D&D 5E Is long-term support of the game important?

[Mistwell]

By "fan writer" I assume you mean published writer who researched the date laboriously and narrowed it down to the 21st. It wasn't just some wild guess, actual effort was made.

He said it was a guess. If you think he's a good source, then you have your answer.

Even if we are celebrating "the year", it's a third over and we haven't seen a lot of festivity. We're unlikely to see anything until July when the starter set comes out. So half the anniversary is gone. Most people won't get the core books until September. That's assuming they release them all at once and don't stagger the releases.

You cannot actually celebrate for an entire year, because then it becomes meaningless. You pick some time during that year, and you celebrate the anniversary. You can maybe stretch it for a month or two, but you can't do it for 365 days. And I still have no idea why you'd want to.

Anyone who hears about the game in the intervening period will have some difficulty getting into the game. There's no easy on ramp right now. Anyone who hears about the 40th, or watched Community and is thinking D&D is SoL.

When I think back at 2014 it won't be "the year of D&D". It will be "the year with less D&D than any other year since its creation." Well... since 1978 maybe.

First, this year has seen the most amount of free material probably ever, from the official D&D company. Anyone who wanted to get into the game, could do it for free by simply downloading the rules, and then participating in numerous free adventures they sent out, and giving feedback, and taking part in the many discussions that happened this year. This year has seen a huge resurgence in D&D discussion on boards like this very one. For me, it's been an awesome D&D year so far.

Second, why do you care that every day be celebrated as the 40th anniversary? Why is this important? As long as it is celebrated some time this year, why is it meaningful to you that it be right now?

 

[Iosue]

Second, why do you care that every day be celebrated as the 40th anniversary? Why is this important? As long as it is celebrated some time this year, why is it meaningful to you that it be right now?

Basically, I said that WotC likely planned for a new edition in 2014, to celebrate the 40th anniversary, and thus began development of 5e in mid- to late-2011.

Jester's argument is that if they wanted to release an edition for the anniversary in 2014, they could only plan to release it by the date conjectured by Jon Peterson in December of 2013, otherwise it wouldn't be in commemoration of the 40th anniversary. When it was suggested that you could celebrate the year of release, rather than the specific date or month, his answer is that this could only be done by a huge year long celebration, and that a GenCon release of the new edition doesn't count.

And basically this boils down to refuting the idea that a WotC might develop and release 5e for reasons other than failure of 4e.

 

[Hussar]

Uh, the PF and 4e models aren't the same. The PF subscriptions are for physical materials. They include a perk for free digital versions, but the primary product is the physical books.

True but all the 4e rule books are available in print. The only thing not is Dungeon and Dragon.

4e without a subscription and Pathfinder without a subscription is identical.

 

[billd91]

True but all the 4e rule books are available in print. The only thing not is Dungeon and Dragon.

4e without a subscription and Pathfinder without a subscription is identical.

But that totally misses Lanefan's point and the point of my response. If he were to depend on a subscription for access to the rules, as some people do for 4e, he risks sinking money into a "product" he may lose access to and cannot control. Personally, I agree with Lanefan that doing so would be a bad idea and I'm simply not going to buy into a game using this model of subscription. If I want a game, I'd rather buy it than rent it.

My response was to point out that the subscription for Pathfinder was for products to be shipped to him that he controls access to.

 

[delericho]

True but all the 4e rule books are available in print. The only thing not is Dungeon and Dragon.

4e without a subscription and Pathfinder without a subscription is identical.

The difference in approaches lies in what happens after you cancel your subscription - in the D&D model you lose access to everything except any PDFs you've already downloaded; in the Pathfinder model you keep everything (and can even continue to download PDFs you've paid for).

Though there's a flip side to that: if you take out a D&D subscription today, you get access to everything including the mags back to whenever DDI started. If you take out a Pathfinder subscription, you of course only start getting sent new stuff as it is released.

 

[2die10games]

Yes and no. System mastery and good house rules can add significant life to a game and take it places that the original authors never even dreamed of.