What would WotC need to do to win back the disenchanted?

[Pig Champion]

I'd be happy with an edition that doesn't suffer from rules glut especially in character creation and battle. I'm hoping essentials is the key because I like 4E.

 

[Mark CMG]

But rather than lapse further into a rant, I have a question. What is it about PDFs that make them so desirable?

Rather than risk derailing this thread, I'll start a different thread for that question because I am curious, too.


http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...4-what-makes-gaming-books-pdfs-desirable.html

 

[ExploderWizard]

Well, I'm agreeing with Hobo.

The only people that say Wizards has bad customer service or public relations are people who aren't customers in the first place. They have incredible public relations. They have amazing customer service. They literally have a help desk phone number if you have a rules question. You sign up for Organized Play and they'll send you free adventures and stuff. You think you get that kind of service anywhere else? Anywhere?

"Ditch 4E entirely" is even less likely. I also don't think selling the old stuff OR the PDFs will help in any way, either. The market for old stuff exists and it's called Ebay. And I know that some people will have a problem hearing that there's a ton of people that absolutely love 4e (and I'm one of them). I think 4E is easily the best version of the game that has ever been published. Opinions are like that though. I realize that mine isn't universal.

Now these almost seem like cruel and hurtful things to say, but they really aren't. They aren't personal or hurtful, they're simply facts. (or in my case, opinions. That 4e is awesome, I mean. Which it totally is.)

There are a lot of people who couldn't care less about whatever direction the company wants to take, and does not really expect or even want any kind of apology (raises hand).

What we do want is access to older products and it doesn't matter if WOTC sells directly or licenses someone else to carry the products so they don't have to waste resources on products they don't wish to support.

By doing neither they are in fact making themselves look bad. Sitting on material that they don't seem to want anyone to have easy access to makes them look like angry kids who have taken their football and gone home.

The last thing I want is to see is product from a company produced just as a halfhearted way to try and mend PR fences. Who wants stuff designed by people who may not even understand the style of game they are writing for.

So let WOTC just produce the material they really to want to support and allow others to do the same.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

If Hasbro wants my money they'd release pdf's of earlier editions (at the old pricing scheme). I'd prefer dead tree versions but I can't pay eBay prices for some of them.

 

[doctorhook]

WotC can do nothing to bring some people back. A tiny, noisy proportion of players wouldn't be happy even if WotC did their household chores and mailed them a weekly income. Some of these people want nothing less than for WotC to use unsustainable business practices to support old-fashioned products. WotC wisely doesn't bother catering to these "unpleaseables", and most of the gamering community realises it. WotC does a fine job running its business, no matter what a noisy handful think.

PS: I have no idea why some folks expect 5E to be both soon and reactionary; wishful thinking for some people, I suppose.

 

[gamerprinter]

Having not read the entire thread - as these threads start to sound the same eventually. Only one thing could improve things and it will never happen. That WotC becomes bought out by someone other than Hasbro, someone with a love of the game, more so than the bottom line. Then products that fit the need of the audience not in the need of shareholders becomes the superior issue. Since bottom line books make more money than adventures, books are produced not adventure - etc., etc.

Not gonna happen, but if WotC was owned by any non-corporate entity, it would serve its customer base better. That's the only solution I see.

GP

 

[UniversalMonster]

WotC is targeting people who don't have time to be creative, who want limited options to get on playing in one hour encounter blocks, and who expect their characters to not die. No. I am not part of that demographic at all.

Insulting and untrue.

 

[scruffygrognard]

PS: I have no idea why some folks expect 5E to be both soon and reactionary; wishful thinking for some people, I suppose.

I have no expectation that it will be soon and/or reactionary ... but the point of this thread is to see what would make lost customers return to WotC.

For me 4th edition would need to go away and 5th edition would need to reacquaint itself with many classic D&Dism to bring me back.

Until then WotC won't get my money unless they re-release earlier edition products, such as as pdfs.

 

[Crothian]

I want Rodney Thompson to come to Origins and play some games with us!

 

[rogueattorney]

My tastes and the tastes of those that make D&D split sometime in the late 80's and they've never really ever converged again. I have a lot more venom for the TSR of the 90's than for WotC, and stopped being a regular customer of D&D material in about 1994.

I respect WotC as a gaming company. I thought Everway was a great game, I still buy an occasional Magic card, and I really love Heroscape. However, I was so far out of the mainstream D&D loop at the turn of the Century that I was completely oblivious to 3e's release. I caught back up with things with 3.5e because one of my players wanted to DM the new version. I think after the short run of that 3.5 campaign (which stopped due to non-game, real life related reasons) that's when I really made peace with the fact that the makers of D&D simply weren't interested in making the kind of product I was interested in using for my game.

So now, the rule book I'm using might say "Labyrinth Lord," the campaign setting might say "Points of Light," and the adventure I'm running might say "Advanced Adventures" on it, but I'm still playing D&D, and it's by and large the exact same D&D I've always loved playing. Over the last 5 years, there have been more cool products for my D&D than the 15 years prior. It's just that none of those products have been made by the company that now owns the D&D brand. I'm comfortable with that fact and content with the resources out there right now for my game.

So, what could WotC do to get my money...

1. They already do get my money with Heroscape. The D&D/Heroscape crossovers are cool and are the first new D&D branded products I've purchased from WotC in 7 years. They're decent figures that are completely usable in my D&D games. They're not random; you know what you're buying, and they're priced reasonably.

More utilitarian high quality system-neutral peripherals like this might get my money. I'm not a big dungeon tiles guy, but those are still the right kind of idea. I haven't payed too much attention to the Ravenloft board game yet, but that also might be along the right track and tie in with my point #3 below.

2. Bring back the oop .pdfs. I bought them on a fairly regular basis. That would at least pull me onto a marketplace where I would see what WotC has to offer in new product. Personally, I just don't see the downside to offering the pre-4e stuff for sale in electronic format.

3. An occasional limited edition reprint would also be nice. It's not like WotC hasn't done this in the past: The Silver Anniversary box set, for example. I believe the Dragon CD-Rom Archive was a Paizo product, but that's another example of the type of product I'm talking about. Throw us a neat little bone every once in a while just to make us keep paying attention.