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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sigurd" data-source="post: 2262075" data-attributes="member: 19412">IP & the bigger pictureIntellectual property that is not relevant or popular is not very valuable. D&D made inroads because it was a good game and it was new. Modules seemed like the youth's equivalent of comic books and they enhanced the value of D&D to the extent they were popular.Your arguements are interesting but you don't have any financial data to back them up. I suspect D&D will always be 'worth' more than Gurps. What other game has a movie, at least one television show, several comics and several computer games to its credit?I am curious to see what Hasbro thinks of Wizards of the Coast (a book and collectibles production company)? Are profits as good as the typical Time Life series?I think you have to expand your arguement from modules to include computer games and merchandizing to make them relevant. Its hard to assess value especially of fiction. Don't forget D&D doesn't have a monopoly on Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, gold as treasure or magic. Creative minds aren't forced to deal with WOTC unless it inspires them enough to pay for it. What inspires them, from a business perspective, will be confined to what is popular & what excites potential readers\consumers.When D&D was hot it was HUGE. Game stores _plural_ opened to sell role playing games. Now even if WOTC is a fair size company, as a percentage of game entertainment choice I think D&D is shrinking. The surviving game store in my city primarily sells miniatures for warhammer and comic books. Video games don't need Dungeons & Dragons and they are a much bigger industry. If the OGL sacrifices a percentage of the pen and paper role playing market but increases interest from the video market WOTC wins. Modules and written dungeons just don't compare as money makers -- base rules and control makes money everything else is small potatoes. Much of it not really profitable at all.I can easily see a future where even WOTC neglects pen and paper gaming because the market is saturated and/or too small. The Open Content license is a life support for the material that even WOTC benefits from by keeping enthusiasm for their trademark. In some ways D&D properties are like old television shows - spent and unprofitable unless there is a nostalgia boom.Sorry if that sounds pessimistic - this is only my opinion of the 'big picture'. I don't have any more facts than your post.I'd love to hear any numbers or other opinions.S</blockquote>

Verification