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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ComradeGnull" data-source="post: 6038451" data-attributes="member: 6685694">Looking at what has happened in the last couple years in the OSR and retro world, I feel like 'dead' doesn't really have much meaning, though 4e could unfortunately be the rare exception. This may be what WotC is recognizing; old editions just aren't going away any more. The loss of DDI and the stricter copyright controls might give them a legal hammer, but I think the RPG hobby as a whole is moving (to steal from Neil Stephenson) from 'feed' to 'seed'. Hobbyists are producing materials that rival commercial projects in quality and utility. Old editions are impossible to eliminate because of OGL licensing, reprints, official PDF publications, and widespread pirating.4e was an attempt at making a game where the publisher remained a core participant in the experience after you bought the game and took it home. That aspect of 4e was a flop. It requires continually investing resources in maintaining services (like DDL) that a decreasing number of people are using. If you kill the service, you kill the remaining market. Online services like DDI are on a march towards a net loss unless you can constantly find a way to bring numbers into the system to replace losses from attrition, and practically speaking the tabletop RPG market may not be large enough to support that movement.The question is how is WotC going to react to the fan community after they withdraw official support for 4e. If they crack down, they alienate people without building any new business. If they don't crack down, they risk trademark dilution and lost momentum for the new edition.</blockquote>

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