D&D 5E New D&D Player Survey!

[Parmandur]

4e FR does have its fans, but it certainly wasn't popular compared to the 1e–3.5e version of FR. But that gets to the difficulty with your ice cream analogy. WotC went about building 5e very deliberately in response to what they believed D&D fans (including the ones they had lost as active players thanks to 4e) wanted. And that includes selecting FR as the default setting: even after the debacle* of 4e, their market research indicated that FR was still their most popular setting by a wide margin, especially the pre-4e version of FR.

So a better analogy would be that the ice cream parlor used to offer a dozen flavors but has decided for economic reasons that they can now only afford to offer one. So they switch to vanilla-only because far more customers prefer vanilla than any other single flavor, but then some ice cream preachers start ranting on their doorstep about how delicious ice cream is and live-streaming themselves licking various weird-looking scoops and the parlor starts to sell a ton of vanilla, more than they ever dreamed possible, and then a gazillion more people show up demanding raw ice cream ingredients to cook up their own bizarre flavors, and suddenly the parlor is obscenely rich and can offer all their old flavors and then some, and everybody's happy except the people who hate the old flavors, and also the vanilla fetishists who are pissed off the parlor only has ten open tubs of vanilla rather than a hundred tubs like they used to in the good old days.

*(in terms of sales, not necessarily in terms of quality of game design; I'm talking about why WotC did what they did, not edition-warring)

OK, I'm not sure if this is perfect of overstretching the analogy, but I love it.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Sooo.

A random internet survey that may very well due to its length turn away most of the players that might have otherwise been interested in taking it…

I have no idea what Wotc thinks could possibly be useful about that.

But that's great for us hardcore fans! The length will deter the casual fans, meaning our opinions will carry more weight!

 

[FrogReaver]

But that's great for us hardcore fans! The length will deter the casual fans, meaning our opinions will carry more weight!

Wishful thinking! Hah!

 

[payn]

Wishful thinking! Hah!

Right, when its over you'll wish you just spent the time on it.

 

[beancounter]

I'm glad that they're asking the community questions, but it seems like they have already decided which direction to move in. (changing the game to appeal to a "younger" audience)

 

[payn]

I'm glad that they're asking the community questions, but it seems like they have already decided which direction to move in. (changing the game to appeal to a "younger" audience)

 

[MNblockhead]

Filled it out as well. Standard questions and responses, nothing new that hasn't really already been asked of me before in various surveys of the past.

I'm always curious when they get responses from people like me who started back in Original D&D, have played every edition, and are still currently playing 5E whether my indicators of what I've spent money on in the last year actually have some sort of meaning. Do adults who started D&D in more recent years buy different products then us long-timers who have been buying products all along? Probably doesn't mean much, but curious nonetheless.

As an old time that started in the 80s but stopped playing in the early 90s only to return with 5e, I would guess that my customer profile was quite different than yours. I had decades of catching up to do, more disposable income than in the past, and I spent A LOT of money on TTRPG stuff in my renewed enthusiasm for the hobby the first few years after 5e came out. Over the past couple of years I've cut back drastically on my spending on physical products with most of my spend on digital tool licenses and subscriptions and buying digital assets. But I think that is a trend that cuts accross demographics due to two years of COVID restrictions.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm glad that they're asking the community questions, but it seems like they have already decided which direction to move in. (changing the game to appeal to a "younger" audience)

I mean long term the people who are younger now will grow to be the older in 10 years... and some of us old timers will move on (or worse) from gaming... if they don't target youth they lose D&D forever.

 

[Azzy]

I'm glad that they're asking the community questions, but it seems like they have already decided which direction to move in. (changing the game to appeal to a "younger" audience)

You mean like the young audience that D&D has ALWAYS been marketed to?

 

[payn]

How does asking about box sets folks bought back in the 80's appeal to a younger audience? Birthright setting doesn't exactly scream baby zoomer.