Is WoTC even relevant to you anymore?

[Raven Crowking]

Trouble with that is that there is no IP associated with it, and anyone who wants to can make images of it or publish it. You'll notice that the new monsters WOTC is putting out are not OGL... any any reference to them in a 3rd party product has to be done with permission. Now if you went and used gods and legends from greek or norse mythology, then its open season. I just don't see WOTC doing that.

C'mon, though. Think about the 1e Fiend Folio. A lot of those monsters are weird, and a great many of them could have IP associated with their expression, if not thier form. The vast majority of them can be described in a single (and short) sentence.

Consider The Bestiary: Predators. A bunch of IP, and the creatures are for the most part real (some are cryptozoological). I'm still waiting for The Bestiary: Prey, because that first Bestiary was fantastic.

RC

 

[Ulrick]

I still buy WotC books...after they appear 1/2 price or less at a used bookstore, or if I really want it, 20-30% on Amazon. Let's face, the books have gotten expensive. And, if I'm not going to be able to use most of what's in a book, I won't feel as bad paying 1/2 price for it. Even then, I'm very selective in what I buy. If WotC vanished, I'd feel a bit bad, but I now have enough D&D stuff to run campaigns for a very, very long time.

Oh yes, Necromancer Games. I hope they stay around. They make quality stuff even if you're not into that "1st Edition Feel."

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I know some people may disagree, but i feel that wotcs last good book was tomb of battle. After it came out i got the feeling nothing could top that. their are not many wotc books I like but the ones I did like were pritty good.

 

[Mokona]

In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most of the best sellers WotC has are books that most of the content is player useful.

Of course. Only the core rules sell better than Sword & Fist, Complete Warrior, etc.

 

[Rydac]

They are definitely very relevant to my gaming group.
None of us zombie like pick up every thing they put out
but between us a fair number of products are purchased and enjoyed

 

[Korgoth]

I'm not really sure what I think about WOTC staying in business. They're not relevant to my gaming... but are they indirectly relevant insofar as I should want them to stay in business "for the health of the hobby"? I don't know.

It seems to me that they've changed the fundamentals of D&D so much that it isn't even D&D to me anymore. It has the same name, but it's a different game. It's as if you purchased a new copy of the boardgame Risk and found out that it's about moving around the world setting up big-box retail outlets, or bought a new set of Monopoly and found out that it's about going around setting up soup kitchens for the homeless (not that this is a bad idea or anything). The games would have the same name but they'd be very different. Maybe some of the mechanics would be the same, but the whole thrust might seem so different that you wouldn't get the experience you were looking for.

So given that I think "WOTC D&D" isn't the same as "my D&D" in tone or feel or even objectives, should I really care if that continues or passes away? I don't want the people who work at WOTC to be out of jobs and not able to feed their families, obviously. But as a D&D player, am I helped in any way by WOTC's continued existence, promotion of what they refer to as D&D, etc.? I'm not sure. Clearly if I were still playing 3E I would feel that they were relevant in that way, but as I'm not still playing it the issue is more murky. Possibly I'm making too much of the differences? Alternatively, possibly WOTC's continued existence actually hinders the gaming I'm into insofar as WOTC is seen to define the tone of the hobby itself?

 

[Wormwood]

Last week I would have said "not relevant" because my gaming group broke up and I hadn't picked up a die in a very long time. So no gaming companies were relevant at all.

But I just found out that the group is reuniting and we are kicking off a Red Hand of Doom campaign in two weeks!

So I pulled my books out of the closet and returned to ENWorld and Wizards.com to see what I'd been missing.

When I saw the exciting direction the Design team was taking the game (experimenting with new mechanics, opening up options, downplaying rules artifacts that don't encourage fun) I was happy to burn a small hole in my credit card.

WotC is more relevant to my interests than it has been in years.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Sure WotC is still relevant to me. I buy their books and their minis. I don't but their 3.x adventures though. I was always a Dungeon Magazine fan when it came to 3.x material.

I will continue to buy their 3.x books that appeal to me and their minis.

I am not interested in DI and won't subscribe to that, mainly because the cancellation of Dragon and especially Dungeon Mag antagonized the hell out of me. I'll buy Pathfinder though, as I deem Paizo to be the benefactor of my goodwill and affection for the brand, not WotC.

I'm not interested in any 4th edition right now. I have far too many 3.x books (70 or so at last count) that I've barely used. 95% of those are WotC books (or licensed in the case of DragonLance or Dragon) so it's not as if they don't get my money.

I think the most important factor in my not caring about 4th ed right now is that .3.5 is still fun and "new" to me and I enjoy it a lot. At some point, that will wear off. But I'm not there yet and don't see that happening for several years.

Were 4th ed to be released right now, the most convincing argument to "upgrade" that WotC ever had with me - support in Dungeon and Dragon would be switching to 4th ed - is now gone from the equation. I have strong doubts that the decision to cancel the print magazines was ever evaluated in terms of the the long term effect that decision would have on encouraging "upgrading" to 4th ed among their core customers.

 

[barsoomcore]

Not particularly relevant. Of course they are hugely relevant to the industry, but I'm not playing or running any games that they support, and I think the last product of theirs I purchased was the Castle Ravenloft hardcover, which was a gift for my nephew.

The only three publishers in the industry that currently have much relevance to me are:

Paizo: because they rock out so incredibly much. Dungeon was a great magazine, and I'm very excited about Pathfinder.

Privateer Press: because their stuff is so very very very very beautiful.

Green Ronin: True20 luv.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Aside from a few miniatures, I can't even recall the last WoTC book I purchased. Really, I stopped caring about their crunch-heavy books a LONG time ago.

These days, I mostly track new releases from Necromancer games, and that's about all I care about anymore.

WoTC could just about go out of business and I think I'd hardly miss them at all.


Anyone else in the same boat?

No, no they are not relevant to me anymore. If they went out of business I wouldn't miss them as well.