thoughts about 3.5e

[MerricB]

I think you're partly right, but I also think we both know that the situation is more subtle than you say. D&D is a depletable product, because books get lost, maimed, or destroyed (as we've seen on this very thread), and new people pick up the game.

That's not 'depletable'.

Sorry, I'm just being pedantic here. A non-depletable product is one, that under normal circumstances, won't have to be replaced. Accidents don't count, nor do new people buying it.

Given that there are still people who use the AD&D books they bought twenty years ago, if the game is depletable it is on a longer timespan than the term is normally used for.

A battery is depletable, because you know when you buy it it will only last a certain time (even the rechargable ones, alas!). A novel is not depletable - it'll always be with you. Assuming good bindings and the like, of course!

If D&D were depletable, then every two years (or some other time period) you would have to buy a new set of books. This is not the case.

OTOH, D&D is a game that becomes obsolete (with regard to it working with newer products), as seen by the various editions of the game, similar to a computer.

My old 486, for instance, cannot run Word XP, although it still works quite well in running Word for Window 1.0.

Cheers!

 

[Ranger REG]

There are other old games that have undergone many editions, Hero/Champion is one of them. Even GURP went into its Third Edition way before D&D.

It becomes obsolete when few people play them, and from what I've seen they keep coming back to D&D as they have for Coca-Cola.

This is no longer your daddy's Dungeons & Dragons.