Wizards aiming younger audience

[DaveMage]

I think this product is a great idea!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Yeah but lets be honest, there's more than just "kids dont want to" going on there. Comic book prices are outrageous compared to when I was a kid. Comics went from 50 cents to 1.25 to about $2.

When my daughter started liking spiderman, I got sticker shock when I went to get her a comic an it was over $3.

What kid's going to collect with that? Hell I'm not even going to and I love comics. Its trade paperbacks for me.

EXACTLY.

I've been reading and collecting comics since I was 6 years old (I'm 38 now) I decided to stop buying comics about 2 months ago when I bought 4 of my regular books and gave the d00d at the counter a $20 and he gave me back $2 and some change.

I looked at him and told him point blank "Yeah d00d, I think I'm done." He was like "Yeah, I've been hearing that alot lately. I totally understand..."

$3.99 an issue is my threshold. I've been a loyal reader and collector for a loooooong time. It's sad to leave that hobby behind but it needed to be done.

 

[Orius]

According to the US census bureau, the population of senior citizens is expected to increase by 40% over the next five years, while the population of children 15 and under is only expected to increase by 6%.

Don't we have enough cranky old gamers yelling at the kids to get off their lawn already?

 

[ShinHakkaider]

DC is aiming at lowering the price point of comics, according to boss men Dan Didio and Jim Lee.

Yeah I saw that in one of the Wondercon interviews. Now if only Marvel would follow suit...

 

[Steel_Wind]

Just a small point of clarification here.

Monster Slayers isn’t aimed at 6 year olds. It’s aimed at gamer parents of elementary school aged kids, for intended use by their kids.

If this was a product advertised to children where it would be seen by them, then that changes that assessment. Right now, I don’t think so. It's not a small point. Food for thought.

I love the cover art of the Chimera on the Monster Slayers book by the way.

As for Art Direction in D&D, generally, I wasn’t much a fan of the steam punk look to 3.xx and to be honest, most of Wayne Reynolds oversized anime sword stuff in Pathfinder is very off-putting to me too. Albeit, it at least Pathfinder Core Rules' interior art has the virtue of being a consistent art direciton, which has its own rewards and aesthetics, I suppose. I do approve of that approach, just not the stylized anime stuff.

Wayne Reynolds is a good artist – but I REALLY don’t like Anime styled exaggerated fantasy art. I have the 4E core but have never really looked at it to judge its artwork. Generally, I did prefer the layout approach in the 3.xx core.

Meh. All by way of saying: GET OFF MY LAWN!

 

[Herschel]

Seconded. In a big way.

 

[TheYeti1775]

WotC needs to produce large-print format rule books and market it to the retirement communities (just think of the page count!).

I'm not certain if US retirement communities would enjoy RPG but, heck, it's all I plan to do when these days arrive

Funny they could even keep reruning the same adventures too. After all they would forget between sessions. Sorry I deal with grandparents that have a hard time remember what happened in the morning at dinner time. Call it dark humor.


Actually I think this is a case where WotC is taking a step in the right direction for their sources of revenue.
But I also think they could take a page from TSR's early book in this process.

Think about it, you need wide appeal for 13-70 demographic. Heavy focus on the 20-30 graphic.
Make a 'Basic' edition of your existing edition. Limited races, limited powers, limited monsters, fully capable of intergrating with an 'Advanced' version. Just have a lower buy in for it. Rather than having a $104 (book cover price) for the first 3 books, get them hooked like any good crack dealer with a $30 intro price. Use the simple chess size battle bat that comes with it, and markers vice minis set of cheapo dice.
Older players would buy it for teaching their kids, parents will be more willing to buy it as a 'complete set' at $30 than $105. And it's easy enough to have in there 'For expanded rules, more monsters and character options visit WotC.com for all your roleplaying game needs."

 

[Imaro]

Personally I think that WotC's marketing and new products won't amount to much unless they can find a way to de-stigmatize D&D. I mean I hate to be like this, but when targeting kids you definitely want to present something that is considered cool... and I just don't think D&D is there yet, in fact it may never get there. This is the one thing I don't see WotC doing anything about right now. I'm not even sure how they would go about doing it to be honest

 

[MichaelSomething]

WotC aiming products at younger people is a good thing. I just wish there were more comics choices for younger kids.


RC

Comics? How old are you? What D&D needs today is Manga!

 

[darjr]

There is a new "red box" coming.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/271528-new-red-box.html