Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 7666608" data-attributes="member: 59082">Perhaps some are forgetting that the main point behind Essentials--or at least the one Slaviscek advertised--was to create a simpler &quot;entry ramp&quot; into 4E, seemingly because of a perceived or actual difficultly for people taking to 4E. In other words, it would seem that 4E wasn't thriving the way they had hoped and they thought the reason was that there wasn't a simple enough way into the game. In many ways Essentials was an attempt to revivify the line,&nbsp; not quite a last gasp effort to save the edition, but not far from it. The fact that 5E was announced as a working project just 16 months after Essentials came out seems to imply that Essentials didn't save the edition.As for &quot;throwing in the towel&quot; on 4E, my guess is that it happened in stages - one of which was Essentials. Another one was the cancellation of the Nentir Vale Gazetteer which, if only symbolically, said &quot;We're shelving this product because no one needs the setting for 4E because we're moving on to something else.&quot; If I remember correctly, the 4E line as a whole tapered away after Essentials came out, with a sparser release schedule through 2011 and then the last few products in 2012. In other words, my guess is that they pushed out the remaining products in the pipeline in 2011-12, but that they were starting to move on a few months after Essentials was published (so sometime in early 2011). It seems crazy in hindsight, but 4E only had a life of 4 years. If we are generous we can start it with Keep on the Shadowfell in May of 2008 and end it with the setting-neutral Menzoberranzan in August of 2012, although the last true 4E product was really Halls of Undermountain in April, 2012.&nbsp; I really hope that 5E has a longer lifespan, although given the above it was probably about two and half years into the edition cycle (with Essentials) that there was any sign that 4E was gasping for breath, and even then only in hindsight. My point is that we probably won't really know how successful 5E is for another couple years yet.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mercurius, post: 7666608, member: 59082"] Perhaps some are forgetting that the main point behind Essentials--or at least the one Slaviscek advertised--was to create a simpler "entry ramp" into 4E, seemingly because of a perceived or actual difficultly for people taking to 4E. In other words, it would seem that 4E wasn't thriving the way they had hoped and they thought the reason was that there wasn't a simple enough way into the game. In many ways Essentials was an attempt to revivify the line, not quite a last gasp effort to save the edition, but not far from it. The fact that 5E was announced as a working project just 16 months after Essentials came out seems to imply that Essentials didn't save the edition. As for "throwing in the towel" on 4E, my guess is that it happened in stages - one of which was Essentials. Another one was the cancellation of the [I]Nentir Vale Gazetteer[/I] which, if only symbolically, said "We're shelving this product because no one needs the setting for 4E because we're moving on to something else." If I remember correctly, the 4E line as a whole tapered away after Essentials came out, with a sparser release schedule through 2011 and then the last few products in 2012. In other words, my guess is that they pushed out the remaining products in the pipeline in 2011-12, but that they were starting to move on a few months after Essentials was published (so sometime in early 2011). It seems crazy in hindsight, but 4E only had a life of 4 years. If we are generous we can start it with Keep on the Shadowfell in May of 2008 and end it with the setting-neutral Menzoberranzan in August of 2012, although the last true 4E product was really Halls of Undermountain in April, 2012. I really hope that 5E has a longer lifespan, although given the above it was probably about two and half years into the edition cycle (with Essentials) that there was any sign that 4E was gasping for breath, and even then only in hindsight. My point is that we probably won't really know how successful 5E is for another couple years yet. [/QUOTE]

Verification