D&D 3.x Will 4e last longer than 3e?

[BASHMAN]

Well, since 3rd edition only lasted 3 years, I hope it does last longer! To make it any shorter would be a recipe for disaster. Since they announced there will be no 4.5, I am confident it will last longer than 3 years.

But this time, I won't be sucked in by "kewl new powrz" the way I was by 3.5. I will probably break down and buy a PhB... but that will be it. Any other nifty thing I will simply rely on the kindness of strangers (actually friends) and borrow their books if there is anything in them I really need...

Of course, I may just give up on D&D entirely and try to get my group to go over to C&C. Long live the crusade!

 

[Shortman McLeod]

It is also possible that between the DI, the popularity of games like WoW and NWN, and the general forward march of technology, D&D as we know it will cease to exist by the time WotC would be ready to release a 5th edition. Back in the early days of cyberspace fiction, my gaming group always used to woolgather about my showing up with a computer chip, saying "hey! So let's run *this* module today!, and handing around VR glasses and goggles...

"What's today's adventure called? What's that, you say? 'Alice's Adventures in Eroticaland'? Woo-hoo!"

 

[dmccoy1693]

My prediction:

If 4E is a total flop, WotC will either sell off D&D RPG entirely or licence it off to someone else. The announcement will be made in 2011. They will keep the minis and still pump them out like there's no tomorrow. 5E will be upto someone else.

If 4E is mildly-to-poorly successful, WotC will focus on the customers they already have have and how to keep them from looking to other publishers. They'll look at monsters/classes/races/etc produced by other companies and steal their thunder with other something cooler. 5E will be released in 2012, will not be d20 and will not be OGL.

If 4E is wildly successful, WotC will focus on their existing product lines, settings, variants, etc that they already have or have in the works. 5E will be released in either 2014 or 2015 and will be OGL and d20 based.

 

[Mistwell]

Anyone who doubts that the new edition is anything other than a grab for cash needs to think again.

Anyone who has doubts that a for-profit company does things for profit needs to think again.

This is no more or less a "grab for cash" than anything any company ever does. What makes you feel that a for-profit company should be motivated by things other than profit, given the entire point of a for-profit company is based on a duty between the Board, Officers, and Shareholders of that company to seek profit?

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Why profits and nobler interests are always mutualy exclusive?

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

I see 5e being announced in 3-4 years and released in 5 years. 5e will be mostly (if not all) Collectable as its core mechanic and OGL and d20 Licenses will no longer exist.

But then, I'm a pessimist.

 

[Darrin Drader]

This is no more or less a "grab for cash" than anything any company ever does. What makes you feel that a for-profit company should be motivated by things other than profit, given the entire point of a for-profit company is based on a duty between the Board, Officers, and Shareholders of that company to seek profit?

They shouldn't. But at the same time there are other business models that could allow them to stick with one edition longer than a few years at a time. Ultimately its up to the consumer to decide whether they want to fork over a bunch more cash to keep the company's profits up, or if they're going to realize that there's nothing wrong with the perfectly playable game they already have and get off the merry-go-round.

 

[megamania]

If a lot of people actually follow D&D to 4E, then it will be a short lived edition because the businessfolk will have learned that they can get away with hitting the reset button more often to "reinvigorate the brand" (on that note, I hate how corporatespeak sidesteps the fact that they're really just sticking it to the consumer). If 4E is a success, then 5E will be a success five years later, and 6E will be a success four years after that.

Anyone who doubts that the new edition is anything other than a grab for cash needs to think again. While 3.5 took an already good game and improved upon it by making a lot of excellent options part of the core game, I have no such hopes for 4E. So far it looks like a lot of change for change's sake while including fewer rules in the core products instead of more.

I completely agree with this assessment BUT I also think there is a certain "need" to update and shape the game to fit the the new gamer....the electronic gamer. (The World of Warcrafters and the such).

To survive (and make more money in the process) the game needs to invite and APPEASE new players. Making it feel more like a video game is the way things are going now. Is it for everyone? No. Is it the way most new buyers (ages 15 or less) think? Yes.

As for DI.... I hate it because it is built on technology that I can not at this time make proper use of. I would prefer a book to hold. However, the reality of things is this- paper is damned expensive. Sucks but it the way things are going and will continue to go.


Will 4e last longer? If it grabs and maintains the attention of the anime / electronic fans yes. If not.... then it will run its course and go to 5e and try to rethink it again. Using the most reliable, cheapest and "accessable" form possible.

 

[Reaper Steve]

I get the impression (or maybe it's just blind hope) that 4E is being built for the long haul. The modular nature of roles and power sources allows for planned growth. I also think 4E will see all of the classics updated and re-released to bring back the common experience.

I also think a new edition every 5 years is reasonable, but 6-8 is probably optimum. Show me another RPG (worth playing) that's only on its 3rd revision in three decades. Games evolve, markets change. Of course, the difference is D&D gets more new books in a year than most other games get in a whole edition.

Maybe books should come with an expiration date so you know when it's time to throw them out. I mean, sheesh, people drop $25 (assuming a date, here) to see a movie in a theater, and then another $20 to buy it on DVD to watch one more time. Then it collects dust until the end of time. $45 bucks for four hours of entertainment. But then a company makes a new edition of the game book you paid $25 for 10 years ago and have used for hundreds of hours? HERESY!

The way I see it, each D&D book gives me many more hours of enjoyment than about any other leisure product or service for the same price. It's no big deal if I have to replace them twice a decade.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Maybe books should come with an expiration date so you know when it's time to throw them out. I mean, sheesh, people drop $25 (assuming a date, here) to see a movie in a theater, and then another $20 to buy it on DVD to watch one more time. Then it collects dust until the end of time. $45 bucks for four hours of entertainment. But then a company makes a new edition of the game book you paid $25 for 10 years ago and have used for hundreds of hours? HERESY!

The way I see it, each D&D book gives me many more hours of enjoyment than about any other leisure product or service for the same price. It's no big deal if I have to replace them twice a decade.

I love this argument. See, it's not the $100 you drop every five years or so on the new edition, it's all the books you have already bought that support that edition. It's the $20 to $50 a month you've spent on other books every month since you bought the core books. Chances are pretty good that you've only been able to use half those books you bought, and of those, only small bits of material here and there actually saw use. There's still volumes upon volumes of barely explored material for 3E. But if I were to move to 4E, not only would those go unexplored, but I could (and probably would) buy their 4th edition counterparts so that I can get use out of the portions of the 3E accessories I liked. And then once I'm happy with that again, watch out, here comes 5E!

Unless you're one of those people who buy the core rules only and stick with them, you're sacrificing a lot more than the $30 for the PHB that you bought five years ago. In my case I probably have at least $3K wrapped up in books that will soon be obsolete. Not sure whether I own 3K worth of movies on DVD, but at least they can be watched whenever I want without having to worry that the flat screen HD TV set will suddenly refuse to show them.