Only the Lonely: Why We Demand Official Product

[LuisCarlos17f]

Sorry if my English isn't perfect but at least I can write a second languange.

If you were a Hasbro CEO and D&D is a brand with an increasing value... what would you do? The future of this industry is in the videogames and the media productions (movies and series). But these need time. The key is in good stories, the best stories, but you can't hire a troop of writters for a faster publication.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Sorry if my English isn't perfect but at least I can write a second languange.

If you were a Hasbro CEO and D&D is a brand with an increasing value... what would you do? The future of this industry is in the videogames and the media productions (movies and series). But these need time. The key is in good stories, the best stories, but you can't hire a troop of writters for a faster publication.

No worries, I wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not.

If I was the CEO of Hasbro... there is an expression in English, "If it 'aint broke, don't fix it." Meaning, if something is doing well, don't try to improve it to much as you may actually make it worse.

D&D is one of Hasbro's most successful brands right now. So if I was CEO of Hasbro, I would recognize that the folks at WotC are doing a great job handling the brand on their own, and wouldn't try to influence their development very much by pushing for the cross-overs and product tie-ins you frequently mention. I think the gradual development of a film, and the limited amount of tie-ins they've released with video games and toys, are enough milking of revenue without risking over-saturation of products.

Essentially, if I was CEO of Hasbro, my focus would be on improving the struggling brands that are not D&D, or the development of entirely new ones.

I also do not agree that the future of RPGs is in video games and media. That was the consensus years ago, and D&D's pursuit of being "more like a video game" actually led to it struggling against rivals like Pathfinder. D&D 5E has been extremely successful because of its simplicity and ease of access for new players, and its limited releases allow for a higher quality of product.

If you look at Warhammer and how it pursues its licensing strategy (it gives out its license to any game company who wants it), it doesn't seem to have largely impacted its sales; instead, its recent success is more tied to recent improvements in their products, rules, and games.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Videogames have been one of the best advertising. I would dare to say maybe Perfect World Enternaiment, the videogame publisher, would like a return of Kara-Tur, to create a videogame adaptation, but Asian players from different countries would wish different things about the lore, for example more monsters based in their own folklore.

Remeber Transformers was a dead line until the first movie, and then the franchise resurrected. Without the cartoon serie they couldn't be selling little ponies. Maybe they need a children cartoon about monster pets trained as allies.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Videogames have been one of the best advertising. I would dare to say maybe Perfect World Enternaiment, the videogame publisher, would like a return of Kara-Tur, to create a videogame adaptation, but Asian players from different countries would wish different things about the lore, for example more monsters based in their own folklore.

Remeber Transformers was a dead line until the first movie, and then the franchise resurrected. Without the cartoon serie they couldn't be selling little ponies. Maybe they need a children cartoon about monster pets trained as allies.

Yeah but D&D isn't a dead line. I won't argue that if you aren't selling Transformers toys you should try being flexible with the brand and lease it to Universal to do what they want with it.

But D&D is extremely successful right now. Why would I try to possibly ruin that by rushing through a bunch of video games or movies or shows, that could very well harm it's year-over-year sales?

For me, if I was CEO that's a risk I'm not going to take. I'm perfectly ok with doing partnerships and cross-overs, but only ones that WotC is comfortable doing, and I want to ensure the quality of those remain high so I am not tarnishing an already strong brand.

I also feel that this POV is one that the actual Hasbro CEO probably shares, which is why there have been relatively few partnerships and toy lines for D&D released in recent years.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's actually a pretty good analogy. Even a master chef can create an exquisite meal that you or I will call meh. Being a master chef will improve quality of technique but it will not necessary please everybody.

True. And, also, not every indie restaurant has a master chef. In fact, the overwhelming majority don't.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah but D&D isn't a dead line. I won't argue that if you aren't selling Transformers toys you should try being flexible with the brand and lease it to Universal to do what they want with it.

But D&D is extremely successful right now. Why would I try to possibly ruin that by rushing through a bunch of video games or movies or shows, that could very well harm it's year-over-year sales?

For me, if I was CEO that's a risk I'm not going to take. I'm perfectly ok with doing partnerships and cross-overs, but only ones that WotC is comfortable doing, and I want to ensure the quality of those remain high so I am not tarnishing an already strong brand.

I also feel that this POV is one that the actual Hasbro CEO probably shares, which is why there have been relatively few partnerships and toy lines for D&D released in recent years.

Yep, right now DND’s brand is strong because it has a newfound reputation for quality. The game runs out of the box, it’s fun, new players love it and old players are coming back in droves.

Pumping out dnd action figures at dollar general isn’t what you do with a brand whose reputation is quality experience.

 

[Anoth]

Yep, right now DND’s brand is strong because it has a newfound reputation for quality. The game runs out of the box, it’s fun, new players love it and old players are coming back in droves.

Pumping out dnd action figures at dollar general isn’t what you do with a brand whose reputation is quality experience.

i really want a venger action figure. Don’t ruin my dreams.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You can allow yourself the risk to add the craziest ideas as April's fool jokes, for example cybertronians (transformers) as living construct PC race or the stats of the main characters of My Little Pony as centauresse heroines, or horror gothic vampire-hunter version of the magical girls "Pretty Cure", Power Rangers as totem warriors with biopunk lifeshape technology defending their planet against defiler invaders from Athas world, or Cobra-La, the G.I.Joe's archenemies, as an alien Lovecraftian cult of snake-men, with Spelljammer technology. This could be the best way to send a probe ballon to test the reaction by the fandom.

And you have to admit the production is slower not only because they would rather quality, but because they have got plans linked with other projects.

 

[ChaosOS]

As a side note, I find the arguments about "Could Waterdeep actually have 2mil people?" discussion to be funny because in Eberron, the arguments are about the reverse - there's not enough people in the big cities, especially Sharn.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

As a side note, I find the arguments about "Could Waterdeep actually have 2mil people?" discussion to be funny because in Eberron, the arguments are about the reverse - there's not enough people in the big cities, especially Sharn.

I sold my Eberron book so don't have the exact figures, but I'll take your word for it. On a broader note, most D&D settings have the same problems - the cities are too large, but the countries and regions have too few people. Basically the urban/rural population proportions are WAY off. If Waterdeep is 2 million, then the Sword Coast should be 70 million or more. A lot of setting designers are using post-Industrial demographics to determine population. Paris might have been around 100,000 in the Middle Ages, but France was 17 million.