Ok, so what's the 2011 setting...?

[doctorhook]

Do you have a link or reference where they explained this?

Man, it took me forever to find where I read this, but here it is:

We are planning to do new stuff as well as resurrect some "classic" stuff. Whenever we decide to do something new, it takes time to get the ball rolling because we're essentially building an entirely new intellectual property from scratch.

We resurrect old campaign settings for more than just nostalgia reasons. We do it to keep those worlds and intellectual properties alive and active. Names like "Ravenloft" and "Dark Sun" and "Dragonlance" mean a lot to Wizards and to a great many other people. In most cases, it would be a shame to let them simply wither and die. Just like Disney animated movies, we need to pull them out of the vault and dust them off once in a while.

In this thread, he makes some other interesting comments about how WotC decides upon what settings to publish, and why some of the settings you've mentioned are probably not going to see "full setting" status in 4E. (Mystara is one example he uses.)

EDIT: I'm copy-and-pasting another of his posts here, because it's pretty interesting. This one comes from the same thread linked above.

It would be nice to here how WoTC goes about deciding what settings to build. Perhaps even a bit behind their building process.

Now THAT'S a multi-layered conversation that usually starts with us asking a bunch of questions and doing some research. Some questions that spring to mind whenever someone says the words "campaign setting" to me:

1. Is there a business need or opportunity for a new setting or a reincarnated old setting?

2. Where is popular culture heading? Can we create a setting that isn't irrelevant one or two years from now?

3. Are there any non-active settings that we're revitalizing in other arenas (digital games, novels, Hollywood, etc.)?

4. Is there an important niche that a new or old setting can fill?

5. Is there a particular setting that a significant number of D&D players want to see resurrected or reincarnated?

6. Is there a setting that we can turn into a $X million sub-brand with multiple revenue streams?

7. Can we design a setting that doesn't fracture the D&D audience into a dozen squabbling sects that utterly loathe one another (a la TSR circa 1997)?

Chris

 

[doctorhook]

I predict it will be...

World of Warcraft

Oh the irony.

Interestingly (or maybe not) I heard WoW made some big announcement this weekend about a future expansion, which has their community wildly nerd-raging over some controversial changes to the game.

The more things change...

 

[ggroy]

In this thread, he makes some other interesting comments about how WotC decides upon what settings to publish, and why some of the settings you've mentioned are probably not going to see "full setting" status in 4E. (Mystara is one example he uses.)

Thanks for finding the link.

Even if they don't do a full fledged 4E treatment (ie. campaign setting book, player's guide, module) on settings like Mystara and Birthright, in principle they can do a series of Dungeon Magazine articles on the setting as a way of maintaining the trademarks on them.

 

[doctorhook]

Thanks for finding the link.

Just in case you don't see it, I added another interesting quote to that post just after you posted this. Check it out!

 

[ggroy]

Just in case you don't see it, I added another interesting quote to that post just after you posted this. Check it out!

Thanks. Interesting thread.