D&D 4E Is the OGL the reason for WOTC's secrecy about 4E?

[Clight101]

I think the biggest problem is the folks at WotC aren't really doing a lot of their own marketing. They seem to be depending mostly on word of mouth between players of D&D, fan sites like this one, and their website.

We have a demo of the game or the ability to try it out with the PHB lite and the monsters people have brought back from D&DXP and picked from other sources but that was done by the community and not WotC for the most part. It would of been nice of the people at WotC to let us have the Escape from Sembia and Scalegloom hall stuff from D&DXP to really try out the game.

I'd also like to see some ad's coming out sometime soon but they have already decided in an article or podcast, I can't remember where, that their target audience for the first 6 months to a year is the people who already play D&D. After that initial period they planed on going after folks who've never played the game or are on the fringe.

Based on that using word of mouth, internet fan sites, and their site it seems like a pretty good strategy. It's fairly efficient as far as cost to number of people hearing about the product are concerened.

 

[Voss]

OTOH, you could read the specs for that car until the cows come home, but, you're not going to decide to buy it without a test drive.

In the same way, you're not going to buy 4e until you have the books in your hands and can see for yourself.

The point of marketing is to get product awareness out there. It is not particularly to make you decide to buy something.

I hate to do this, but your metaphor just doesn't work. These days, there are quite a few people that don't test drive cards, and there are hordes of people that preorder products (rpgs, books and computer games especially) before they ever know whats in it.
For example, the gift box is #79 in amazon's list of most ordered books right now. #1 in RPGs, beating out everything that actually exists in print form.

 

[Bishmon]

This idea's a bit wacky, a bit 'out there', maybe even a little crazy nuts but...


Maybe they want people to buy the books instead of getting the rules online for free.

This is one of those things that sounds good in theory, but doesn't really hold up once you think about it.

If they were to show us some examples of multiclassing (like what you get with the wizard training feat), and if they were to show us a couple rituals, that wouldn't even come close to enabling people to play the game without the rulebooks, and yet it would at least give people an idea about how key aspects of the game play.

 

[Delta]

No, because nothing from 4e has ever been released under the OGL. Normal copyright rules apply.

Including potentially these rules ( http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html ):

The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it.

 

[Stalker0]

I don't want to get the rules for free online, I just want to know more about the game I'm buying. For example, multiclassing, will it hurt their sales so much if they just tell how it works? What about rituals?

I can't imagine other companies using the same marketing...
"Here is the new Ferrrari, it's a lot faster and a lot safer and a lot funnier to drive, but we won't ge into any specifications of course, we don't want to spoil your surprise. Just buy it and enjoy it!!!"

With a Ferrari, you do a test drive.

With an rpg, you go to store and read the rules.

 

[brislove]

They are doing an excellent job of marketing 4e.

They have articles that give more information (Design and Development), and give you insight into what they are DOING with the rules as opposed to exactly what the rules are.

They then give you scraps, pieces of information that allow us to reverse engineer and create fan adventures. They even (once the rules were pretty much set) Released a boat load of monsters, and 6 pre-generated characters so that people could run a mini D&D experience themselves. They will be running D&D experience's across the country as well closer to the time of release.

They gave us a lot of information, enough that we can practice building adventures, playing with a basic version of the new combat rules ect. So that people that like even some small aspect of the pregen characters will be excited to see what is comming out in the future. All of these factors make you think things like "What other at-will powers will be available, and I would really like to build some characters myself."

Would I like there to be more information out there? yes. Do I feel what they are doing is bad marketing....definitely no. they give out bits of information over a long term, and it keeps coming out, almost every day there is something new this makes people that are making modules, and playing with what they have so far MORE interested, and keeps them looking for more bits to add to their game.

 

[dm4hire]

Lol, I wish WotC's marketing could be just like EA's marketing.
We would at least have more information than speculation, and we wouldn't need to visit the designer's blogs or fan-sites to get some info about the product.
And I didn't go to D&Dexp, so I'm still waiting for that demo.

ACK!!! NO! Sure we would get all of that but then we would definitely be getting flooded with patches left and right as EA requires games to be released on their schedule whether ready or not; it can be patched later. I don't know how many EA games I bought that the day they came out I ended up patching them the same day. Now Blizzard, before the EA buyout that just happened, would work though we would get all kinds of info without a release date until it was ready.

I wish WotC would do more advertising to help build up the interest. With 3e it started with the GenCon they announced it at and kept running till it released. It seems that since the D&D Exp that the flow has slowed down a lot, save for the Warlord preview (March 14th) there hasn't been any real 4e info since then other than blogs discussing feel of the game.

 

[Dausuul]

This is one of those things that sounds good in theory, but doesn't really hold up once you think about it.

If they were to show us some examples of multiclassing (like what you get with the wizard training feat), and if they were to show us a couple rituals, that wouldn't even come close to enabling people to play the game without the rulebooks, and yet it would at least give people an idea about how key aspects of the game play.

And then people would want to know about the experience progression. And then the exact formulae that are used to calculate monster stats. And then some sample magic items. And then, and then, and then...

They've given us plenty of info. The fact that they haven't given us X, where X is some random scrap of info, means nothing.

Besides, smart marketing is NOT about revealing everything you possibly can. It's about teasing. You dole out scraps of information, just enough to get people excited and impatient to know more. You keep doling out these scraps, bit by bit, keeping your audience engaged while building anticipation up and up. Then release date comes and everyone rushes out to buy the books and discover all the stuff they haven't yet seen.

The fact that threads like this are popping up is proof that WotC's marketing department knows what it's doing.

 

[Bishmon]

And then people would want to know about the experience progression. And then the exact formulae that are used to calculate monster stats. And then some sample magic items. And then, and then, and then...

They've given us plenty of info. The fact that they haven't given us X, where X is some random scrap of info, means nothing.

I think there's a clear difference between something as basic and vital as multiclassing and rituals as opposed to something like the formulas for monster stats.

Besides, smart marketing is NOT about revealing everything you possibly can. It's about teasing. You dole out scraps of information, just enough to get people excited and impatient to know more. You keep doling out these scraps, bit by bit, keeping your audience engaged while building anticipation up and up. Then release date comes and everyone rushes out to buy the books and discover all the stuff they haven't yet seen.

The fact that threads like this are popping up is proof that WotC's marketing department knows what it's doing.

I disagree. They're marketing hasn't been making me excited and anticipatory. It's been making me frustrated. Whereas I should be eager for 4E, there's still huge aspects of the game that I know nothing about and that's keeping me from hopping on board.

And I really fail to see how this thread is proof of the success of WotC's marketing. In fact, this thread seems largely devoid of the excitement and anticipation that you say their marketing has been drumming up.

 

[Rykion]

Wow. D&D 4e was announced at GenCon almost a year before release. WotC has given us all kinds of info on their website including a race write up and a class write up. They had demo games at the D&D Experience. There are demos at game stores leading up to 4e release. Keep on the Shadowfell comes out 2 weeks before the main books. It's still more than 2 months until release and anyone at ENworld has access to all they need to run basic 4e games thanks to info from the D&D Experience. I think WotC is doing a real bang up job keeping 4e and the basics of the rules a secret.

We're all here talking about 4e, so the marketing is working. You don't need to spend a lot of $$$ marketing months before release when you can get your hardcore fans to do it for you. Better yet, you can get them to pay for the preview books and module. The average gamer doesn't need to be interested in 4e until just before release. Not everyone likes spending months anticipating the release of a product. The marketing will hit its stride a couple weeks before release. I suspect 4e D&D has already had the most marketing for an RPG since 3e D&D's release.