Why di WoTC lie to us?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its quite simply good business sense.

If WotC announced in 2006 that they were working on the replacement product for 3.X, they would have taken a hit to their bottom line- how big is an open question. Questions of quality aside, MMV and others would have been lame duck products.

Look at the market for televisions- ever since the announcement of the new standards, old-style TVs have dropped in price at increasing rates. In fact, declining prices in older TVs caused some electronic retailers to take huge financial losses. There was even a particularly steep drop in the Christmas season of 2006 that resulted some losses large enough to drive stores out of business.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I don't even see it as a lie, I see it as using deliberately vague language. For example, I remember saying that 4E wouldn't be coming out any time "soon". Define "soon" for me, so that I can tell my boyfriend that I'll do the dishes "soon". If I tell him I'll do them "soon" and I wait until next May, he's going to kick my butt out onto the sofa.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Its quite simply good business sense.

If WotC announced in 2006 that they were working on the replacement product for 3.X, they would have taken a hit to their bottom line- how big is an open question. MMV would have been a lame duck product.

They could have always have said something like this:

"Of course we're working on 4th edition. We've been working on it since 3rd edition hit the shelves, and you've seen our experiments and design advances in the 3rd edition books since then. Once we think we've pushed 3rd edition as far as we can take it, we'll take every lesson we've learned and use them to guide the development of the next edition."

Subtext: "Working on 4th edition" is the normal state of affairs and has been for longer than you were worried about it. Therefore, the fact that we're working on it is not an event, and does not suggest an immanent event. Also, we're not giving you a timeline. Also, none of this is a lie.

The next time someone asks about 5th edition, they should say, "well, obviously there's always room for improvement, but we're really tired right now and need long vacations. Very long vacations."

 

[Agamon]

There was no outright lie, that I'm aware of. The "products through 2008" was, as already said, a misquote that wasn't corrected. No lie there.

D&D Experience - Scott said 4E wasn't coming for a long time. Well, May 2008 is a long time from January 2007. No lie there.

These are what most people point to as the WotC lies. If there's anything, I'm not too sure about it, but as Victim said, there's little they could do but be misleading where necessary.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Of course we're working on 4th edition. We've been working on it since 3rd edition hit the shelves, and you've seen our experiments and design advances in the 3rd edition books since then. Once we think we've pushed 3rd edition as far as we can take it, we'll take every lesson we've learned and use them to guide the development of the next edition."

Yes, they could have responded thus, but the net effect would still have been a hit to the bottom line.

The basic business model of planned obsolescence has never been absent from the RPG hobby...it just took some companies longer to adopt the method of "editions" rather than continuous piecemeal alteration.

For me, at least, the concept of a replacement edition to a game isn't a surprise- its expected...only a matter of time, really.

So, while 4Ed hasn't even hit the shelves, I'm already comfortable with the concept that, if its successful, there will be a 5Ed. In time.

WotC is producing a product no different from those of Chrysler or Mercedes...Macintosh or PC. You don't see them announcing when they're changing models up until they're within months of doing so. You also don't see people getting ticked off that their 2006 car is being replaced by much better vehicles in the next model year.

Eventually, any healthy company's R&D department will kick out something that will supplant the company's entire product line. That's business. To do otherwise leads to stagnation and possible bankruptcy.

And tipping your hand too early? Definitely problematic.

Heck, scan the 4Ed forums- you'll see there are already people planning on halting/minimizing new purchases until the 4Ed furor shakes out, in order to take advantage of the falling price of 3.X products if nothing else.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Heck, scan the 4Ed forums- you'll see there are already people planning on halting/minimizing new purchases until the 4Ed furor shakes out, in order to take advantage of the falling price of 3.X products if nothing else.

I'd think that might have something to do with the stated immanence of the new edition. I don't think people would be trying to sell their 3.x books on eBay if they were told 4th edition were coming "eventually," especially if it's not the first announcement of an eventual 4th edition.

 

[Khairn]

Shame on us for being surprised, especially given WotC's track record with customers over the last 6 months, and shame on WotC for feeling that "mis-information" was the only option they had for dealing with their customers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There was a definite slowdown in the sales of 2Ed product when the existence of 3Ed was confirmed in various ways around April 2000.

If it had been revealed in 1997 (when work on 3Ed actually started), TSR's flailings would have become total collapse- there might not have been a big enough cash flow to see 3Eds actual release.

 

[rokeca]

Shame on us for being surprised, especially given WotC's track record with customers over the last 6 months, and shame on WotC for feeling that "mis-information" was the only option they had for dealing with their customers.

It's funny - WotC's 4e pre-announcement communication strategy is straight from the playbook of companies that cheerily mislead employees their jobs are safe in times of change or crisis.

When you're using the same tactics on your customers as corporations trying to hide impending job cuts, then something's wrong.

Companies mislead their customers at their own risk, just as customers who fail to hold companies to account do so at their own risk.

 

[Odhanan]

I do believe there is something terribly wrong in WotC's communication.

I'm suspecting it depends on a lot more than a few people sharing coffee together in the morning and deciding what the strategy's gonna be for the next few days, and that creates all sorts of problems. What I mean, is that WotC is a big company: one department doesn't know what the other is doing, insane procedures have to be followed when a communication situation would ask for a fast reaction, some guys among the lawyers don't know crap about RPGs, what they are, who plays them, how to communicate to them, some employees who do know don't want to upset the guys who are keeping them employed and just tell the crap they're told to say... well, you get my drill, I wager.