D&D 3E/3.5 What if 3e had originally integrated in a larger marketing scheme

[Visigani]

First, Tabletop D&D suffers from the fact that it's not a videogame. Its demographic is largely the same. People who want to soak up their free time through fantasy exploration. Consider if everyone who spent time playing Final Fantasy had spent time playing D&D instead.

Second, Tabletop D&D is EXPENSIVE. Again, comparing it to other forms of gaming entertainment D&D requires a very significant investment in both time and finances.

Finally, Dungeons and Dragons has almost zero crossover marketing appeal. Dungeons and Dragons is a ruleset.

How do you market a Ruleset to Burgerking? The closest you're going to get to what D&D has as far as marketing goes is Star Trek and Star Wars. Star Trek and Star Wars are essentially "rulesets within a movie". They both have extremely defined internal logic structures.

However, they also have iconic characters and settings. All D&D has is the ruleset.

 

[PureGoldx58]

However, they also have iconic characters and settings. All D&D has is the ruleset.

D&D has beholders...(That is about it though).

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, it is kind of silly when you think about it, that a huge budget movie ($200 million) is being based on the game Battleship!

IMDb - Battleship (2012)

And yet D&D gets no love. But again, Hollywood is a strange place - classic works by best selling authors often go ignored, while others have almost their whole cannon made into movies, and others can never manage more than a few low budget flicks.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Interestingly enough, it looks like 5th edition is seriously making an attempt to advertise broader than ever before. You may have an answer to your "What If" question just by watching as the process unfolds.