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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 6313510" data-attributes="member: 11365">It was the sweet spot for me as well, but it was also a time without kids and when I could go to more than 9 conventions a year, play a home game twice a week minimum, play in regions around the world, etc. And, even then, I could see how hard the system was on casual and new players. No system is perfect and the trade-offs have to be guessed at based on overall program goals... but you never guess them exactly right. Thanks for the kind words on AoA. It had serious limits, but I'm happy with how the trade-offs played out over time. At out last convention event we asked players how many had played through every chapter and it was more than 50%. That was higher than we had dared hope, especially as a convention-only program. It was also a supplemental campaign - intended to be a smaller niche program that some players would enjoy. It couldn't have been a main program for Wizards and wasn't designed that way. There are some really tricky bits in OP campaign design. Core stuff, like the number of adventures a player can play in a year with one PC, have huge impacts on the campaign. I never envy the admins that have to make those decisions (which will always be heavily criticized no matter what they choose).I'm not sure that's the right framework for examining LA. The store is vital because it is a revenue source. Online play isn't, though it can indirectly create it. Bringing players into a store not only puts players near the material they can purchase, it creates a community with the store as a hub. It also advertises to people that walk in. And, as a sustained program (every Wednesday for Encounters) it creates something that people can easily join, even when they just walked in. I've done a lot of online play with LFR, but it was never those things in any way similar to a store. At a single store in Portland, OR we had more than 300 unique players in just the first two seasons of Encounters. Two seasons!!! We had players of all kinds and even those that left did so with a stronger link to the brand.So, while online play is great and like home play should be supported, it isn't the same thing as store play. Historically, convention play has also created tremendous excitement and community, which is why it should also see focus.</blockquote>

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