My Experience of 4e Marketing Failing

[JoeGKushner]

So I'm in Borders reading some Ultimate Spider Man.

Some teens are being lead by one of the clerks to the miniatures, which is also where the basic boxed set is.

The clerk is telling the kid that this is what he needs to start playing 4th edition.

Epic fail man. Epic fail.

I tried to straighten the teens out but they were a little confused as to what they would need. They thought that they needed a boxed set because of the tiles and miniatures that came with it.

I'm not saying this happens everywhere. I'm not saying it's common. But WoTC is relying more and more on chain stores to move product and not recalling their old boxed sets and having non-informed employees accidentally misdirecting the "new wave" of people is never a good thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Putting out the starter boxed set months after the hype about the new edition, with existing 3E boxes still out there, probably SEEMED like a good idea, I guess, but I can't imagine how.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I've not played or read the current basic game but I can't imagine it wouldn't serve as a good intro to 4e. Both 4e and the basic game are simplified versions of 3e, right? Different races and classes? So what. We did fine going from BD&D, where elf was a class, to 1e.

And epic fail? Don't be ridiculous. Epic fail is setting off a nuclear bomb by accident. He's a clerk in Borders, he's not paid enough to be right about anything, ever.

 

[Voadam]

I've not played or read the current basic game but I can't imagine it wouldn't serve as a good intro to 4e. Both 4e and the basic game are simplified versions of 3e, right? Different races and classes? So what. We did fine going from BD&D, where elf was a class, to 1e.

Heh.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've not played or read the current basic game but I can't imagine it wouldn't serve as a good intro to 4e. Both 4e and the basic game are simplified versions of 3e, right? Different races and classes? So what. We did fine going from BD&D, where elf was a class, to 1e.

And epic fail? Don't be ridiculous. Epic fail is setting off a nuclear bomb by accident. He's a clerk in Borders, he's not paid enough to be right about anything, ever.

Can you point me out any printed marketing material that I could leave at said Borders in the future that clearly explains what a new group would need to enjoy the game?

 

[Delta]

I've not played or read the current basic game but I can't imagine it wouldn't serve as a good intro to 4e. Both 4e and the basic game are simplified versions of 3e, right? Different races and classes? So what. We did fine going from BD&D, where elf was a class, to 1e.

I think that the differences between 3E and 4E are some orders of magnitude greater than elves having forced Ftr/Wiz multiclassing in 1980 Basic D&D.

 

[Felix]

And epic fail? Don't be ridiculous. Epic fail is setting off a nuclear bomb by accident. He's a clerk in Borders, he's not paid enough to be right about anything, ever.

Epic Fail by WotC marketing, I think; not by the Borders clerk.

 

[IanB]

Epic Fail

Forget about D&D turning into WoW, ENWorld is turning into the WoW boards.

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

And epic fail? Don't be ridiculous. Epic fail is setting off a nuclear bomb by accident. He's a clerk in Borders, he's not paid enough to be right about anything, ever.

It certainly is a huge failure if WotC is relying on chain stores to move its product and the employees in said stores have no clue what they are selling. I don't care if the clerk is only making seven bucks an hour, they should have some idea of what they are talking about. Heck, even some employees in dedicated gaming stores are clueless at times. I've seen situations similar to this in my area. Is this happening because WotC failed? Definitely.

WotC doesn't want stores selling a boxed set from their previous edition of D&D instead of the brand-spanking-new 4e PHB. The certainly don't want clueless clerks trying to pass off 3.x D&D products as the new edition. By definition, that is a failure. Epic might be too strong a word but huge would seem to fit nicely.

 

[Mercurius]

And epic fail? Don't be ridiculous. Epic fail is setting off a nuclear bomb by accident. He's a clerk in Borders, he's not paid enough to be right about anything, ever.

Exactly. Not only is the clerk not paid enough, it is a generalist position and can't be expected to know a lot of about everything (maybe a little about everything and a lot about something).