Why so little D20 Modern Support?
- Thread starter The Overlord
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Dana_Jorgensen said:
Good lord, did I actually string that phrase together? What the hell have I been smoking?
C. Baize said:
And to abuse a tired cliche... No, wait, I won't do that.
Even if I only had as little as half a wit, it would still be twice what the two of you have demonstrated you can muster together with your lame efforts at insults.
Getting Back on Topic ...
Hello, everyone. JD Wiker, president of The Game Mechanics, here. Being part of a game design studio that focuses on modern d20 products (though we do fantasy as well), and *also*being a former Wizards employee, I think I can offer a bit of insight into why there seems to be so little support for d20 Modern. And it's simple: D&D is the main duty of Wizards' RPG staff. Hasbro sees D&D as the cash-cow of its RPG group, and rather logically prefers to devote more resources to keeping the cash-cow well-fed and productive. Just because *we* like d20 Modern doesn't mean that Hasbro should reallocate its resources. Let's face it: The d20 Modern audience is a lot smaller, and pouring advertising money into a sub-niche market is *never* a good business strategy. (And Hasbro is decidedly about good business strategy, as is clear from the book Toy Wars.)
Fortunately, the Open Game License has created a great opportunity for those of us who want to see (and provide) support for the games that are off Hasbro's radar. Wizards is not going to put a lot of effort (read: expensive man-hours) into growing the d20 Modern brand, but the OGL allows *us* to grow the brand--and, for the most part, reap the benefits. (Wizards is likely to sell more copies of d20 Modern if external support raises public awareness, but that just means a bigger market for us--as well as a chance that d20 Modern might cause a blip on Hasbro's radar.)
So, rather than curse the darkness, we need to light some candles. The product schedule of The Game Mechanics is predominantly composed of modern d20 projects (though we're not abandoning fantasy d20, by any means; we've got too many ideas that we think are winners). And we have plenty of what the textbooks call "healthy competition" in the form of a slew of other companies producing modern d20 material (many of whom have posted in this very thread). That mutual effort, by itself, is going to grow the audience, though, obviously, we've still got a long way to go.
Still, we're already over the first major hurdle: d20 Modern is part of the OGL, which gives us a tremendous leg up on other abandoned Wizards product lines, such as Alternity and its modern setting, Dark*Matter, and a slight leg up on settings like Ravenloft and Gamma World (both of which are being revived as d20 products--though at a cost to the companies who licensed them from Wizards). In other words, supporting d20 Modern costs us almost nothing.
If anyone's interested in discussing this in real-time, drop by The Game Mechanics' chat room tonight, at 5:30 Pacific Time. We'll be in the chat room, just hanging out, and we can talk about any subject that takes your fancy. This seems like a good topic.
Hello, everyone. JD Wiker, president of The Game Mechanics, here. Being part of a game design studio that focuses on modern d20 products (though we do fantasy as well), and *also*being a former Wizards employee, I think I can offer a bit of insight into why there seems to be so little support for d20 Modern. And it's simple: D&D is the main duty of Wizards' RPG staff. Hasbro sees D&D as the cash-cow of its RPG group, and rather logically prefers to devote more resources to keeping the cash-cow well-fed and productive. Just because *we* like d20 Modern doesn't mean that Hasbro should reallocate its resources. Let's face it: The d20 Modern audience is a lot smaller, and pouring advertising money into a sub-niche market is *never* a good business strategy. (And Hasbro is decidedly about good business strategy, as is clear from the book Toy Wars.)
Fortunately, the Open Game License has created a great opportunity for those of us who want to see (and provide) support for the games that are off Hasbro's radar. Wizards is not going to put a lot of effort (read: expensive man-hours) into growing the d20 Modern brand, but the OGL allows *us* to grow the brand--and, for the most part, reap the benefits. (Wizards is likely to sell more copies of d20 Modern if external support raises public awareness, but that just means a bigger market for us--as well as a chance that d20 Modern might cause a blip on Hasbro's radar.)
So, rather than curse the darkness, we need to light some candles. The product schedule of The Game Mechanics is predominantly composed of modern d20 projects (though we're not abandoning fantasy d20, by any means; we've got too many ideas that we think are winners). And we have plenty of what the textbooks call "healthy competition" in the form of a slew of other companies producing modern d20 material (many of whom have posted in this very thread). That mutual effort, by itself, is going to grow the audience, though, obviously, we've still got a long way to go.
Still, we're already over the first major hurdle: d20 Modern is part of the OGL, which gives us a tremendous leg up on other abandoned Wizards product lines, such as Alternity and its modern setting, Dark*Matter, and a slight leg up on settings like Ravenloft and Gamma World (both of which are being revived as d20 products--though at a cost to the companies who licensed them from Wizards). In other words, supporting d20 Modern costs us almost nothing.
If anyone's interested in discussing this in real-time, drop by The Game Mechanics' chat room tonight, at 5:30 Pacific Time. We'll be in the chat room, just hanging out, and we can talk about any subject that takes your fancy. This seems like a good topic.
mroberon1972
First Post
Is that 8:30 eastern?
C. Baize
First Post
Dana_Jorgensen said:
Ah.. we used to call guys like you "Radio Rambo" you suffer from the, "I'm anonymous, therefor you can't smack me in the grill" syndrome, which has a tendency to lead to impoliteness, and generally being an ass in a forum where you're in no danger.
Carry on then, Rambo.
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