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<blockquote data-quote="Grendel_Khan" data-source="post: 8289547" data-attributes="member: 7028554"><p>I'll cool my jets too. Sorry for being so snippy back there.</p><p></p><p>But I do want to unpack this business of sales for modules as a measure of quality, specifically when it comes to WotC.</p><p></p><p>WotC dominates tabletop like no other company in any other industry. Maybe Disney comes close, except that Disney's acquisitions mean that it has a lot of output, and that output is relatively diverse. If nothing else they at least produce stuff in two big genres (SF and supers). WotC releases a tiny amount of RPG products per year, and they're not only entirely in one genre, but they've basically created their own genre. Most fantasy media, not that there's a tone of it, doesn't really resemble D&D. D&D is very much its own thing, and WotC's footprint is so big that, from a sales and total audience perspective, RPGs are almost entirely D&D.</p><p></p><p>I'm not a big fan of D&D, at all, so I'm not cheering any of this. Just stating the (to me) sad fact that the hobby I'm obsessed with is largely defined by a single company that puts out very few products, all of which are basically the same. Sure, you might fight a steam-driven automaton or whatever instead of a stone golem, but you're still doing it with spells and swords and MMO-style tactics.</p><p></p><p>But this leads, I think, to a uniquely captive audience, a massive fanbase that's waiting for any and every new WotC release. And because those are so rare, and because each one is a big old book, a landmark event that's hyped for months and discussed at length for months after, I don't think sales of those published adventure are a measure of anything, except that D&D is still looming over the hobby like a certain giant fiery eye. I do think that's an important measure--those sales tell us whether interest in D&D is rising or plateauing or waning. But I honestly don't think a ho-hum or even badly written adventure would change that trajectory, or be reflected in the sales. A true disaster might, but that's why I think the captive audience element is important. I can't imagine how bad a WotC product would have to be for it get a genuinely bad set of reviews. As long as they don't go nuts and add cyberware or something to the mix, everything is inherently graded on a curve, largely by people who are absolutely, 100 percent bought into what D&D is. And I think any pushback from outside the D&D faithful would be met with the same reaction that Avengers: Endgame fans had toward negative reviews of that movie: You aren't a fan! You don't <em>get</em> it!</p><p></p><p>I'm not saying that WotC is untouchable, or that they aren't capable of shitting the bed. We've obviously seen previous editions of D&D that didn't unite the fanbase like 5e has. But I do think that, given 5e's current position and dominance and all of the sunk costs that entails, all that their few-and-far-between books have to do is avoid being unreadable and they will continue to sell like crazy and get reviews that grade them on a curve--as D&D books, not as RPG materials, overall. If they produced more total books with a wider variety of content, I'd think that individual sales numbers would be a much more useful set of signals.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Grendel_Khan, post: 8289547, member: 7028554"] I'll cool my jets too. Sorry for being so snippy back there. But I do want to unpack this business of sales for modules as a measure of quality, specifically when it comes to WotC. WotC dominates tabletop like no other company in any other industry. Maybe Disney comes close, except that Disney's acquisitions mean that it has a lot of output, and that output is relatively diverse. If nothing else they at least produce stuff in two big genres (SF and supers). WotC releases a tiny amount of RPG products per year, and they're not only entirely in one genre, but they've basically created their own genre. Most fantasy media, not that there's a tone of it, doesn't really resemble D&D. D&D is very much its own thing, and WotC's footprint is so big that, from a sales and total audience perspective, RPGs are almost entirely D&D. I'm not a big fan of D&D, at all, so I'm not cheering any of this. Just stating the (to me) sad fact that the hobby I'm obsessed with is largely defined by a single company that puts out very few products, all of which are basically the same. Sure, you might fight a steam-driven automaton or whatever instead of a stone golem, but you're still doing it with spells and swords and MMO-style tactics. But this leads, I think, to a uniquely captive audience, a massive fanbase that's waiting for any and every new WotC release. And because those are so rare, and because each one is a big old book, a landmark event that's hyped for months and discussed at length for months after, I don't think sales of those published adventure are a measure of anything, except that D&D is still looming over the hobby like a certain giant fiery eye. I do think that's an important measure--those sales tell us whether interest in D&D is rising or plateauing or waning. But I honestly don't think a ho-hum or even badly written adventure would change that trajectory, or be reflected in the sales. A true disaster might, but that's why I think the captive audience element is important. I can't imagine how bad a WotC product would have to be for it get a genuinely bad set of reviews. As long as they don't go nuts and add cyberware or something to the mix, everything is inherently graded on a curve, largely by people who are absolutely, 100 percent bought into what D&D is. And I think any pushback from outside the D&D faithful would be met with the same reaction that Avengers: Endgame fans had toward negative reviews of that movie: You aren't a fan! You don't [I]get[/I] it! I'm not saying that WotC is untouchable, or that they aren't capable of shitting the bed. We've obviously seen previous editions of D&D that didn't unite the fanbase like 5e has. But I do think that, given 5e's current position and dominance and all of the sunk costs that entails, all that their few-and-far-between books have to do is avoid being unreadable and they will continue to sell like crazy and get reviews that grade them on a curve--as D&D books, not as RPG materials, overall. If they produced more total books with a wider variety of content, I'd think that individual sales numbers would be a much more useful set of signals. [/QUOTE]
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