I do not want to look back at all the things I said at the coming of 3E and the OGL, I am sure it is recorded somewhere. 
Laffs: Mike Stackpole on 3E, ca 1999
- Thread starter hong
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Henry
Autoexreginated
There are several things that neither Mr. Stackpole nor anyone else could have known, that Peter and Ryan DID know:
-The so-called "Skaff effect", Skaff Elias' theory that Evergreen products (the core books) sell the best of any product, and that there should be a system that drives it. The Skaff Effect, and the theory of Network Externalities, is what the OGL and d20 STL was based on, according to Ryan Dancey.
-The playtesting. The 1000+ playtesters that WotC relied upon for 3E helped the design process like nothing before it. I'm not sure a major RPG company had ever TRIED playtesting on that scale before 1998-1999. It kept insular design theorists from holding complete sway over the design process. Anyone remember the "playtest notes" from 2000 about everything from Magic Missile to Paladins?
-The customer surveys. Those documents told more about the habits of average players than any previous surveys - the funny thing is, there really were very few initiatives in the RPG industry before that one simple survey that told a company where more buyers were. They found out that there were 2.5 million people who played at least once a month, how they played, that when they left D&D they usually left RPG's althogether, that the majority of players were brought in by word of mouth, and many things we now understand but just 5 years ago took our answers for granted, and had incorrectly.
-The so-called "Skaff effect", Skaff Elias' theory that Evergreen products (the core books) sell the best of any product, and that there should be a system that drives it. The Skaff Effect, and the theory of Network Externalities, is what the OGL and d20 STL was based on, according to Ryan Dancey.
-The playtesting. The 1000+ playtesters that WotC relied upon for 3E helped the design process like nothing before it. I'm not sure a major RPG company had ever TRIED playtesting on that scale before 1998-1999. It kept insular design theorists from holding complete sway over the design process. Anyone remember the "playtest notes" from 2000 about everything from Magic Missile to Paladins?
-The customer surveys. Those documents told more about the habits of average players than any previous surveys - the funny thing is, there really were very few initiatives in the RPG industry before that one simple survey that told a company where more buyers were. They found out that there were 2.5 million people who played at least once a month, how they played, that when they left D&D they usually left RPG's althogether, that the majority of players were brought in by word of mouth, and many things we now understand but just 5 years ago took our answers for granted, and had incorrectly.
Henry
Autoexreginated
rounser said:
http://www.bastionpress.com/column.htm
The "Skaff Effect" (I love that name) seems to be bearing fruit in terms of sales numbers, and to use an old adage, "nothing succeeds like success."
Capellan
Explorer
Even more ironic than this article's championing of now-dead companies, at least for me, is the reasons they are championed: FASA's refusal to let the Battletech universe sit still for 10 minutes was what eventually caused me to stop playing the game.
But yeah, in 1999 I was pretty sure 3e was going to be a godwaful mess, too, so while I can laugh at this, it's a laugh of relief way, rather than vindication
But yeah, in 1999 I was pretty sure 3e was going to be a godwaful mess, too, so while I can laugh at this, it's a laugh of relief way, rather than vindication
Sir Whiskers
First Post
Capellan said:But yeah, in 1999 I was pretty sure 3e was going to be a godwaful mess, too, so while I can laugh at this, it's a laugh of relief way, rather than vindication
Yeah, even though his predictions were pretty off-target, I give him credit for being willing to go on record with them. He just wrote what many in the community were saying at the time. Glad to see he was (mostly) wrong.
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