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

[Mark Hope]

My copy of the Pathfinder core rules arrived yesterday, so I was going to vote "Nothing". WotC are eclipsed by its sheer immensity.

That said, I like to think of myself as open-minded, so I ended up voting otherwise (pdfs, ogl and an apology, lol). But really, it's nothing. I've moved on to other pastures now.

 

[morgul97]

So, based on the poll results, the one thing that is most likely to get people to play 4e is if you offer them the ability to purchase a $25 PDF vs. paying $25 for an actual book? That's it? That's the primary beef? Given that a) PDFs kind of suck, and b) this issue didn't come up at all until almost a year after 4e came out, this seems like a really lame rational. If you don't like the system that's fine, but this is a really bad excuse for not playing it.

 

[adwyn]

What products could they offer that I want? I have no interest in buying any more 4th ed material having decided to stick with 3.5/Pathfinder and have all the 3.5 books I need.

Perhaps if the DDI included a 3.5 character generator I would embrace it but that is about all I can think of.

 

[Perram]

So, based on the poll results, the one thing that is most likely to get people to play 4e is if you offer them the ability to purchase a $25 PDF vs. paying $25 for an actual book? That's it? That's the primary beef? Given that a) PDFs kind of suck, and b) this issue didn't come up at all until almost a year after 4e came out, this seems like a really lame rational. If you don't like the system that's fine, but this is a really bad excuse for not playing it.

When a company does enough things that I don't approve of, I 'vote with my wallet' so to speak. When EA released the draconian Spore DRM, I boycotted EA. When NBC pulled their shows from iTunes, I stopped watching NBC television. When Games Workshop stopped letting other retailers realistically sell their product online, I stopped buying their product.

Trust in the company and their policies is important if you want to support something not only for the product that is available, but the product that will become available.

 

[celloshane]

I like a lot of the individual parts of 4e, but as a whole the game just isn't working for me. I voted for variant rules/unearthed arcana, but a 5th ed that revisits the well of 3e would work just as well for me. I've been trying to houserule what I don't like in 4e, but some of it's so ingrained I don't know what do and I just don't have time to playtest all my houserules anyway. A few examples:

I like the Will/Enc/Daily system, but I wish each power source had seperate progression charts of how many they get at each level.
I like the addition of Unaligned, but I miss spells like Protection from Evil.
I like the overall mechanics of the game, but it's too focused on heroic fantasy of a power level to high for my typical campaigns.

Doubletake: is that the Theroc that I know?

 

[kitsune9]

Me, I would like resumption of pdf sales for older material. I never was one who would boycott WotC for the sake of them doing things that I didn't like. If they put out products that I didn't like, I just didn't buy them, no complaints from me. If they took away the older pdfs, well, I guess I can go buy some more rpgs. But I'm cool with that. I always keep my eye on WotC, because who knows, maybe they will put out something in the future that I will got to get.

Happy Gaming!

 

[francisca]

Since Unearthed Arcana for 3.5 came out, the only thing I've bought from them are a couple of 1e/OD&D PDFs, and a couple of the Dungeon Tile sets. To be honest, we don't use minis much anymore, and I either got all the PDFs of old stuff I wanted way before they pulled the plug, or have I physical copies of what I want.

Most of my game spending in the last 5 years has followed the trend shown in the link Misty provided: I've been spending way more on boardgames and miniature games than RPGs, although some of that is out of print stuff. Over the past 5 years, the RPG stuff I have bought has almost exclusively been OSRIC modules and the Goodman 1e stuff, on the order of 4 to 6 titles per year.

So in my case, there is nothing to win back. I'm simply not part of their target audience anymore (and I'm beginning to think I haven't been since the 3e core books came out.)

:shrug:

 

[pawsplay]

So, based on the poll results, the one thing that is most likely to get people to play 4e is if you offer them the ability to purchase a $25 PDF vs. paying $25 for an actual book? That's it? That's the primary beef? Given that a) PDFs kind of suck, and b) this issue didn't come up at all until almost a year after 4e came out, this seems like a really lame rational. If you don't like the system that's fine, but this is a really bad excuse for not playing it.

Actually, in my case, it's more like, "Well, I'm glad I bought a bunch of old PDFs just in time, otherwise I would now be reduced to the indignity of pirating OOP PDFs." I am an honest paying customer, and yet WotC would rather turn blue than take my money. Even if I were a 4e fan, I would probably be limiting my purchases with Wizards until such time as they changed their policy. It is a real slap in the face to fans and collectors.

 

[Imban]

I put down two things:

Release fifth edition, because almost every series eventually ends up with one lousy game, and it's no reason to pronounce damnatio memoriae on the series. Just don't play the game you hate. (See: Final Fantasy 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 4, probably many others that don't leap to mind instantly)

Bring back PDFs. I play online only, so having physical copies of all my material is a pain, as is scanning it in manually.

I thought about but did not put down bringing back the OGL, because a lot of the same types of 3rd-party products which I liked under the OGL are available under the new GSL. I am still slightly uncomfortable about the provisions in the GSL which are going to make a lot of those products much harder to acquire if I'd want to continue playing 4e beyond its designated end date, but it's not an absolute deal-breaker. On the other hand, no third-party support for a future edition would make me very unlikely to buy in.

(And before you point out that no other company does that, Exalted 2e is basically in every way a worse game for not having more Charms because WW won't publish crunch-only books and so Charmsets very rarely, if ever, get expanded upon. The lack of "third-party support" there actually does bother me a lot.)

 

[Theroc]

Doubletake: is that the Theroc that I know?

I don't know. This is the first time I've used Theroc as a screenname. So, if you know a Theroc exclusively from the web, probably not.