D&D 4E Where was 4e headed before it was canned?

[Garthanos]

jerking, it is?

Donkey parental smells of elderberries for the win jack.

The entire thread was a request for speculation you are just being rude.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Garthanos]

...but it still wouldn't have a martial controller. That could only happen in a /perfect/ world...
...and couldn't happen in a perfect world because they wouldn't even have ever invented fighting.

LOL

 

[Tony Vargas]

The trouble with this, and most of the speculation, is that is fun but meaningless.

Kinda like RPGs. ;P

In a certain sense, the question is unanswerable; to fans of 4e the untimely death of the produce means that the unreleased products in their mind were AMAZING AND AWESOME in the same way that people speculate about future seasons of Firefly or the unreleased music of Jimi Hendrix; the sad fact is that any product would never measure up to what is in your head. And, perhaps, it is best that way.
I mean- I can still think about how awesome D&D would have been if Gygax never left, forgetting inconvenient facts like, um, Cyborg Commando.

Or Dangerous Journeys.
I can't help but thinking that 2e'd've been better with him on board, though.

 

[Garthanos]

In the alternate timeline where 4e's sales goal was less than the size of the total industry, and the lead programmer was well-adjusted & decided to port to android apps, and the VTT was on-time, and nobody much fretted da Math let alone edition-warred, and the economy didn't implode, and an OGL/SRD was released concurrent with the PH, and KotSF didn't suck quite as hard...

That first two parameters are why the production rate was higher than could ever be supported and also directly reflected in the slow slow rate for 5e.

 

[Tony Vargas]

That first two parameters are why the production rate was higher than could ever be supported and also directly reflected in the slow slow rate for 5e.

I'd think they'd've gotten over any reticence by now, if the slow pace were /just/ because of low expectations & cost cutting going into devlopment. Either it was an honest change in philosophy from the get-go (making a virtue of necessity), or they figured: hey, the slow pace of release is causing books to fly off the shelves (correlation = causation, ftw!) so we better keep (not) doing it (too fast)!

 

[Garthanos]

In a certain sense, the question is unanswerable; to fans of 4e the untimely death of the produce means that the unreleased products in their mind were AMAZING AND AWESOME .

Err we actually stretch a lot I think to figure out "what" they might have been the product release rate in 4e was downright unparallelled a lot was already covered.

 

[Garthanos]

hey, the slow pace of release is causing books to fly off the shelves (correlation = causation, ftw!) so we better keep (not) doing it (too fast)!

Anything that can be attributed to... well logical fallacies and misattribution might as well be, it seems very human.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd think they'd've gotten over any reticence by now, if the slow pace were /just/ because of low expectations & cost cutting going into devlopment. Either it was an honest change in philosophy from the get-go, or they figured: hey, the slow pace of release is causing books to fly off the shelves (correlation = causation, ftw!) so we better keep (not) doing it (too fast)!

Why not both?

WotC has said they settled on the rate of release based on customer research. If data analysis suggests a causal factor, it is worth an honest change in philosophy, the moreso once it works.

 

[Tony Vargas]

based on customer research. If data analysis suggests

Meh, customer research and data analysis suggested that fixing 'static combat' and a lot of other play-functionality issues, and betting on an on-line subscription model, would let them print $50-100mil/year and keep Hasbro from shelving the IP.

Why not both?

Yeah, I actually went back and added "virtue of necessity" as that occurred to me, too. I mean, MM might not've had a lot of resources to develop 5e, but he was looking back at the early game (he said so repeatedly), and in addition to picking up on the primacy of the DM to excellent effect, maybe he also noticed: "hey, EGG was doing one book a year, /literally/ using the proceeds from one to publish the next, and that made 1e, which was wildly successful..."