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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sunshadow21" data-source="post: 6302926" data-attributes="member: 6667193">The problem with that approach is that you end up with a lot of folks who buy the Starter Box, and never ever even think about buying another product again, and from WotC's prospective, that's no good either. This group cannot be the focus, to be sure, but to exclude them the way they did in 4E again is going to lead to many of the same problems that 4E had. Hiding everything behind a paywall (either comparatively more expensive core books or something like DDI) and trying to convince people to pay to get beyond it without showing them anything beyond levels 1-5 is not going to get them very far in terms of long term sales and sustaining of the product line. That is where Paizo actually does quite well, and why they have been the success they have been. Even if people don't buy the AP's, they can still buy the core books, one of the other soft back series, or the individual adventures in whatever combination they see fit, and Paizo still gets money to make further product with. WotC must do something similar in order for this new edition to take off. Whether they produce the adventures or side material themselves or farm it out like they have with the initial adventures isn't as important as making sure they have a secondary line of products that strengthens the experience for those who are in their primary market while opening up the secondary market to ensure that they are getting at least some free word of mouth and income from the less than 100% focused. In the end, I don't see the price as a problem, per se, but it does create challenges that WotC is going to have to work on to overcome if they want to catch and sustain a wider audience than they ultimately did with 4E. It's not even that hard to do; having different options for DDI subscriptions, a very basic SRD available to everyone for free, a license that falls somewhere between the OGL and what they had for 4E, offering PDFs for at least adventures, and that's just off the top of my head are all things that with the right planning take very little effort, strengthen the core market, and open the secondary market. If they can do these types of things, the concern over the high price tag of the core books will melt away just like it did for Paizo and PF; if they can't, than the high price tag will simply add to the pile of problems, making it that much harder for WotC to sell their brand to an unconvinced market.</blockquote>

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