non switchers: what can wotc do to win you back?

[Betote]

The PDF and OGL issues would help, but what would bring me "back" is a good adventure. Right now, Paizo produces the adventures I like to run, and they happen to use Pathfinder RPG, so that's the game I play.

I prefer the PFRPG rules to the 4E ones, but what sells me on one game or another is the quality of the adventures. That's why I favor Paizo and Chaosium

 

[wedgeski]

I *have* switched, so this thread isn't aimed at me, but I think it'll be very interesting nonetheless. Nice one OP.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I liked 3e/3.5e. I like many of the changes made to 4e, but I do not like it as a whole-- I feel it was a step backward from the innovations and flexibility they provided in 3e.

If they released a Fifth Edition that was more like 3e, with more flexibility in character creation and development, I would certainly be interested and would give it a thorough examination.

There's not a lot of room for new 3.5e material, but if they released it I would certainly purchase it. A Complete book for Tome of Battle, a Races book for orcs and goblinoids, a Races book for the psionic races, monster books for Fey, good Outsiders, and lawful/chaotic Outsiders (they can probably share), possibly the Lawful and Chaotic counterparts to Exalted Deeds/Vile Darkness, and so forth.

Otherwise... well, I switched before 4e came out, to HARP. D&D is not likely to ever become my primary game of choice again. But I could become interested in it as a secondary game again.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Nothing that I can think of.

It isn't that I'm angry with Wizards or am being vindictive, it is just that they are now producing a game that I do not find as enjoyable as 3.5/Pathfinder. I also am not a fan of subscription based services. I may still buy a pack of minis every year or so, but aside from that I do not see any of my money going to them.

This is going to be quoted a lot.

And hey, I'm doing it too!

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Nothing that I can think of.

It isn't that I'm angry with Wizards or am being vindictive, it is just that they are now producing a game that I do not find as enjoyable as 3.5/Pathfinder. I also am not a fan of subscription based services. I may still buy a pack of minis every year or so, but aside from that I do not see any of my money going to them.

This, mostly. I didn't know what the OP meant by non-switchers at first. I guess he meant to 4E, my first thought was people still playing 3E but not really looking to switch to PF, either, like me. I am, however, vindictive about the pdf thing, and will not be buying up any of the 3E books I had still meant to pick up because of it. "Speaking with my wallet" and all that. That combined with the fact I'm pretty happy with the 3.75E I've got means WotC is effectively dead to me. If when they release a 5E it's much closer to 3E/OGL than 4E/GSL and is an improvement on 3E, I might consider coming back. But I really doubt that's the direction they're going in anyway.

 

[freyar]

Based on the poll options, I don't know what you're asking. Win me back to buying anything? Or get me to switch to 4e?

 

[pawsplay]

To have me as a regular customer again, Wizards would have to do two things. First, they need to apologize for treating their customers like thieves. Short of a full apology, it would be nice if they restarted PDF sales, stopped trying to screw around with publishers trying to use material that WotC offered to let them use last time around, and loosened up the GSL. Second, they would need to offer something I wanted to buy. I don't like 4e, and I'm not going to, so their best bet there is hoping that in about 7-8 years I'll be interested in upgrading to fifth edition. Honestly, 4e rolling out when it did was so inconvenient I'm not sure I would warm up to a new 5th edition if it came out too soon. It would have to be the pinnacle of game design to pry me away from PF and older d20 games, to say nothing of GURPS, etc. I would be interested in buying some minis, if they started making something that didn't look like doodoo. I can not think of any reason why I need a My Little Ponicorn or a Weapon X Super Skrull Troll, and most of their PC minis have looked like something pooped plastic, and that's aside from the questionable utility of female dragonborn rogue minis (seriously? are we there already?).

I'm not ruling out the possibility of them winning me back in some fashion. Between 3.0 and 3.5 there was a change in art direction, and it's possible the 4e minis and such might start looking better to me. I wouldn't mind more 3.5 books, but first of all, there will not be any, and second of all, anything that looks like it's designed to directly compete with PF will not be getting my dollar. If WotC decided to publish a Pathfinder compatible monster manual full of non-OGL monsters, I'd probably buy that. Ha!

 

[The Ghost]

Nothing that I can think of.

It isn't that I'm angry with Wizards or am being vindictive, it is just that they are now producing a game that I do not find as enjoyable as 3.5/Pathfinder. I also am not a fan of subscription based services. I may still buy a pack of minis every year or so, but aside from that I do not see any of my money going to them.

Yeah, this.

Right now Paizo gives me everything I want from a fantasy style game. WotC doesn't.

 

[Ariosto]

I may not count as having been "won" in the first place, as I've purchased only the minimal "core" of Magic, 3e, 3.5e and 4e.

I rather like playing 3e, but it turned out to be too much work for my taste to DM. Also, rather than finding it "three great tastes in one", I found that it did not scratch the same itches as old D&D, RuneQuest and Hero System as well as those games themselves.

4e does nearly nothing for me. I found some interest at first, but the novelty quickly wore off.

The firm seems to have what it would take to produce physically attractive miniatures games, but design is another matter.

Basically, the D&D and WotC brands have ceased to be selling points at all to me. The product absolutely must sell itself on its own merits. I don't see the "heart" in what's coming out, the personal touch of designers passionate about their work.

Part of the problem may lie in the focus on pure fantasy. There are not even the most basic benchmarks of "getting it right" that confront the designer of a historical (or even slightly hard SF) game. It's easy to slap together any old thing by committee and call it "fantasy". Unfortunately, what fantasy lacks is best made up for with the power of a personal vision.

 

[Umbran]

Folks,

Please keep this clean, and with a reasonable level of decorum, please.