WotC GTS Seminar

[I'm A Banana]

From The Front Page.

D&D stuff of note:

• 1.5 million players. 24 million lapsed players (there's a thread dealing with that figure)
• Red Box > DM Kit > Monster Valut; all D&D essentials all new stuff; tiles will have "core sets" and expansions (seem to be focusing on the getting new players into the hobby -- expanding hobby gaming itself)
• Board Games: We're getting more than just Ravenloft, it seems. They'll use similar rules, use each others' parts, scults from D&D minis (but unpainted).
• Minis: One release per year, 60 figures per set, 1 huge/5 random per pack, Gargantuan Orcus mini to be "super exclusive" -- only for hobby stores, not B&N or anything.
• Some stores getting book releases earlier than Amazon or other stores?

I'm particularly intrigued by the idea that we're getting more board games (I could see that helping to get people into the game, easy). I'm also a bit !!! about the ratio of lapsed players to active players, but I guess with 30 years of play vs. something like 2 years in the newest edition, it's kind of inevitable. I do wonder if they're thinking about ways, broadly speaking, to recoup some of that lost market, though I'm sure it'll take a back seat to growing their new customer base. They also mentioned that more people are playing D&D now than have ever been before, so the game seems really, really strong. Which makes me pretty optimistic.

Between this and Paizo being right under WotC in the #2 position for Q4, it's a pretty awesome time to love D&D.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

True. Lots of options for every person who loves D&D. If we could stop the sniping at people whose games we hate, we would live in an utopian RPG-community. I´m especially happy that the essentials line adresses the "where do i go from here" question newbies get after using the basic set. This was a huge problem for other RPGS, forex for The Dark Eye here in Germany. You had this introductory box, and after that, three books (or boxes) that measured nearly 400 pages each. Ouch.

 

[Kzach]

1.5 million doesn't seem like a huge market. I wonder if they mean 1.5 million 4e players, judged by how many PHB's sold or something?

 

[Dice4Hire]

I'm pretty sure the 1.5 mil is 4E players. So there are a lot more players out there, just doing other systems or older versions. Good to hear the hobby is apparently doing ok or even well.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

1.5 million doesn't seem like a huge market. I wonder if they mean 1.5 million 4e players, judged by how many PHB's sold or something?

Agreed, this probably means active 4E players.
If this is true, lapsed just means not playing the current edition of DnD. I wonder how many of those are playing previous editions / other games versus those who no long engage in the hobby.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I do wonder if they're thinking about ways, broadly speaking, to recoup some of that lost market.

I think Dark Sun and Gamma World are part of the attempt to recoup some of the lost market. These settings have little meaning to new players. And its a chance to show older players how dynamic 4E can be. If done well these two settings could bring more people into 4E that currently can't see how the game fits their style of play. Many posters here have even expressed that these settings might be the first thing from WotC that actually would get them to play 4E.

 

[TarionzCousin]

[*]1.5 million players. 24 million lapsed players (there's a thread dealing with that figure)

At first I read this as 1.5 million characters. 24 million lapsed (dead) characters. That would mean every current player playing one character has 16 dead characters. That seems about right, but for me at least 12 of those dead characters occurred between age 11 and age 15.