Why the D&D Miniature Line Failed...

[Cadfan]

No offense, but I really don't think you understand the miniature wargaming market.

The randomized plastic miniatures were part of a product line that supported a skirmish level wargame. Any answer for "why the D&D miniature line failed" is futile unless it begins with asking why the D&D miniature wargame was successful for a while, and then died out. That was the primary market. That's the thing that died. The miniatures themselves are still out there.

Personally, I suspect it was just time. Miniature wargames tend to have a life expectancy much like roleplaying games.

 

[jdrakeh]

No offense, but I really don't think you understand the miniature wargaming market.

I assume that you're referring to me, so I'll reply by stating that I understand it just fine. Conversely, you seem to be confusing collectible minis games with full-blown wargames. They aren't the same thing at all.

The randomized plastic miniatures were part of a product line that supported a skirmish level wargame.

Randomly distributed minis are not an integral part of wargames (skirmish level or otherwise). Rather, this is a feature unique to collectible minis games, which is a relatively new concept (as opposed to skirmish wargames, which date back to at least 1913). Mage Knight is generally the first acknowledged collectible miniatures game.

Any answer for "why the D&D miniature line failed" is futile unless it begins with asking why the D&D miniature wargame was successful for a while, and then died out. That was the primary market. That's the thing that died. The miniatures themselves are still out there.

To date, pretty much every collectible minis game has suffered the same fate — an initial period of popularity, followed by an almost total drop off in sales. As more and more collectible minis games have appeared and the novelty of CMGs has worn off, that initial period of popularity has grown shorter and shorter. The market of five years ago no longer exists.

Indeed, CMG players ceased to be the primary market as people buying more minis for use with D&D (the roleplaying game) began to outnumber them. I think WotC understands this market shift, given their decision to continue manufacturing the minis in a less random fashion for use with the RPG while simultaneously discontinuing the collectible minis game.

Personally, I suspect it was just time. Miniature wargames tend to have a life expectancy much like roleplaying games.

As previously mentioned, I think the minis game has been pretty dead for a while now. I honestly don't know anybody who has been playing the D&D minis game regularly for at least a year.

 

[Ahnirades]

My own purchasing experience matches the sentiments expressed above. It was the collectors market created by randomized selections that drove me away from D&D minis. I wanted to be able to go into a shop and buy a figure at a reasonable price, not play Hunt-the-Fire-Giant across multiple boxes or exorbitantly priced reseller sites. My adventures aren't designed randomly, so neither should the figures I use to represent them.

And on that note, are Wizards still releasing planning on releasing non-randomized sets next year?

 

[Felon]

And on that note, are Wizards still releasing planning on releasing non-randomized sets next year?

Non-randomized player-character minis are coming. The price is pretty stiff: $11 for three.

Monsters will come with one visible, and the others will be randomized.

Personally, I think people just found the skirmish game uninteresting. Using alignments as the basis for factions was a bad idea. It really shouldn't have made it off the drawing board. How do you even hope to execute that well? So, Chaotic Evil has all of these great monsters, while Lawful Good has a crapload of dwarves, paladins, and the occasional silver dragon. I know who I'm picking.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

To date, pretty much every collectible minis game has suffered the same fate — an initial period of popularity, followed by an almost total drop off in sales. As more and more collectible minis games have appeared and the novelty of CMGs has worn off, that initial period of popularity has grown shorter and shorter. The market of five years ago no longer exists.

What if their strategy was to market the game to miniatures players until the interest died down and then switch focus to the RPG side? The DDM product was unique in this way compared to MK and other CMGs in that they could take the risk of wading into the market while there was still money to be made and switch the focus on their product by keeping it compatible with another product when interest droped below a certain factor. If this was their strategy, then there is no failure.

 

[TarionzCousin]

The competitive game is what failed and the packaging and how the mini's were presented to make a competitive game was hurting the RPG side which was 90% of the business. So you take a step back and realize what horse is really driving the cart and focus on that. They did and I think it will be better for it in the end.

But no beholder was worth $40.00 or having to buy a dozen boxes of god-knows-what.

I think the random distribution is what hurt the most. It wasn't a bad idea for a battle game but, apparently, as the years wore on, more and more people buying D&D minis had little interest in the battle game and were only trying to scrape together figures for use in their D&D games — which could be very costly (and more than a little difficult) given the random distribution.

Amen. As far as I'm concerned, the new miniatures approach is a success; I refused to spend market value for a mini like the beholder that I wanted for my RPG game when it was priced for a wargame I didn't play.

 

[AllisterH]

You guys do realize the non-random aspect WILL increase the price significantly of the miniatures right?

As for the randomized nature of the pack, seriously, do people here never hear of the Limited format?

 

[Fifth Element]

Once you start throwing pig farmers and prisoners into the mix as common figures... well, it pretty much says it's over.

So the series was over with Night Below? That's when the prisoner mini was released. If that's the case, why were there 4 more series after Night Below?

Seriously, how many D&D minis are there? It's over a thousand. And we're looking at only 2 of them as a reason why the line "failed"? And the other point is, 17 series of minis is a failure? A line that is continuing in the future, with a somewhat different distribution scheme, is a "failure"?

The OP reads like a ranty screed. Peel away the layers and there are some valid criticisms there, but there's a thick layer of blargh covering them up.

 

[Echohawk]

Seriously, how many D&D minis are there? It's over a thousand.

1063 including the minis from the Icons lines.

And as I understand it, WotC still has the master molds for all of those minis. Which, if they so wished, would put them in a good position to make sets of non-random minis based on previous released figures. Presumably these would have reduced development costs since the molds already exist.

 

[Cadfan]

I assume that you're referring to me, so I'll reply by stating that I understand it just fine. Conversely, you seem to be confusing collectible minis games with full-blown wargames. They aren't the same thing at all.

1. I was referring to the OP, actually.

2. The difference between a collectible minis game and a "full-blown wargame" is less than you think. Its mostly a difference in distribution model. But otherwise I will grant your point. The OP (and a lot of other people in this thread) doesn't understand why the game failed because he's looking at it from an RPG perspective, and not a minis gamer perspective, of whatever stripe or label you want to place upon it.

To date, pretty much every collectible minis game has suffered the same fate — an initial period of popularity, followed by an almost total drop off in sales. As more and more collectible minis games have appeared and the novelty of CMGs has worn off, that initial period of popularity has grown shorter and shorter. The market of five years ago no longer exists.

I agree with this, except to say that I think a lot of "full blown wargames" follow similar trends, albeit slower due to the time consuming hobbyist aspect of collecting and painting the figures, and the way that time investment creates a long term investment in the game. The market sustains a few permanent members, but coming and going is the fate of smaller labels.

Indeed, CMG players ceased to be the primary market as people buying more minis for use with D&D (the roleplaying game) began to outnumber them. I think WotC understands this market shift, given their decision to continue manufacturing the minis in a less random fashion for use with the RPG while simultaneously discontinuing the collectible minis game.

I completely agree with this paragraph.