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

[Lizard]

I was puzzling about why Wizards seems to be shooting themselves in the foot by being so secretive about the 4th Edition rules until the 11th hour before release instead of previewing many of the best aspects in order to promote and market the game. It crossed my mind that maybe it is fear that this time around, unlike when 3rd edition was released, they are concerned that the OGL would allow third party publishers to basically copy many of their ideas and release a competing system based on 3E but with most of the 4E innovations incorported. Could this be the reason we still don't know what many of the main innovations are, such as rituals, the warlord class, etc.?

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

 

[Lizard]

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.

Yeah, because the lack of an SRD will stop people scanning them and putting them up on file sharing services with 0.00001 seconds of release...

...and because an unillustrated, no examples, ASCII file is soooo much better than an actual rulebook.

 

[HeinorNY]

The point of marketing is to get product awareness out there.

I agree.

I have a dozen very close friends that are also long time D&D players. Putting aside two guys that visit Enworld weekly (myself included), the rest had no idea so far about 4E.
I usually visit other D&D and RPG forums out there and still see people thinking 4E is all about online gaming now.
I'll be honest, I only entered the D&D site at the 4dventure day because I saw some news in Enworld. Before that day it had been more than an year without entering WOtC's site.
I'll be honest again, I was pretty sure I was going to 4E, but after D&Dexp, I'm not sure anymore.
When I've heard the news about KotSF (in a ENworld thread that was talking about a designer's blog) I just gave up pre-ordering it.


Taking all this into account, if you ask me what do I think about 4E's marketing, I just can't say it has been great so far.

 

[small pumpkin man]

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!!!"

"Here is the new Need for Speed Game. it's a lot faster and a lot safer and a lot funnier to drive, here's a free demo but we won't give you all the details yet, because it's not out yet (although we will give enough to get a good idea how it's played, just not how to level up) since we don't want to spoil your surprise. Just buy it and enjoy it!!! Or just wait until it's been reviewed by proper games reviewers instead of jumping to cunclusions!!!!"

 

[small pumpkin man]

I agree.

I have a dozen very close friends that are also long time D&D players. Putting aside two guys that visit Enworld weekly (myself included), the rest had no idea so far about 4E.
I usually visit other D&D and RPG forums out there and still see people thinking 4E is all about online gaming now.
I'll be honest, I only entered the D&D site at the 4dventure day because I saw some news in Enworld. Before that day it had been more than an year without entering WOtC's site.
I'll be honest again, I was pretty sure I was going to 4E, but after D&Dexp, I'm not sure anymore.
When I've heard the news about KotSF (in a ENworld thread that was talking about a designer's blog) I just gave up pre-ordering it.


Taking all this into account, if you ask me what do I think about 4E's marketing, I just can't say it has been great so far.

It's been mentioned on BoingBoing, Penny-Arcade and Slashdot and it's not out for a couple of months yet. I'd say it's been going fine, although it needs to pick up and get some rl stuff, and some actual ads out there in the next three months.

 

[Cadfan]

I respect those who say "It can't be that they don't want people downloading the rules for free! I'll be buying them, but I just want a chance to test them out in full before I do!"

Except the thing is, I would download them for free, if doing so were legal. I did so last time. Played all the way through 3 and 3.5 without ever owning a PHB, DMG, or a Monster Manual. And if they let me do it again, I would.

If its legal, I'm not doing anything wrong. I value the D&D books enough to pay money for them, but not if they're online for free.

 

[Wolfspider]

The idea is for people to buy the game, not just play it.
Most movies don't have teasers that give away the climax of the movie. Gotta leave something for the audience to come in for.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many, many trailers--maybe even the majority. The philosophy these days seems to be to give the audience as much info as possible, including important plot developments, in order to show them exactly what they're getting into by going to see the film.

 

[HeinorNY]

"Here is the new Need for Speed Game. it's a lot faster and a lot safer and a lot funnier to drive, here's a free demo but we won't give you all the details yet, because it's not out yet (although we will give enough to get a good idea how it's played, just not how to level up) since we don't want to spoil your surprise. Just buy it and enjoy it!!! Or just wait until it's been reviewed by proper games reviewers instead of jumping to cunclusions!!!!"

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.

 

[Deverash]

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many, many trailers--maybe even the majority. The philosophy these days seems to be to give the audience as much info as possible, including important plot developments, in order to show them exactly what they're getting into by going to see the film.

Shoot, for some comedies, the trailers have every joke in the movie. Which always annoys me. Why'd I just waste 2 hours of my life again?

 

[PeelSeel2]

But, to be fair, what would you do differently?

Rename it Bras & Boobs. Stop with the titillating previews and let everyone see the core in it's full glory.