Lady Dragon
First Post
seein as how it was my quote that started all this I thought i would comment further on what I meant.
Any company wants to make a profit,it fact I would like to see WoTC make a profit as well especially the D&D department because if its making a profit it means its doing things right. But unfortunatly thats not the way things go when it comes to pleasing shareholders. In this case all they care about are those quarterly reports that go out.So if the latest toy is quite selling to expectations they have to make the money up elsewhere and the things they don't care about so much are usually the fall guys.
The real problem right now with WoTC is that the upper level management doesn't know q thing about the product they sell.They are buisiness men and they would sell toasters exactly the same way they sell RPG's. They try to aim for a general audience of mainstream consumers when they arfe actually only serving a small niche. The feel they have to make a big profit or the product was not worth producing.
A D20 company in most cases will be happy if a book they produces sells enough to recoup all expenses,pay employees and pay the morgage etc of the companies owner.
But WoTC/hasbro would look at a book that did nothing more than recoup expenses plus a tiny profit(meaning less than $5000) as a dismal failure after all they are not there just to keep these people employed and produce gaming material for a tiny niche they are there to make mass profits,and to get that stock price up.Which is hard enough for a luxury items company like Hasbro in a recessed market.
Which is ultimately why D&D would be far better off in the hands of a much smaller company run by gamers that are innovative are care about the product.
Any company wants to make a profit,it fact I would like to see WoTC make a profit as well especially the D&D department because if its making a profit it means its doing things right. But unfortunatly thats not the way things go when it comes to pleasing shareholders. In this case all they care about are those quarterly reports that go out.So if the latest toy is quite selling to expectations they have to make the money up elsewhere and the things they don't care about so much are usually the fall guys.
The real problem right now with WoTC is that the upper level management doesn't know q thing about the product they sell.They are buisiness men and they would sell toasters exactly the same way they sell RPG's. They try to aim for a general audience of mainstream consumers when they arfe actually only serving a small niche. The feel they have to make a big profit or the product was not worth producing.
A D20 company in most cases will be happy if a book they produces sells enough to recoup all expenses,pay employees and pay the morgage etc of the companies owner.
But WoTC/hasbro would look at a book that did nothing more than recoup expenses plus a tiny profit(meaning less than $5000) as a dismal failure after all they are not there just to keep these people employed and produce gaming material for a tiny niche they are there to make mass profits,and to get that stock price up.Which is hard enough for a luxury items company like Hasbro in a recessed market.
Which is ultimately why D&D would be far better off in the hands of a much smaller company run by gamers that are innovative are care about the product.
