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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Heard" data-source="post: 2263698" data-attributes="member: 7280">I'm absolutely certain that the D&D brand is in a lot better shape than the original poster gives it credit for and that d20 only strengthens that brand in a way that GURPS never got respectively strengthened. HERO got sort of strengthened by Champions in a similar way, and I suppose you could even wag a finger at Sembieda's babies as increasing the branding ability for 1E & 2E (in the "Gee, a lot of this looks hella familiar" category). Anyways, it's not about the strength of the product so much when you're marketing the d20 brand, it's about producing something that's a complementary product to a enormous variety of other products based upon a brand (D&D) that's already the market leader. Complementary product sales drive up the sales of their complements, it's basic economics 101. GURPS leans on itself, but the core game just isn't as strong as D&D is. D&D is the substitution product (again, basic econ) for GURPS, so unless GURPS can somehow face down and outbrand the complements AND D&D it's always going to be in a lesser market position. I think there's a good case that White Wolf has been the smartest player in this, since they started with a strong internal brand and also joined in on the complementary branding to keep up their market share until they could revise and get a push from their revision. I admit though, crucial to WOTC's product schedule in this scheme of things is to produce core products at some brisk pace to push the sale of their other stuff like novels. Whether or not it costs a lot of money or not, WOTC will have to print a 4E before too long to start a new sale cycle and force the other publishers to join them. Not a revision of 3E like 3.5 - it will have to be something different enough to distinguish itself from the former products that it will require a substantial investment of some sort.</blockquote>

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