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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 8881409" data-attributes="member: 58197">Exactly. D&D is booming like never before, even in the salad days of the '80s. You can argue whether 3PPs are contributing to that and how much, but there's no question that Wizards-owned D&D and third-party publishers can coexist and flourish.None of us knows how all this is going to shake out, but I'm noticing a pattern here:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">D&D grows like gangbusters alongside a vigorous 3PP community.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The owner of D&D gets dollar signs in their eyes and chases increasingly dubious dreams of empire, while at the same time trying to claw back market share from the 3PPs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">D&D suffers a crisis and collapse. At the owner of D&D, heads roll.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The new stewards of the game dump the grand plans, go back to the drawing board, and look for ways to re-engage the community.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Repeat.</li> </ol>We've seen this full cycle play out twice now, first with TSR and then with Wizards in the 3E/4E era. We are now in phase 2 of the third cycle. It's far from certain that the rest will play out the same way as before... but I suspect that's what's coming.</blockquote>