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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8355223" data-attributes="member: 22779">Anyone who thinks that WotC's success is pure luck is not paying attention.  WotC spent all of 4e building up all sorts of very public presence.  Remember shows like Big Bang Theory?  Yeah, they were playing 4e.  Those were 4e books sitting on the table.  When 4e came along you started seeing all sorts of D&D press in mainstream media.  Do you seriously think that was a coincidence?Then they spend 2 years doing one of the best marketing jobs you could possibly do and calling it an Open Playtest.  Sure, part of the playtest was to make sure that the mechanics were solid, but, the main part of the playtest was to build up gobs and gobs of goodwill and mountains of advertising before 5e released.  They borrowed a page from Paizo who are also very, very good at this sort of thing.  They built massive communities - shut down negative avenues like the WotC message boards and very, VERY carefully controlled every single whisper that came out of the company.  Something they spectacularly failed to do during 4e.But 5e's success is built in part on the outreach that was done in the 4e days when D&D was just starting to get some air time in the public eye.  I knew that something was in the air when I saw D&D branded Lego (or Lockblocks?  Whatever that was) in an airport in Taipei.  They spent a fortune on building the brand.  Now, we're seeing that investment paying off in spades.All this kvetching about the mechanics?  GUess what?  Nobody really cares that much.  It's just not an issue for most tables.  The game works and it works pretty well.  Which, frankly, is good enough.</blockquote>

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