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

[Keith Robinson]

I chose nothing... and something Here's why:

nothing can bring you back at this point...
I enjoy the 3.5 ruleset and I own a lot of material for it, so I can't see myself switching to a new version any time soon, other than Pathfinder, and maybe never. I thought the 4ed rules were ok, but nothing more than that and certainly not enough to want me to play it other than occasioanlly at Cons and Game Days. I was also unhappy with the way WotC went about their business, trashing the skirmish game, releasing substandard minis, dumping the ogl, and telling us all how bad the 3.5 rules were, and this has had an impact on my relationship with them as a customer. As others have said, I'm not angry with them, but neither do I feel I am part of their target audience anymore and neither do I want to be - which I guess makes it a mutual break up!

release 5e (assuming you like the changes)...
I would certainly take a look at 5ed and if it was absolutely fantastic then I might well consider switching to it, but it would have to be good. Bottom line is, though, that I play the game to have fun, so if it offered me and my players more fun than we presently have, then we just might switch. I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

other (explain)...
Two 'others' to add:

1) Dungeon and Dragon Mags: if Dungeon and Dragon magazines returned in print format, in conjunction with a good 5ed set of rules, it would lend quite a lot of weight to a decision to switch (to 5ed) and I'd probably be very tempted.

2) A new company purchases the D&D brand and introduces a new edition: removing wotc from the equation would help make my decision easier. As unlikely as I know that is, I would like to think that a new company would breath fresh life into D&D much in the same way as WotC brought a fresh life to D&D with the release of 3ed. The present regime seem to have built up a lot of ill will amongst a significant section of their 3ed customer base, and I think that for many people there is no going back while they control the future of the D&D brand.

 

[Drkfathr1]

Giving Paizo the rights to Pathfinder-ize the rest of 3E that's not OGL.

Oh wait, that'd just increase what I buy from Paizo...

Guess I'd buy something other than minis if they did their own books in support of Pathfinder.

 

[TessarrianDM]

Purchasing any new edition is out. We no longer use miniatures, so figures are out. There is one thing they could offer (or anyone could offer, for that matter) that I would buy instantly: a fully- and easily-customizable, standalone (non-internet based, and I fully own all content that I create) replacement for the DMGenie program for 3.5 (which I love, but is no longer supported), that includes all material from all of the 3.5 edition books that they put out. Couple that with an easy-to-use mapping program similar to MapTool but with tokens for all of the monsters in all of the books and such regularly-used items as furniture, trees, and bushes so that I spend less time building the program and more time creating adventures.

If they did this, I would even go back to buying novels from them.

 

[Treebore]

I only play 4E on game days, so all I even need is the PH, so that is all I own. To bring me back as a HUGE fan like I used to be for 3E they would have to do a 5E, and do a system that is truly simple and preferably makes it easy to be compatible with all editions of D&D.

So they would have to do something similar to Castles and Crusades to get me back. Which I doubt will ever happen. Fortunately with TLG, Paizo, XRP, the OSRIC movement, and Goodman Games I have plenty of support for the D&D gaming I do.

Like /Mark says, I do still buy the tiles and some miniatures, so WOTC still gets some of my money, and bringing back the old school PDF's would get them even more, but they have lost me as a customer who buys every book and adventure. Plus I don't subscribe to DDI.

 

[Melan]

Nothing. I enjoy what I am playing now, and that is that.

 

[Mistwell]

In my opinion, WOTC could gain a LOT in new sales if they did the following:

1) Offer the DDI character generator, compendium, and monster maker (and future tools) for all WOTC 3.5 books (so it would not ever need an update once they do the data entry) as its own data set;

2) License the chracter generator, compendium, and monster maker (and future tools) to Paizo for the limited purpose of Paizo entering all Pathfinder data into those programs for it's own data set, updated as Paizo publishes more Pathfinder books;

3) Split the access on programs from the magazines for 3.5 and Pathfinder, and sell the program access based on the system data set you purchase.

So, if you want to play pathfinder using the software tools that WOTC sells, you pay a subscription fee for just that (and WOTC can share proceeds on that portion with Paizo). If you don't want to pay a subscription, you can purchase access for a month and end it there (just like they do right now for 4e), though of course you would miss out on future Paizo updates.

And if you want to play with those tools for just 3.5, you can pay a one-time fee for lifetime access, or pay that larger fee over many months in installment payments.

The DDI tools are powerful, and better than anything else out there. If WOTC leveraged those tools for 3.5 and Pathfinder, they could probably capture a wider audience, with frankly very little effort.

 

[Herschel]

They 'won me back' with 4E after they lost me with 3E, but you could say they won me back with miniatures and skirmish. As Mark said on the first page, there are people still buying and using products even if they aren't playing the current edition of D&D.

 

[Xyxox]

It's not that hard, really. Heck, I bought the core books for 4E as I have done with every edition. Unlike every other edition, that's where I stopped buying.

The answer is, sell products I want to buy. The announcement of Dark Sun was a pretty good step in this direction, but we'll see how that turns out when it's released.

 

[billd91]

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.

You're forgeting it's a multi-response poll. People who are into 4e but don't buy stuff right now because they prefer PDFs might be giving that response, but so might people not into 4e but who want older stuff, and even people who also want to see 5e. So that one response will be picking up the intersection of quite a variety of general attitudes and most likely only one factor in several for most of those people.

 

[nedjer]

I didn't change because I don't like 4e. My players wanted shorter games and lighter rules. When they came up with a free alternative with a different twist on standard fantasy we gave it a try. I wouldn't go back, because turns come round real quick and I like a more creepy, stealthy kind of game now.