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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7951201" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Good analysis.</p><p></p><p>There's another factor to consider as well.</p><p></p><p>When 3e came out WotC was still its own company, being run in significant part by gamers for gamers, but with more business sense than TSR ever had.</p><p></p><p>By the time 4e came out Hasbro was in charge, and looking for a cash cow. 3e wasn't failing to attract new customers - the popularity and staying power of Pathfinder tells us that - it just wasn't attracting them fast enough to suit the suits. </p><p></p><p>For many well-documented reasons 4e had an initial spurt after which it kinda crashed and burned, and so along came 5e - and here Hasbro/WotC a) did some things right (massive playtest, big-tent approach) and b) got rather lucky in hitting the zeitgeist of the time, resulting in the D&D boom we're still in right now.</p><p></p><p>And a relevant side note: one of the problems with promoting short campaigns at the system level is that once that campaign is done some groups will move on to other things - including other games or systems. 3e's problem wasn't in attracting new customers, it was in holding on to them for the long term. PF's approach with longer APs and story-based content helped it greatly in this regard, a fact not lost on WotC who have gone a similar route with (most of) the 5e adventure books they've done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7951201, member: 29398"] Good analysis. There's another factor to consider as well. When 3e came out WotC was still its own company, being run in significant part by gamers for gamers, but with more business sense than TSR ever had. By the time 4e came out Hasbro was in charge, and looking for a cash cow. 3e wasn't failing to attract new customers - the popularity and staying power of Pathfinder tells us that - it just wasn't attracting them fast enough to suit the suits. For many well-documented reasons 4e had an initial spurt after which it kinda crashed and burned, and so along came 5e - and here Hasbro/WotC a) did some things right (massive playtest, big-tent approach) and b) got rather lucky in hitting the zeitgeist of the time, resulting in the D&D boom we're still in right now. And a relevant side note: one of the problems with promoting short campaigns at the system level is that once that campaign is done some groups will move on to other things - including other games or systems. 3e's problem wasn't in attracting new customers, it was in holding on to them for the long term. PF's approach with longer APs and story-based content helped it greatly in this regard, a fact not lost on WotC who have gone a similar route with (most of) the 5e adventure books they've done. [/QUOTE]
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