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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 8214467" data-attributes="member: 58197">I think the comparison between the Marvel cinematic universe and the DC one is instructive. Marvel started by making some superhero movies, and they happened to be really good movies, with witty writing and brilliant acting and engaging characters. Marvel then built up their cinematic universe on that strong foundation.DC saw Marvel making money hand over fist and said "Hey! We want some of that!" So they set out to create a cinematic universe based on DC properties, and made movies with that in mind. But most of those movies were awful, and DC's cinematic universe remains a pale shadow of Marvel's.Lesson: Start by doing one thing. Focus on doing that one thing well. Don't burden it with your grand plans for the future; just make it as good as it can be, and put it out there. If it succeeds, then you can build on it. If it fails, junk it and move on. (Also, good writing matters.)It smells to me like Hasbro is going the DC route instead of the Marvel route. They're signing a lot of big names for the D&D movie, which makes me think they're putting a lot of heavy expectations on it and trying to buy their way to success. That rarely turns out well. The good news is, even if the movie flops and the TV show crashes and burns and other tie-ins don't go anywhere, it won't hurt D&D itself... unless the money for those ventures is being taken out of D&D's budget.Tie-ins galore. We're already seeing this in Magic's "Universes Beyond" initiative, with tie-ins to everything from Lord of the Rings to the Walking Dead. D&D hasn't really felt this yet (except for Stranger Things, but Stranger Things is basically a love letter to D&D, so it's hardly surprising). But D&D tie-ins are surely coming if the boom continues.Mostly I regard this with a shrug. It ain't my thing, but if it brings in money for the game, more power to 'em. However...My biggest concern is that Hasbro ends up replicating TSR's mistakes, where the D&D brand gets taken in a thousand different directions and the company makes unsustainable commitments based on short-term growth. Meteoric growth is unsustainable more or less by definition. Sooner or later, it has to slow down, and that's always a painful adjustment. And if they go too hard on tie-ins, you risk ending up with the late-2E scenario where the company is supporting many different settings, each of which sells to only a fraction of the market.Fortunately, the game is in a much safer place than it was in the TSR era. Hasbro is a behemoth with many, many revenue streams; the failure of one of those streams will not put the company or its IP at risk. And even if Hasbro mothballs the brand, the OGL ensures that a company like Paizo can step in to keep the flame alive.</blockquote>

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