sure, some diehards still claim that was a sham, but the bulk of rational folks are probably looking at the new rules, and realizing that yes, WotC is honestly trying to be inclusive.&nbsp; They may not succeed at hitting your own personal desires for the game, but the effort taken makes that seem a lot more like just the limitations of the reality of making games, not so much &quot;WotC is leaving me out in the cold on purpose.&quot;And with that, the long-term goal is served.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6361583, member: 177"] Except that "recapture the target market" may be a vast oversimplification of the goals here. It seems the long-term goal is to make profit of the *brand*. Not the RPG, specifically, but the Dungeons and Dragons name as a whole. Now, selling a lot of game books is *awesome*, don't get me wrong. But if the long-term point is to get people to buy stuff with "D&D" on it, then whether you actually buy or play the current game is secondary to getting you to have a generally positive impression of the brand. If they had reinvented the 4e system, then all those 3e players would be left with a negative impression of the brand. This has *nothing* to do with how good the game is, or its technical qualities. Sticking with 4e was not going to be smart for that new long-term goal. Going for a 5e was a risk, I'll grant you - they did run the risk of fragmenting the players even further. That's what the massive playtesting was for. Sure, some diehards still claim that was a sham, but the bulk of rational folks are probably looking at the new rules, and realizing that yes, WotC is honestly trying to be inclusive. They may not succeed at hitting your own personal desires for the game, but the effort taken makes that seem a lot more like just the limitations of the reality of making games, not so much "WotC is leaving me out in the cold on purpose." And with that, the long-term goal is served. [/QUOTE]

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