D&D is not the only fish in the sea and other fish take care of the those that buy their game. They don't alienate
I don't need to buy FR stuff to filch a little bit from it, and I certainly won't spend what WotC is charging in order to take a little material for my game. I'm only going to buy it if I'm going to use the vast majority of the product, in which case I'm playing FR.
100% is impossible, that doesn't mean that you don't satisfy anyone outside of a single group. What you don't seem to be getting is that those that buy the realms also buy other settings. Of the 5 other regular DMs I've played with over the years, 4 of them and myself bought multiple campaign settings and supplements during 2e.
So no, you don't put out options that only 1% want, but neither do you ignore options that say 20-30% want just because you have a setting that 35% currently play.
And all the fans that they are alienating with that decision, and there are a whole lot of them, could cost them more in the long run than they are making short term. I won't stay with a game that doesn't offer me support, and I know many others like that as well.
My read on the article was that the might set an adventure in say Ravenloft, but not actually make a Ravenloft setting. That's not setting support as it requires the DM to create Ravenloft for 5e in order to use it, or else just have one adventure in Ravenloft and then leave, which prevents it from being used as a setting.
I am not failing to understand anything. I'm following what you're saying just fine. And I'm not even against them producing setting material. I'd buy Planescape and Dark Sun material in a heartbeat. I also don't blame you for not buying any material you don't feel is worth your money. I wouldn't expect anyone to do otherwise.
My point is that it's a question of resource allocation. Do they devote money and manpower to making a Ravenloft setting guide at the cost of something they feel will be a better seller for the same amount of effort? Kind of like your view on books...would you buy a sourcebook with less pages and less material you would use, or would you buy one that's the same price but with twice the content? It's the same principle in play. I think for us, it's easy to see it as a simple thing.....but I don't think it is. I don't think we have enough relevant data to know for sure.
It's like when people claim not to have enough time to spend homebrewing material for Dark Sun or Ebberon or whatever...well why not? Because they have jobs and school and families and so forth. They have limited time and budget. The same applies to WotC....they can't just make anything and everything. They have limited time and budget and manpower. So they have to pick and choose what to put out.
So I think they've gone the route they have because FR is a pretty generic setting overall, although it also had plenty of potential for more specialized material. I think it's sound logic because:
- their published material has a default setting that is easy to grasp
- the default setting is incredibly easy to adapt or to borrow from
- there is a ton of source material already available about all of their settings, and so people can use that info to create their own content or modify existing content for their needs
- they recognize that some fans may feel alienated, but they accept that they must risk that portion of the fanbase to try and branch out
I am sure we'll get more settings over time, but it will be when it makes sense for them to do so. Until we do, I think it would serve folks to not see WotC's policies as some kind of personal vendetta.