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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5312327" data-attributes="member: 7006">The old artwork from the original Red Box (which is being used for a special limited time right at the beginning of this Essentials release) absolutely was chosen in honor of the old version and quite possibly hope to provoke a sense of nostalgia in former players from the early 80s who haven't thought about playing D&D in almost 30 years.  And this older styled artwork and font will remain with the game probably through Christmas, by which time those nostalgic parents will have seen the new Red Box on the toy store shelves and will have made the decision at that point whether to pick up the game for themselves on a whim for a measly 20 bucks.  If WotC can perhaps grab a few of those nostalgic 40 year olds in the next six months, then using the older artwork for a short time was a success.After that point, as far as I'm aware, they are then reprinting all new Essentials Red Boxes with the new fantasy artwork and new D&D logo, where it will remain on the shelves for the foreseeable future (probably several years at least).  So it's during that lifespan that the Red Box will have a more "cool" look for all the current pre-teens and teenagers who will be buying it for themselves or been given it to them for birthdays and Christmases.  So WotC ends up targeting and getting the best of both worlds.The only thing they lose is the first six months of the game with the old artwork might somehow make a kid who gets given it during that time just a smidge less reason to actually open the box and read it, because the artwork doesn't look like the prototypical fantasy artwork they are currently used to on all the books they are reading.  But you know what?  If a kid reads enough fantasy books to actually be able to tell the difference between the visual look of current artwork on their young adult fantasy novels and the late 70s artwork of Larry Elmore... then those kids are probably already clued into the idea of games involving the fantasy genre and thus would be inclined to try out the game anyway regardless of the art, because it involves a subject matter they actually like.95% of the kids who won't even bother opening and reading the Red Box they get given are the ones who just have no interest in fantasy, in gaming, or in fantasy gaming.  And for those kids... they'd have no idea that the current Red Box artwork was from the 1970s anyway.</blockquote>

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