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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5308224" data-attributes="member: 7006">I have not looked at the Red Box so I can't comment completely about certain things, but I will agree and disagree with several points here.I agree that if the character classes created within the Red Box are not the same as the the first two levels you'll get with HotFL, then that was an unfortunate mistake on the part of WotC to finalize the Red Box's edit and go to print before they finalized the HotFL edit.  That kind of discrepency just looks a little unprofessional.  (Although truth be told, the kids who will be looking at this game will probably have their heads swimming from so much new information, rules and terminology that they might not even notice it when they pick up HotFL.)However, I would greatly disagree that the Red Box needed anything more as far as character advancement was concerned.  While I can accept your belief that making it a replica of the old Red Box was indeed an attempt to re-woo really lapsed gamers from the 80s... that in no way should impact the content of the box.It is a starter set meant to be found on the shelves of Target or Walmart that a mother or father will grab and throw into the cart when they need to pick up some game or toy for their child's birthday or Christmas, or some other's child's birthday party their kid is going to.  Many of the children who will be receiving this box quite possibly will have not even heard of the name 'Dungeons & Dragons', let alone played it.  So for most of them... they will possibly open this box up, maybe play the solo adventure for a couple hours, and then when they're done, they'll throw it into their closet with the rest of the junk they've acquired over the years, never to be looked at again.Like it or not... that's how probably most of these Red Boxes will be treated.  A curiousity for a few hours after some impulse purchase, but never treated seriously by the kids who will play them.  So to put anything in that box that raises the price point such that it can't be an impulse birthday purchase (because no parent would want to blow $40 on some random game for some random kid whose birthday party their child got invited to), or makes the game more involved and difficult to understand (thus making it even more unlikely the kid might latch onto the game) is complete folly.If we're lucky, maybe one out of every ten kids who get this Red Box will consider playing again.  And at that point... when the game tells you to pick up these next couple of products to continue the adventure, those kids will WANT to spend the money for it.  They WON'T CARE that the starter set wasn't a so-called "complete game".  They'll WANT to play it, and thus they'll spend the money TO play it.  And while there may be that small, sliver of kids who will want to play it again but not want to actually spend money on it... at the very least the starter set gives a little help in creating their own stuff as needed.WotC is all about making money.  As is every other game company.  That's why you give the introductory game cheap or free, and hope to entice them enough to want to pay further.  That's why Blizzard offers those "Play WoW for 10 hours free" cards.  Get them hooked, so that they'll WANT to spend more money on it later.</blockquote>

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