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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6556998" data-attributes="member: 5143">WOTC has data that says it's a major problem.  I believe them.LOTS of people get scared away from these products for this reason.  You know how many MORE people would play Magic if they didn't look at the wall of cards at most stores and get intimidated?  A lot.  I know at least 20 people who've said that the game looks interesting but it looks like you have to buy a lot of cards and it looks complicated because you have to remember what hundreds of cards do.  I try to explain to them that it's not that big of a deal.  They don't believe me, they've seen the wall of cards at the store.I argued the same thing as you back when we started the Living Forgotten Realms campaign for 4e.  I said "Hey, people were really invested in Living Greyhawk during 3e/3.5e.  They flew around the world just to play more games.  That's how dedicated the people were!  Let's bring that back again."  I was told by WOTC that they had done surveys and they said that the weirdness involved in the rules of Living Greyhawk provided too great a barrier to entry to play the game.  It intimidated new players.  They had all responded that the people playing the game seemed more hardcore and obsessed with D&D than they were.  They just wanted to play the game every once in a while.  Living Greyhawk had 70+ pages of rules explaining how to play it.  It had a huge list of banned, restricted, and allowed items from all the books in print.  A large number of people simply didn't play because it SEEMED too complicated.I was told that Living Forgotten Realms was going to do away with restricting adventures to certain regions or giving exclusive adventures to certain people that no one else could play without travelling because those things made the hardcore players feel special but turned away all of the casual players.I've been told the exact same thing about purchasing habits.  A majority of the people who play D&D don't buy expansion books of any kind.  They buy the core books and never get another one.  Some don't even get the core books because they are afraid you need the expansion books.  There is data to back this up.That's how I discovered it.  Well, rather I joined a group of people who played D&D and then I decided to buy a book of my own.  But I had no idea how or where to buy it.  I walked into a book store and I remember my mom and I asking the people there which books it was that I was supposed to buy in order to play the game.  The people in the book store had no idea at all.  My mom didn't want to buy me anything unless she knew she wasn't buying me the wrong stuff and we'd have to come back later and buy more stuff.  She was also concerned at the price of all the books and told me she wasn't sure I should get into this hobby because it looked expensive.I have a friend who worked at a game store.  She told me random people would walk in constantly and ask her "So, my son wants to play this D&D thing and I heard you buy that here.  What is it that I need to get them?"Yes, I have.  It intimidated me so much I stopped playing Warhammer 40k, actually.  I had a small army that I bought from a friend but I went in there and saw people's fully painted armies and all the products offered and I thought "Wow...these people have spent a LOT of money on this game.  Do I want to spend that much money?"  At first I thought I could get away without spending much money.  But I ran into the rule that you aren't allowed to play an unpainted army in Games Workshop.  Plus, my army didn't have enough points to play a normal game.  So, I wasn't allowed to play until I spent more money and spent a lot of time painting.  I realized that this was a hobby only for people with a LOT of spare time and money.  At first, I thought that was awesome.  I bought more models and I played outside of the store with my friends.  But I kept losing over and over.  I realized that the good models for winning were also the most expensive ones.  I had to spend even MORE money to get a GOOD army.  So, I stopped playing.  There was too much stuff and it overwhelmed me.  i wanted it all but I couldn't afford it.They are.  The numbers show that each book you add drives away more and more people.  It likely makes the ones that DO stay more fanatical about your product as they are more invested.  But WOTC doesn't want a small number of people who are very invested.  They want lots and lots of casual players.</blockquote>

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