Why can't WotC break the mass market barrier?

[kenobi65]

If it had been a fad, it would have gone away altogether, like the things you mentioned.

Not necessarily. Many things that were fads at one point still exist, but don't have the mass impact that they had during their days as a fad.

Hula hoops were a massive fad in the 1950s. You can still buy them today, but they're just a niche toy now.

 

[Desdichado]

If it had been a fad, it would have gone away altogether, like the things you mentioned.

Huh? No, not necessarily.

 

[Desdichado]

I thought role-playing games were more popular now than they ever have been?

Uh... no, that's not true at all. Sales numbers now are nowhere near what they were in the early to mid 80s.

Unless you're counting MMORGs as RPGs or something.

 

[kenobi65]

Consider, instead, turning the question around - what is there about rpgs that make it look like it ought to be appealing to the mass market, such that we are surprised that it isn't bigger? I think you'll find the list is fairly short...

I completely agree, particularly when you look at the fact that there's been many licensed RPGs that borrow interest from what are pretty darn big "geek properties" (Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and DC comics, etc.), but none of them have gotten anywhere close to the market size of D&D, and the vast majority of the fans of those properties, despite being geeks in their own way, have never tried the RPGs for their favorite properties, and (even if they're aware that the games exist) have no interest in doing so.

 

[Dykstrav]

The only problem I have with this theory is that 4E, from what we have seen so far, seems sufficiently different from 3E both mechanically and thematically that it could (and this is far from certain) prove divisive enough to drive away a not insignificant minority of the existing customers.

It's already converted me and my "regular" gaming buddies into 3E grognards, although it's more because of our life situations than any inherent dislike of the new rules.

As a freelance filmmaker, I'm usually very busy with work. Most projects shoot six days a week, and after shooting 16+ hour days for six days a week, I do precious little on that seventh day except sleep. So when I'm on a shoot, I'm not gaming. Even when I'm not on a shoot, the group I play with usually uses very little optional material. We play almost entirely by the core rules, adding in only occasional bits of newer material (for example, a player got to check out a swordsage a campaign back). Again, it's not that we don't like new material. The thing is, when we only get to play short, intense campaigns every other month or so, we'd rather get to the task of actually playing rather than learning a bunch of new rules.

When 4E comes out, I certainly intend to check it out. But I predict an increasingly low order of probability that we'll ever actually switch, just because we all know 3.5 in and out by now. There's also the fact that I'm still not sold on 4E. It seems like for every one thing I hear that would be cool in 4E, theres at least one thing that I don't like. Given these factors, I'll probably get the 4E core rulebooks and they'll gather dust on my shelf.

 

[Scribble]

Wachoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Hard pressed to find products in Barnes & Noble? I have a better selection at my local B&N than I do at my FLGS.

D&D was everywhere in the early 80s because it was a fad. Why can't it come back again? I don't know; probably for the same reason parachute pants, break-dancing and those checkerboard looking Vans shoes don't come back. Because they were fads too. That's the nature of fads; they fade away quickly.

Dude... I guess you haven't seen the Breakers on So You Think You Can Dance? Break dancing is alive and well. Parachute pants I've even seen coming back slightly.

I think it's about time for D&D to get back into the main stores as well.

 

[Desdichado]

Exactly my point; fads don't disappear, just the idea of everyone being aware of them or involved with them does.

Die hards still stick with it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Turn Off Factor -- Fewer and fewer people in this country read.

Books, magazines and newspapers.

Americans read all day every day with the explosion of the Internet.

And people play D&D online as well.

This isn't a major issue, IMO, and in many ways, WotC is right to reach out to this online audience. (And I say that independently of what I think of pulling the plug on their print magazines.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it's about time for D&D to get back into the main stores as well.

What stores? Everyone but the OP seems able to find D&D in book and toy shops. Do you want them by the cash register at 7-Eleven as well? Given away in Happy Meals from McDonalds?

 

[kenobi65]

I think it's about time for D&D to get back into the main stores as well.

And I think what a lot of us are saying is that it *is* there, in many cases. It's in Barnes and Noble and Borders, the Basic Game is in TRU...and a lot of the "main stores" where we grognards picked it up in 1982 just don't carry books or toys much anymore, period.