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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThickSkullAdv" data-source="post: 5491199" data-attributes="member: 93028">Interesting question indeed. I’ll play backseat marketing guy and make some assumptions as to the “Vision Statement” WotC has for D&D as brand, and strategies to meet that vision.  Grab a cold one as I wax poetic…For sake of simplicity, let’s assume WotC has the following Vision for D&D: “Create the world’s best-known gaming brand admired for excellence in quality and value.”  (Vision statements are supposed to be bold, right?)  I have no idea what WotC vision/mission statement actually is, but I presume it’s something in that ballpark. Notice how that might not necessarily be the most popular game, or even limited to role-playing games.I actually believe that WotC is indeed focused on quality  (at least in their print products, which have some of the finest production in the business).  And as far as value, their Core Rulebooks are comparably priced to some of their competitors. And for sake of simplicity we also have to assume their biz model includes making as much $$ as possible strategies that will support the vision to do so.So, we now have to assume that 3pp are part of the strategy to achieve that vision. In this instance, WotC would need to control the core product very closely, but give 3pp a way to distribute product with enforced quality that helps makes the core product more valuable. This would be similar to Apple’s model where they’re totally in control of iPods/IPads hardware, but create a “software app store” for 3pp which has stringent quality requirements. The benefit: WotC maintains all the core rules, but the 3PP makes the core rules more valuable by building products. The goal being: people will buy more books if there are more adventures, more campaign settings, etc., and they all work together consistently. The more core rulebooks out there, would thereby make the brand more ubiquitous helping to make it “…the worlds’ best known.”  Without some sort of quality requirements, however, you might see the value diminished with glut of low-quality accessory products (think the dark days of the Atari 2600 cartridges…)¬So, all of that said, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at WotC strategy meetings, for given my very limited perspective I would guess their current strategy is less focused on print looks something more like:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Predictable revenue stream through subscription</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Mitigate uncertainty in print market by expanding online presence</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Simplify the game</li> </ol>My basis for guessing this would be based on their investment in DDI (continuing to enhance, provide new content, and reconfigure to make multi-platform) as well as their re-editing content as part of Essentials.  In this instance, assuming the “quality 3PP helps sell core product”  holds true(core product in this case being DDI or Essentials) they’d need to be figuring out a way open up DDI with customizable content with quality controls.Anyway, food for thought. Thanks for hanging in there through the long post.</blockquote>

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