"Lorraine Williams Scenario" Forked Thread: from Death of the LGS

[Corjay]

You can see the rebranding, right? "It's not about gnomes dressed like medieval peasants and their stupid familiars, it's about badazz goth devil chicks in hurtmewear shooting death rays at people." Tieflings, dragonborn, feywild, shadowfell, GSL clauses, etc.: it all has to do with forging a unique brand identity. That's my guess, anyway.

Yeah, I can see it, and I say that's a purely good thing. Women feel empowered with such imagery, which is why this edition is going to attract more women. It says "look, we like it when women kick butt." I for one would prefer to sit at a table diverse with men and women instead of at a table with a bunch of over weight smelly guys playing in one of their mothers' basements.

And yes, it is brand identity. When you look around at all the D&D clones out there, you can see that it's time for D&D to break away from the pack in order to succeed.

Design decisions driven by business decisions, rather than the other way around. That's the "Lorraine Williams Scenario". That's all I'm saying.

With one vital difference: Lorraine Williams was an idiot. She didn't know her friends from her enemies and she pushed her own familial ties on TSR (such as her connection to the Buck Rogers franchise). For those who don't know, that's a no-no in the business world that is sure to sink any company.

 

[Shadeydm]

Yeah, I can see it, and I say that's a purely good thing. Women feel empowered with such imagery, which is why this edition is going to attract more women. It says "look, we like it when women kick butt."

Badass goth devilchicks in hurtmewear is empowering to women...
ORLY?

 

[Corjay]

I'll leave the affirmations to the women, but yes, my experience is that women love roleplaying dominatrices since they don't get to do it in real life. Have I ever roleplayed with a woman? Nothing more than bedroom stuff. But between the bedroom stuff and having most of my friends be women over the years and most of them having dominatrix fantasies, along with the success of dominatrix-type women in movies among women, I think I can speak with enough confidence to firmly believe my earlier statement.

 

[Scribble]

As for the original post:

D&D is always in the hands of gamers. Just because the gamers currently don't share your view of what D&D should be, doesn't mean that it's now a bad model in the hands of non gamers. A product is designed to be attractive to its audience. The audience is slightly different now then it was before.

4e is finally catching up to the current "gamer" market.

As for the rebranding comments... I almost fully agree. I'm not going to tocuh the whole dominatrix thing, but yeah there's a definite push to make the D&D "brand" have meaning. (But branding is currently a hot topic in the business world in general.)

Is it a coincidence that we suddenly started seeing posts by the "D&D senior brand manager?"

They're pushing to get people to associate the name D&D with gaming. When someone says "Just do it" you know isnatntly what that means. They want the same with D&D. Or "let's play a roleplaying game" to isnatntly mean D&D.

hence the No redefine clause, and the fact that the SRD is more about "image" then rules. They want less remaking the D&D rules into new games (which dillute the image of D&D) and more promoting D&D.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I love it when D&D players define things as 'goth'. It´s so cute and superficial, especially when used synonymnous to 'adolescent' and 'aimed at those with less refined tastes than me.'
Of course, if we could now and then use other subcultures to label something as juvenile, Goths would be much more happy. Anyone feeling like using 'emo' as a dergorative in this thread? Anyone?

 

[Shroomy]

I love it when D&D players define things as 'goth'. It´s so cute and superficial, especially when used synonymnous to 'adolescent' and 'aimed at those with less refined tastes than me.'
Of course, if we could now and then use other subcultures to label something as juvenile, Goths would be much more happy. Anyone feeling like using 'emo' as a dergorative in this thread? Anyone?

I find your complaint soooooo emo.

 

[Maggan]

Is it a coincidence that we suddenly started seeing posts by the "D&D senior brand manager?"

Charles Ryan was brand manager for 3e, and he posted a lot here. So the appearence of the new D&D brand manager (Scott Rouse) wasn't really that surprising, or something I'd describe as "suddenly".

/M

 

[Scribble]

Charles Ryan was brand manager for 3e, and he posted a lot here. So the appearence of the new D&D brand manager (Scott Rouse) wasn't really that surprising, or something I'd describe as "suddenly".

/M

His title was Brand manager?

Hrmm I didn't think it was that...

Well nevermind then... I guess it's just that I first noticed the title.