Why no love for WotC? (and why now?)

[tetsujin28]

So I'm not sure where all the "not-love" seems to be coming from. Or am I imagining it?

That would be my guess. We're the internet. We're a tiny fraction of gamers. The rest seem to be perfectly happy with the way things are.

 

[JoeGKushner]

It's easier to see the mange on the big dog even when the smaller dog has the rabies.

Same deal with people who hate a music group when it becomes mainstream. Some valid complaints in the mix, but most of it is whining.

 

[Li Shenron]

Plus, don't forget that to argue is quite natural Lot's of people scream around some forums "that's one too many, I'm out of this game forever! eat this, WotC ", and then they they are always around and playing anyway I always bicker about how Monks should have never been in the PHB, but when it comes down to actually play the game I really don't bother.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I have no problems with WotC whatsoever. If they put out a book I'm not interested in, I don't buy it. I think, like every company, they've gone through a slight slump or two, but with the some of the latest and upcoming releases, I think they've revitalized somewhat.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

2) More and more focused given to minis and maps (we all know that). I still like the idea of being able to rely on descriptions and imaginations when RPGing, but the rules get too precise in grid positions to make that possible.

I've never quite understood this. For me, the addition of the battlemat, tactical combat, and (especially) the miniatures has enhanced my ability to imagine and envision the action.

Surely I'm not the only one who enjoys looking at the battlemat, finding my character, and "projecting" myself down to eye-level involvement with the scene? I recently ran a game which began in media res with my PCs fighting a pair of warforged titans (love or hate Eberron, the Warforged Titan is a beautiful model), and I could feel my heartbeat increasing as I looked at the setup and imagined being down there, on the sands, with these massive things just towering over me.

I've been playing D&D since 1980 or so, and all I remember about combats from pre-Third Edition is, "I swing at the creature. I miss," over and over. Now combats have maneuvering, tactics, meaningful decisions ...

I dunno. Like I said, I don't understand what people mean when they say miniatures inhibit their imaginations.

 

[MonsterMash]

Generally the biggest and most successful companies will tend to attract more criticism as they are very visible - its not just WotC, Games Workshop (the Evil Empire) attracts plenty of criticism as well, though GW's recent price increases have tended to fuel the fire.

Personally I don't hate or love WotC or GW, but I'll only buy products that i really want or need and neither has produced many of those recently IMO.

 

[Maliki]

Being the largest rpg company, WotC will get the most "hate" from the public, that just the way things are.

As for myself, the last WotC product that I bought was MMII, when it was released, I am not a big fan of 3E. Yhe only two books that caught my attention was UA and DMG II, but with a limited gaming budget I have yet to pick up either.

 

[Dog Moon]

I agree with Jeff that using the mat and miniatures [Well, I can't afford that many minis, so I use dice] are excellent. I remember in 2e and even 3e a little before we used the grid that we were pretty much always where we needed to be, no matter what.

Scene: In a 10 foot by 10 feet room even though there's six of us and twenty of the enemy.
Player: Can I hit the enemies with a fireball without hitting any allies?
DM [no idea where anything is]: Um, sure.

Generally never quite THAT bad, but close enough.

As for WOTC, I haven't found much use of their latest books. I claim to like Frostburn though all I've used out of it is like 2 PrC and a couple of feats. Desert stuff and sea stuff doesn't interest me enough to buy an entire book. Complete Adventurer is cool, but the others don't really do much for me. I wasn't particularly fond of the Races books much either. I guess I don't particularly care about the eating habits and mating rituals of halflings when I can make up something much cooler for free.

Then again, I'm sure people loved those. I think people see more bad things because people complain out those. I've seen SO many complaints about things that I feel like puking, but rarely do you ever see: "OMG, THIS BOOK IS SOOOO AWESOME!! IT'S LIKE...THE HOLY GRAIL OF DND BOOKS."

Just my .02

 

[VirgilCaine]

I would have more love for them if they never had another run of tiny-error-filled books like Frostburn and Sandstorm. This kind of thing, to me, is expected in a third party book, not in the industry leader's backyard.

And non-collectible minis would be nice.

 

[Piratecat]

though the Ennies thing was bothering me too (I know WotC products have been nominated in earlier years).

WotC hasn't entered in a few years. I'm disappointed by that, but it makes some sense for them. They already have fantastic market awareness. If they enter, one of two things happen:

1. They win, nudging out smaller d20 publishers who could use the recognition more than they do, and people say "Of course they won. They're WotC."

2. They lose, making them look worse than normal due to their high visibility.

I'm hoping they change their approach, though, especially as the ENnies continues to grow. They're going to start looking a bit odd, and (typos aside) they have some of the best books in the industry.