D&D 5E Is 5E Special

[TwoSix]

Yes and part of the reason WotC has such a huge difference is their ability to read their market and cater to it...

I think that's really only a small part. I've taken part in several Kickstarters of 5e additional mechanical material, that have sold 1000s of copies. I have no doubt that if WotC had published the exact same material with WotC branding, it would sell orders of magnitudes more.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The economic argument that something that sells well is inherently good quality is always hilarious, but my printer decided to make make the 'cleaning my jets' noise just as I read it, reminding me that there's entire industries that thrive on purposefully making shoddy products. ~goes back to playing a 9 year old 'early access' videogame on a computer designed to die early.~

So if a model of car has its wheels reliably fall off, people will keep buying the model for a decade with no improvement. Got it.

 

[Imaro]

I think that's really only a small part. I've taken part in several Kickstarters of 5e additional mechanical material, that have sold 1000s of copies. I have no doubt that if WotC had published the exact same material with WotC branding, it would sell orders of magnitudes more.

Why? Why do you have no doubt? Is there some kind of market research to suggest this? Will it sell more than something they could divert those resources to?

EDIT: Just trying to understand the mentality of second guessing (with such confidence) a company that has, for all intents and purposes, struck gold with its product when it comes to sales.

 

[Oofta]

There's nothing to cannibalize.

That's my point. WOTC didn't create a bunch of content many 5e fans wanted. This allowed 3rd parties to fill that whole with WOTC only getting a fraction if the 3rd party used specific services and publishing.

The product is out there made by 3rd parties. WOTC is just not making money on it or pennies if they are.

Some of my money went to Morris and not WOTC because WOTC refused to make some desired content 5e.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of companies that make add-ons for cars and trucks. Big companies don't go after the pennies, they go after the dimes and dollars.

Besides, do you really understand how many supplements are out there? It's one thing for a small publisher to take a risk on a product that may or may not have a good return on investment. If they fail, they're out a relatively small amount. If WOTC puts out too much product (even quality stuff) at best they dilute the brand, at worst they kill the cash cow. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[Vaalingrade]

So if a model of car has its wheels reliably fall off, people will keep buying the model for a decade with no improvement. Got it.

The Ford Pinto was in model for 9 years. It exploded.

The iPhone is on version 13 or something while being designed to stop working.

Printers have worked the way they do for 30 years.

So yes. Yes they will.

 

[Minigiant]

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of companies that make add-ons for cars and trucks. Big companies don't go after the pennies, they go after the dimes and dollars.

Besides, do you really understand how many supplements are out there? It's one thing for a small publisher to take a risk on a product that may or may not have a good return on investment. If they fail, they're out a relatively small amount. If WOTC puts out too much product (even quality stuff) at best they dilute the brand, at worst they kill the cash cow. It's just not worth the risk.

Artificer+ Summoner+Headmaster+Warlord would sell more than Strixhaven

 

[glass]

Artificer+ Summoner+Headmaster+Warlord would sell more than Strixhaven

Headmaster?

 

[TwoSix]

Why? Why do you have no doubt? Is there some kind of market research to suggest this? Will it sell more than something they could divert those resources to?

EDIT: Just trying to understand the mentality of second guessing (with such confidence) a company that has, for all intents and purposes, struck gold with its product when it comes to sales.

Because any product that WotC markets is going to sell more than an identical 3pp because it has the imprimatur of being "official", which is a very important consideration to a wide swath of the playerbase.

If you think WotC material sells hundreds of times the number of copies of a book than a 3pp because their material is hundreds of times better, then we have very different views of the marketplace.

It has nothing to do with second guessing WotC. I don't particularly care what WotC sells. But what sells for WotC is the mark of officialness and widespread acceptance, not the quality of the material per se. Now, if WotC starts to release a bunch of shoddy, substandard material, that can certainly erode the value of their imprint, but we're very far from that point right now. 5e is quality material, and also at the right place at the right time, which is why their current material is so very successful. Much like each individual MCU movie, being part of the greater whole enhances each individual product.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The Ford Pinto was in model for 9 years. It exploded.

The iPhone is on version 13 or something while being designed to stop working.

Printers have worked the way they do for 30 years.

So yes. Yes they will.

They would not have in the age of the internet

 

[Parmandur]

Not a story. It factually happened in this very thread, for everyone to see.

I am so sorry that bonus actions are confusing for you.

So long after both PHB3 and Essentials came out? Anyway, the claim was that 4e did not have things that it had. That it arguably did not have them for the first two years is irrelevant goalpost moving.

(Arguably because class feature mean even the PHB1 classes have slightly different power schedules in practice.)

It's not really moving the goal posts to just consider what was in the game: latter aplats aren't really going to be on people's radar. We don't all about Magic of Incarn much for similar reasons.

It was. PHB2 and 3 under that name were massive mistakes, regardless of the quality of what was contained therein. On that subject, are we considering marketting an internal or external factor? I must admit, I have not been entirely consistant in my thinking about it thus far.

Internal. It was an intentional design choice, made without sufficient consideration of how the market would receive such a product. It wouldn't have worked better at a different time.