Why the secrecy? Oh, already know the answer to that one...

[AGFlynn]

It seems disingenuous to me to have been working on 4e since 1995 and yet pumping out dozens of 3.5e products during the intervening years, and more to come before 2008.
Yeah, I'll probably convert if it's a good system. But I don't like being kept in the dark. I always took the flood of WotC product as a sign that 4e was still quite a way away. I wouldn't have bought my last WotC sourcebook had I know it's arrival date is next May.
So, why keep publishing 3.5e? Is there an expectation gamers will keep using -- and buying -- that product?
I feel as though WotC should at least take me out to dinner before doing this to me. Hell, I still think they owe me lunch for 3.5....

 

[The Human Target]

They've been working on 4E since before 3E came out?

I admire that foresight.

Its silly to believe a company would stop supporting the current product before the "next generation" product is done, especially for several years.

I'm sure a lot of 3E users would be mad if they had missed out on all the quality books that have come out since 4E has been in the works, as well.

 

[Abisashi]

1995?

 

[blargney the second]

It seems disingenuous to me to have been working on 4e since 1995

Is that hyperbole I smell?

 

[Atlatl Jones]

You want WotC to stop publishing D&D entirely for three whole years, because they had started preliminary work on the next edition? I don't know about you, but I've bought some great books in the past years and got some good use out of them.

And imagine the uproar! "3.5 only came out 2 years ago, and now you're going to completely stop supporting the game because of a product you'll be publishing in 3 years?!?"

 

[WayneLigon]

I have no doubt that 5E and even 6E plans are in someone's folders and some small amount of that is being worked on even as we speak. This is how the design process works, and it is how a company works.

Again, it comes back to how real businesses work. You can't produce, say, three 4E books in January and then have nothing on your slate of projects until October. Some people - who apparently have no idea how the real world works - have even said 'Produce three 4E books and then nothing else after that'.

Well, if you did that, then there certainly would be nothing after that because the business would fold.

A business that depends on boom and bust curves like that doesn't last very long because sooner or later what you thought was going to be a boom turns out not to be, and that's when layoffs and other badness happens.

The design process works in a similar way, whether you're designing a game or a software package. You think that one day at Microsoft that Bill sends around a memo saying 'OK, today we start work on Windows 2010'? No, he doesn't. There are teams working on features and technologies years into the future, stuff that won't see daylight for 10 years or more, and some that never will because they prove untenable. At some point enough changes and modifications and new discoveries accumulate to the point that you can roll out a new product that incorporates changes that have taken place, addresses past problems, and also provides a different enough experience for the user that they don't feel like you've gipped them.

 

[Warbringer]

I'm sure he means 2005. RH indicated that they began work on 4e in that timeframe.

As to why not pre-announce, because then you wouldn't have bought the last sourcebook...

 

[Scribble]

1995?

Peter Adkison: Hey Monte Guess what?

Monte Cook: Whatup?

Peter Adkison: I just bought D&D off of a dying TSR!

Monte Cook: Sweetness in a candy coated awesome shell!

Peter Adkison: I know... I've already put Mike Mearls to work on 4e...

Monte Cook: But there's only 2 editions of the game...

Peter Adkison: I know... GET BACK TO WORK MINION! MOOOHOOOHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

 

[blargney the second]

Peter Adkison: Hey Monte Guess what?

Monte Cook: Whatup?

Peter Adkison: I just bought D&D off of a dying TSR!

Monte Cook: Sweetness in a candy coated awesome shell!

Peter Adkison: I know... I've already put Mike Mearls to work on 4e...

Monte Cook: But there's only 2 editions of the game...

Peter Adkison: I know... GET BACK TO WORK MINION! MOOOHOOOHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

LMAO!

 

[AGFlynn]

Is that hyperbole I smell?

MMMmmmm, hyperbole.