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<blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 3935706" data-attributes="member: 15999">I look at as a game that standardized its rules AS SOON AS it went into mass production, and has since become an extremely popular board game.&nbsp; You see &quot;rules changes every 7 years&quot;; I see &quot;NO official rules changes since it went big 70 years ago.&quot;&nbsp; I think that consistency has been a huge factor in its success.Let's say D&amp;D were some hugely popular game with very broad appeal.&nbsp; People from anywhere could drop into a game, already knowing the rules, and have a great time.&nbsp; People who hadn't played in years could break out the dice and get right back into a local game. The copyright owners could try to continually tinker with the rules, but this would increase the barriers to entry, fragment the fanbase, and eventually kill the hobby.&nbsp; So, they'd content themselves with making new settings, new modules, and new physical accessories, without changing the rules.&nbsp; D&amp;D is in an unfortunate middle ground.&nbsp; It isn't so successful that it can consider its existing rules &quot;well-established&quot; the way they are for chess, Monopoly, or Scrabble, but it DOES have a broad enough fanbase that major rules changes will make people unhappy.&nbsp; Do you think Parker Brothers really cared that one small group of Quakers in Atlantic City had played a vaguely similar game a few years earlier?&nbsp; Of course not.&nbsp; The game hadn't had enough prior widespread success.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brother MacLaren, post: 3935706, member: 15999"] I look at as a game that standardized its rules AS SOON AS it went into mass production, and has since become an extremely popular board game. You see "rules changes every 7 years"; I see "NO official rules changes since it went big 70 years ago." I think that consistency has been a huge factor in its success. Let's say D&D were some hugely popular game with very broad appeal. People from anywhere could drop into a game, already knowing the rules, and have a great time. People who hadn't played in years could break out the dice and get right back into a local game. The copyright owners could try to continually tinker with the rules, but this would increase the barriers to entry, fragment the fanbase, and eventually kill the hobby. So, they'd content themselves with making new settings, new modules, and new physical accessories, without changing the rules. D&D is in an unfortunate middle ground. It isn't so successful that it can consider its existing rules "well-established" the way they are for chess, Monopoly, or Scrabble, but it DOES have a broad enough fanbase that major rules changes will make people unhappy. Do you think Parker Brothers really cared that one small group of Quakers in Atlantic City had played a vaguely similar game a few years earlier? Of course not. The game hadn't had enough prior widespread success. [/QUOTE]

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