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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5432264" data-attributes="member: 58197">I'm not sure they've learned that lesson. I'm not sure I've learned that lesson, either, or that it's the lesson they should be learning. The fanbase didn't split over nebulous issues of goodwill. It split because 4E moved too far from its predecessors and a lot of folks decided it wasn't a game they wanted to play, either because they didn't like the game itself or because it invalidated too much of their existing library.If WotC had released exactly the same game, but been more courteous and respectful about it, would you have made the switch to 4E? From what you say, I'm guessing the answer is "no." Then why should WotC care about your goodwill? How does your goodwill translate to their bottom line?Say they release old-edition .PDFs for sale. You buy them, well and good. That's some profit for WotC to chew over, and weigh against other considerations, whatever they may be. But where does goodwill come into it? Will your goodwill lead you to buy things from WotC you wouldn't otherwise have bought?Goodwill no doubt has some effect on WotC's bottom line, and there were certainly things they could and should have done better in terms of customer relations. But I dispute the idea that this is a big important lesson the last few years should have taught them.Point taken, and I agree; there will always (or for several decades, at least) be a niche for old-fashioned tabletop. But in the age of digital D&D, it may not be a niche that can support more than a handful of shoestring producers. Paizo, for instance, would likely be unable to continue at anything like its present scale.Keep in mind that I'm talking long-term; 15-20 years from now, and predicated on the assumption that Erik Mona is correct and D&D is the single gateway through which new gamers come to the world of RPGs. If that presumption is true, and D&D goes online, then there will come a day when the vast majority of gamers come to the world of RPGs through an online gateway, while most of the old-school tabletoppers have drifted away or gone to play at Gary Gygax's table.</blockquote>

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