Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5531128" data-attributes="member: 59082">Is there any denying that WotC D&D is in shambles, or borderline shambles? The DDI debacle, the cancellation of numerous products, the shoddy quality of Heroes of Shadow (from what I've heard), the lack of communication about the present state of affairs and the future, the lingering wound of the PDFiasco, and so on. But I'm wondering is this: at what point did things really begin to go down hill? OK, I'm going to pre-empt the predictable snarky comments like "When 4E was announced" or "When the core rulebooks came out." Kinda funny, but leave it be. So what do you think? When did WotC D&D jump the shark? Has it jumped the shark at all, in your view? While we're at it, is there any turning the ship around or is a new edition in the near future inevitable? What say you?My feeling is that it jumped the shark with Essentials. The quality of the rule books had been strong, especially from PHB 2 onward, but with recent excellent works like the Dark Sun books, the Planes books, etc. But the whole gesture of Essentials seemed...desperate, and also seemed to stall 4E perhaps permanently. But, most of all, it wasn't a movement forward - it was a re-packaging of old material with very little innovation. A few bright spots but more than the actual material itself, it seemed to derail the line, so to speak.I would couple that with the online version of Character Builder, which if I remember correctly was around the same time. WotC taking away the offline versions of Character Builder and Monster Builder was a travesty - and yet another bad PR move in a long line of bad PR moves.In other words, the Fall of 2010 was the Fall of WotC D&D.note: I am specifically saying "WotC D&D" to differentiate it from the game of 4E itself, which I think is still a very good game and evolving in a positive direction. But the whole presentation, publication, and "carrying" of the game--the line, if you will--is what I'm talking about. </blockquote>

Verification