My thoughts on WOTC saying "we'll give you a leat a years notice" saying at GenCon.

[caudor]

The folks at WotC are smart people. I believe the reason this comment was made in the first place is that they perceive that buyers are not ready for 4e just yet, even though they need to plan a new edition years ahead of time. It is obvious to me that they understand this and want to smooth out concerns.

In the meantime, they have a lot of cool products coming down the pipeline for early 2006. I think we have at least two years before the market will be prepared to accept a new edition. When the time does come, Wotc will be ready.

 

[JustKim]

Hey another 4E thread. This was unexpected.

 

[Zenodotus of Ephesus]

Hey another 4E thread. This was unexpected.

I'd better alert all the newshounds to this breaking development...

 

[DaveMage]

I'd better alert all the newshounds to this breaking development...

LOL!

 

[shaylon]

Nice that they will at least give notice I guess.

I wouldn't put too much stock in this statement, personally.

-Shay

 

[Masquerade]

If you turn to page 8 in the 3.5 PHB, every 4th letter spells "new edition". 2008 will be the year of 4e.

 

[William Ronald]

The folks at WotC are smart people. I believe the reason this comment was made in the first place is that they perceive that buyers are not ready for 4e just yet, even though they need to plan a new edition years ahead of time. It is obvious to me that they understand this and want to smooth out concerns.

In the meantime, they have a lot of cool products coming down the pipeline for early 2006. I think we have at least two years before the market will be prepared to accept a new edition. When the time does come, Wotc will be ready.

I think that this is a very sound analysis, as WotC does seem to monitor the habits and moods of its customers far more than TSR did. I think that there is a great sense, on these boards, that most of the buyers are not ready for a new edition.

I could see an announcement a few years down the road. In the meantime, I hope for many great products. Also, I think that the developers at WotC might be interested in learning more about the likes, dislikes, and interests of its customers. So, perhaps before work begins on a new edition, WotC may try to gain a clearer understanding of its customers, the D20 market, and what rules or options most people want. (There are many good rules sets out there, so perhaps a future edition might draw on some of the best elements of the current D20 market.)

 

[rounser]

then it takes anywhere from six months to a year to develop and do initial playtests

I think you're assuming that 4E will have anywhere the amount of resources that were spent on the design of 3E. I think there's a lot of reason to believe that the time and money spent on 3E were a once-off that won't be repeated.

 

[Maggan]

What WotC said

This is what WotC said when 3.5 was announced.

Q: I'm nervous about the label "3.5." It implies that this upgrade will move us halfway toward a completely new version 4.0. Why was this number chosen, as opposed to 3.01 or 3.1?

A [by Ed Stark]: We actually talked about this quite a bit. We feel the changes we're making to the D&D RPG are important enough to warrant the "3.5" label, but not nearly significant enough to be a 4th edition. We also want to send the message that this is an upgrade, not a new edition. Whether we're "halfway" to a new edition, I couldn't say. I will say that I would have a hard time backing any upgrade beyond this that wasn't a new edition. A "3.1" label might imply there could be a bunch more upgrades before 4.0, and we don't want to imply that at all.

Granted, this was, like, years and years ago, so things might have changed since then. But my reading is that WotC has said that they most probably won't make any more incremental updates to the core rules.

/M

 

[Imruphel]

As soon as you see a fully-functional, useful, useable, customisable etc... PC-based character generator with WotC's imprimatur then you know that 4th edition is on the way.

Core Rules marked the end of 2E; its equivalent will be 3.xE's tombstone.