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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8631055" data-attributes="member: 6777737">Well, remember WotC's position at the time. They were still a private company, and one that had just spent many millions dollars on a IP that had spent the last 10 years doing nothing but losing money. The big moneymaker that is Magic was doing well, but there was no telling how long that would last. Their other TCGs like Netrunner had died, and RoboRally and Great Dalmuti were not paying off this kind of bill. WotC needs to get some money out of this investment, and get it fast. If that meant changing the game in order to attract the most money, that's what they had to do. They need a highly marketable product they can sell to a lot of people.Famously, rumor had it that TSR had publishing deals so bad that they were selling some books below cost, but there was something else that was clear: if there were any older players still playing D&D -- the research would tell them there were a ton, but TTRPG industry wisdom at the time said everyone was playing Vampire, Werewolf, Shadowrun, etc. or had moved to Magic or miniatures wargaming -- but even if there were people playing D&D, it was crystal clear that the one thing that none of those people were doing was buying more D&D books. It looked to WotC like everyone who had been a D&D player in the 70s or 80s had either (a) moved on, or (b) stopped buying. Either way, there's a good chance they're not going to be your customers again. Maybe what happened to them is the natural course for TTRPG markets? Nobody knews at that point; the industry was barely 25 years old and D&D was the only product old enough to really have old customers.</blockquote>

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