Is WoTC even relevant to you anymore?

[The_Universe]

I'm still digging WotC. D&D is practically inescapable for good reason - it's a pretty good game!

 

[KB9JMQ]

I still look to them for the bulk of my gaming needs.

 

[thalmin]

WotC provides the majority of my gaming books and supplements. That includes recent purchases.

 

[Treebore]

I think it's interesting that most of the people on this thread who profess to find WotC irrelevant still have lists of products they bought recently or might buy in the future. They must be doing something right.

For me, WoTC is relevant, though I don't see myself buying many more D&D 3.5 source books. I'm always in the market for miniatures and adventures, and I'm interested in the upcoming SWSE releases.

I'll likely jump on 4e when that comes out, too.

Tghats because WOTC used to be relevent to me, and I bought everything. I haven't bought anything, unless its been a good deal on eBay, since DMG 2. I bought that because my LGS had it half off.

So now that I am down to maybe buying modules (Only 4 so far, Red Hand and Ravenloft being the two I like most) and two sets of each tile, yeah, WOTC is not relevent to me anymore, because I could quit buying the Tiles and the Modules, and not miss them.

Once upon a time the story was completely the opposite.

They need to take serious notes from Green Ronin, Goodman Games, Expeditious Retreat, Troll Lord Games, etc... on customer service and customer satisfaction, which equals customer respect. If small companies can do it, big companies sure can. They just don't because it doesn't "pay" enough to do so.

Considering how many people I see willing to be treated like they are nothing because "companies need to make money" makes me very sad. Money counts more than people, even to the people themselves. Plus they don't see how wrong that is. Very sad indeed.

I'll keep standing up for my self worth.

 

[Mythmere1]

Sure, The shape of their upcoming rules crunch really aligns with my gaming direction at the moment.

The network effect of playing in the mainstream I find is better than the muttering in the dark I find when outside the main sequence.

Dang, that's well said! As a 1e player, I'm the mutterer in the dark. It totally sounds like something out of HP Lovecraft.

*Mwa glurb glurb, attacks of opportunity glurb smack glurb silly skill system glurb prestige classes glorp glurb...*

 

[Treebore]

Dang, that's well said! As a 1e player, I'm the mutterer in the dark. It totally sounds like something out of HP Lovecraft.

*Mwa glurb glurb, attacks of opportunity glurb smack glurb silly skill system glurb prestige classes glorp glurb...*

 

[Terraism]

I think it's interesting that most of the people on this thread who profess to find WotC irrelevant still have lists of products they bought recently or might buy in the future. They must be doing something right.

I know in my case, I could phrase it - better, I suspect - as "they are no longer more relevant than several other publishers." In the past, they were - with Malhavoc running really close behind, but I still looked first to the WotC stuff. Like DK, however, I've found that the style is slowly moving away from that which I prefer. No hard feelings, just a difference in tastes.

But you'll always be welcome at my table. You just can't play a Warlock.

Well, no hard feelings except about this, anyway. I can't express my hatred of the Warlock enough - really, can't express it. I don't even know why, other than that it just really rubs me the wrong way. Grr. Warlock bad; crush crush squish.

 

[Remathilis]

Until Green Ronin and Keith Baker start publishing Eberron, WotC is still relevant to me.

 

[ivocaliban]

Yes. I don't quite believe that relevance is entirely dependent on a company's next six months' release catalog. While it's true that I feel I pretty much have all I want (and way more than I need) from WotC, that doesn't make them immaterial. Like it or not, WotC launched the d20 ship and, while one can scream "OGL!" from the rooftops if one likes, I seriously doubt they're going to simply fade away into the darkness.

That said it would be foolish to deny that there is a change taking place at WotC. All things move in cycles and like previous editions of D&D there are tell-tale signs that this one is in it's autumn years. Products such as the Rules Compendium certainly evoke the feeling of having come full circle. (Although to be fair we still don't know exactly what that book will contain.)

I've been turning to third-party products more as of late, but it's because I already have more than enough from WotC. I'm actually glad there are few WotC products I'm interested in because it allows me to channel my meager funds to those third-party products i've neglected for years. Necromancer Games, Fantasy Flight Games, Green Ronin, Mongoose Publishing and several others all have great products that I can now focus my attention on.

This doesn't make WotC irrelevant, it simply moves them to the back burner to simmer for a while. At the moment, I'd say they're less important to me than they were a year ago, but who can say what will be this time next year? I'll admit I haven't been happy with the direction of WotC in the past few years (the pulpy gumbo of Eberron, stronger emphasis on miniatures, the axeing of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, etc.), but they're still quite influential.

 

[Waldorf]

Once they finish up 3.5, I plan to stop buying books altogether.

I might just pick up some minis from time to time, but that's about it, really.




Unless of course they release a campaign setting book for Greyhawk.