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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 4890830" data-attributes="member: 15999">WotC has an extremely valuable brand, and brand loyalty is a very powerful thing.&nbsp; If the exact same ruleset were released under a different brand, it would not sell 1/10 as many as 4E.&nbsp; Most groups probably wouldn't even have a discussion about switching if it were &quot;That Mike Mearls guy released a new fantasy RPG with some independent publisher.&quot;&nbsp; That's not to disparage the inherent quality of 4E.&nbsp; Brand loyalty is simply an extremely powerful thing in marketing.&nbsp; Soda, beer, fast food, people usually aren't going to go out and compare every possible alternative, or even any alternatives at all.&nbsp; They'll stick with a name brand that they like.&nbsp; Now, normally companies with these overwhelmingly powerful brand names are conservative with them (the New Coke disaster an exception), but most of the major brand names have serious competition to which their consumers might switch if they tinkered too much with the Big Mac or the Bud Light recipes.&nbsp; D&amp;D has no serious competition.&nbsp; And unlike the other name brands, it's selling a network good, where the more of something is sold the more valuable it becomes.&nbsp; That makes the #1 position self-reinforcing to a point.The D&amp;D brand is like Windows.&nbsp; Windows is also dominant with little real competition, it is a network good (so people buy it in part because it is the most commonly used), and Microsoft can do whatever it wants to the code, adding or taking away features, fixing bugs and creating new ones, while being pretty sure it's going to sell a whole lot of product.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 4890830, member: 15999"] WotC has an extremely valuable brand, and brand loyalty is a very powerful thing. If the exact same ruleset were released under a different brand, it would not sell 1/10 as many as 4E. Most groups probably wouldn't even have a discussion about switching if it were "That Mike Mearls guy released a new fantasy RPG with some independent publisher." That's not to disparage the inherent quality of 4E. Brand loyalty is simply an extremely powerful thing in marketing. Soda, beer, fast food, people usually aren't going to go out and compare every possible alternative, or even any alternatives at all. They'll stick with a name brand that they like. Now, normally companies with these overwhelmingly powerful brand names are conservative with them (the New Coke disaster an exception), but most of the major brand names have serious competition to which their consumers might switch if they tinkered too much with the Big Mac or the Bud Light recipes. D&D has no serious competition. And unlike the other name brands, it's selling a network good, where the more of something is sold the more valuable it becomes. That makes the #1 position self-reinforcing to a point. The D&D brand is like Windows. Windows is also dominant with little real competition, it is a network good (so people buy it in part because it is the most commonly used), and Microsoft can do whatever it wants to the code, adding or taking away features, fixing bugs and creating new ones, while being pretty sure it's going to sell a whole lot of product. [/QUOTE]

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