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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Where was 4e headed before it was canned?
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7645074" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I think there are several things people don't understand about those days. Gary was a brilliant promoter. In the 70's D&D was nothing, during the first 6 years it became a big thing in the GAME world, but it shifted probably less than 100k units in that entire time, including several modules, 3 different sets of core rules, etc. </p><p></p><p>Starting with the Red Box, spurred by the popularity of the cartoon and the fortuitousness of the 'Moms against D&D' non-sense (which made playing an act of rebellion, always a golden key to teenage uptake of anything) the Red Box shifted a lot of units. AD&D was there to cash in on the flow of more interested gamers who wanted a game with more 'stuff' than B/X provided. Likewise B/X and BECMI provided an easy gift-friendly entry and a bit more straightforward dungeon crawling kind of game experience that suited a lot of 'beer and pretzels' type play.</p><p></p><p>Whether Gygax and Co really planned things that way, they got a happy synergy between versions of the game, some luck in terms of the wider social scene, and they really did pump out a LOT of product. There weren't core books at the rate of 4e, by any means, but they pumped out tons of modules, spin-off products, BECMI stuff, settings, etc.</p><p></p><p>The other thing to remember is that this period really only lasted about 6 years. Between 1981 and about 1987 D&D flourished. After that it remained fairly popular and successful for a few more years, but TSR felt the need to put out 2e in '89, and that never reached anything like the sales of earlier days. The 90's was just a long slow slide into irrelevance with lots of product and an ever-decreasing market share. Maybe this was a result of Gary being booted, who knows? Perhaps he'd have found a way to keep the game seeming 'cool' and something for lots of kids to try instead of basically almost a legacy game with only a fairly slow turnover in an audience which seems to get older and grayer every year.</p><p></p><p>4e was meant to change that, the marketing and product 'packaging' didn't quite produce the increase in audience that was desired (maybe in company with 2008 being basically a very lousy year overall, I dunno). Clearly WotC learned some things the 2nd time around, but it is worth pointing out that 4e still managed to sell really well, it outsold 3.x!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7645074, member: 82106"] I think there are several things people don't understand about those days. Gary was a brilliant promoter. In the 70's D&D was nothing, during the first 6 years it became a big thing in the GAME world, but it shifted probably less than 100k units in that entire time, including several modules, 3 different sets of core rules, etc. Starting with the Red Box, spurred by the popularity of the cartoon and the fortuitousness of the 'Moms against D&D' non-sense (which made playing an act of rebellion, always a golden key to teenage uptake of anything) the Red Box shifted a lot of units. AD&D was there to cash in on the flow of more interested gamers who wanted a game with more 'stuff' than B/X provided. Likewise B/X and BECMI provided an easy gift-friendly entry and a bit more straightforward dungeon crawling kind of game experience that suited a lot of 'beer and pretzels' type play. Whether Gygax and Co really planned things that way, they got a happy synergy between versions of the game, some luck in terms of the wider social scene, and they really did pump out a LOT of product. There weren't core books at the rate of 4e, by any means, but they pumped out tons of modules, spin-off products, BECMI stuff, settings, etc. The other thing to remember is that this period really only lasted about 6 years. Between 1981 and about 1987 D&D flourished. After that it remained fairly popular and successful for a few more years, but TSR felt the need to put out 2e in '89, and that never reached anything like the sales of earlier days. The 90's was just a long slow slide into irrelevance with lots of product and an ever-decreasing market share. Maybe this was a result of Gary being booted, who knows? Perhaps he'd have found a way to keep the game seeming 'cool' and something for lots of kids to try instead of basically almost a legacy game with only a fairly slow turnover in an audience which seems to get older and grayer every year. 4e was meant to change that, the marketing and product 'packaging' didn't quite produce the increase in audience that was desired (maybe in company with 2008 being basically a very lousy year overall, I dunno). Clearly WotC learned some things the 2nd time around, but it is worth pointing out that 4e still managed to sell really well, it outsold 3.x! [/QUOTE]
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