Why Wizards Has Lost Touch w/ Its Base

[Bayushi Seikuro]

My two cents

Now, bear in mind, just some thoughts here:

First, there was a post earlier likening control of the IP to one person controlling Linux or the Internet. And that the diversity brought to those things made them better and stronger.

Well, I remember when the OGL started up. I discussed it with a friend who is much more tech savvy on open-source things than I am. And what we figured would happen was a large glut of d20 system books and rules, which would tend to turn people off of 'non official'/"Hey, this one says D&D on it" products, but in the end, strong companies would survive. Companies with good business skills and solid products - mechanics, new flavor, rules, etc.

And that seems to have pretty much happened.

What my unofficial take on the 'loss' of Dungeon and Dragon magazine is that, yes, they provided benefits. However, if you're a month-to-month buyer, you might skip issues that don't involve a large amount of things you can use. You may be nuts about aberrations, and buy any issue dealing with those, and be so anti-modron that you skip issues involving lawful critters.

The other factor I see as being a hurdle to Dungeon/Dragon success is that what they provide, people can find just as easily on ENworld or other websites. Content, ideas, discussion -- ideas that one sentence in a post might inspire ideas for a new campaign for you.

They are competing with a free resource, one that updates automatically, with new posts or ideas, as opposed to waiting for layout and ads and shipping monthly.

But, I could be wrong.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Most people in these threads seem to have skipped denial and gone straight to the anger stage of grief.

We're D&D players. We want to kill them and take their stuff.

 

[Vigilance]

However, if WotC doesn't care about me because I'm an over 30 gamer, why should I continue to care about them? If they stop looking at me, I'll stop looking at them.

Thay haven't "stopped looking at you". This isn't just about you.

They have made a decision that enough people will try out for-pay web content to make it a better deal for them than Dungeon and Dragon as paper magazines.

That is all.

They harbor you, personally, or other gamers like you, no ill will.

 

[Desdichado]

They have made a decision that enough people will try out for-pay web content to make it a better deal for them than Dungeon and Dragon as paper magazines.

That is all.

Well, not exactly. The scenario would make sense if Wizards actually published Dungeon and Dragon, but since they farmed that out to Paizo a number of years ago, it's not about making it "a better deal for them than Dungeon and Dragon as paper magazine."

Most likely it's about them not caring about Dungeon and Dragon as magazines and figuring that with the reduced cost of online subscription content they can squeeze a bit more out of the brand if they did this. In order to make it work, they need to kill the license to Paizo so as to not have undue competition for their new model.

So, yeah. Nothing personal; it's just business. It strikes me as probably a bit sleasy to kill their license so they can have a clear field to operate in, though. It also occurs to me that this new business plan may be based more on a short term cost benefit analysis without regard to demand or desires of their customers.

 

[der_kluge]

I didn't think of this until you posted it and you are absolutely correct. I am not an active member of their customer base any longer. I'm also not part of their core demographic anymore apparently.

Who is their customer base then? I don't see a huge number of 12 year old kids playing this game.

I went to a D&D meetup recently. 12 people came - all were late 20s and up. ENWorld really is indicative of the average D&D consumer. If people on ENWorld are upset, you can bet that's reflective of the larger D&D population.

 

[Ghendar]

Thay haven't "stopped looking at you". This isn't just about you.

They have made a decision that enough people will try out for-pay web content to make it a better deal for them than Dungeon and Dragon as paper magazines.

That is all.

They harbor you, personally, or other gamers like you, no ill will.

I understand that. I never meant to imply that this decision is some personal vendetta against me.

However, they do seem to be targeting a segment of their customer base that I, apparently, am no longer a part of. Is that good business sense? Perhaps. I don't know.
And it's not just this magazine decision. It's the whole direction that D&D seems to be going.

Sucks for me though and I know I'm not the only one.

 

[BluSponge]

Its no wonder that Wizards of the Coast has lost touch with their customer base. I did a search for Wizards of the Coast on www.linkedin.com and who did I see running WOTC brands?

SNIP

Don't get me wrong an MBA and/or corporate experience is a great foundation, but WOTC needs a more diverse mix of industry people contribute to the decision making.

I dunno. I'd call that pretty diverse. Certainly more marketing firepower than probably any other gaming company out there. How many of these guys were gamers before coming to WotC?

I don't even think your question is correct. Has WotC really lost touch with its customer base? They rolled out third edition to the howls and cries of a fan base that didn't want it. Had they lost touch? Star Wars minis sold better than the RPG, so WotC catered to their needs. Is that losing touch? They had already divested themselves of GenCon and licensed out their two periodical organs. Is that losing touch?

Business is as much about growing your audience and opening new avenues as it is sticking to your old customer base. WotC seems to have its eye on the future and looking to try new things. Maybe that will work out. Kids today are indeed more web concious and if their web venture caters to that, and manages to retain a portion of older customers (good reviews from these will grow that number), then it will be a success for them. It's all about selling core books, and if they can maintain and grow those sales with web content, then more power too them.

People hate change. No one likes it when their favorite campaign setting is tossed into the perverbial hopper in favor of some new toy. I'd compare the cancellation of Dungeon and Dragon to the cancellation of Dark Sun, or Birthright. Yeah, it sucks. But that's change for you.

Seeing that WotC *still* outsells 90% of RPG companies combined, its a bit of a stretch to say they're not in touch with what their customers want. Given those sales figures, I imagine there are companies that would KILL to have their marketing juju.

Tom

 

[BluSponge]

I went to a D&D meetup recently. 12 people came - all were late 20s and up. ENWorld really is indicative of the average D&D consumer. If people on ENWorld are upset, you can bet that's reflective of the larger D&D population.

That's all anecdotal. There is a vast majority of casual gamers who have never set foot on ENWorld, and probably have never purchased a copy of Dragon or Dungeon.

Tom

 

[mmadsen]

I don't see a huge number of 12 year old kids playing this game.

I don't see a huge number of 12-year-olds. Period. I don't know what 12-year-olds are up to.

I went to a D&D meetup recently. 12 people came - all were late 20s and up. ENWorld really is indicative of the average D&D consumer. If people on ENWorld are upset, you can bet that's reflective of the larger D&D population.

I would not have gone to a D&D meetup at age 12 myself.

ENWorld is indicative of hardcore gamers, and ENWorlders may be influential amongst gamers, but they're hardly typical gamers.

 

[WhatGravitas]

And that seems to have pretty much happened.

What my unofficial take on the 'loss' of Dungeon and Dragon magazine is that, yes, they provided benefits. However, if you're a month-to-month buyer, you might skip issues that don't involve a large amount of things you can use. You may be nuts about aberrations, and buy any issue dealing with those, and be so anti-modron that you skip issues involving lawful critters.

The other factor I see as being a hurdle to Dungeon/Dragon success is that what they provide, people can find just as easily on ENworld or other websites. Content, ideas, discussion -- ideas that one sentence in a post might inspire ideas for a new campaign for you.

They are competing with a free resource, one that updates automatically, with new posts or ideas, as opposed to waiting for layout and ads and shipping monthly.

Honestly, I don't get what you're saying. The magazines *are* thriving. The problem is that WotC decided not to renew the license.

But now WotC wants to do an electronic thing - and now *they're* competing with this free resource called "Internet", and they don't have physical paper and high-resolution pictures (because printed stuff is 300dpi) as redeeming qualities.

That has absolutely nothing to do with "loss of the magazines".