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<blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9290034" data-attributes="member: 6906155">Actually, not true. It happened because they were told by smarter lawyers that if it did go to court, not only was there a good chance they would lose, there was a good chance that it would turn out that the entirety of the D&amp;D ruleset was public domain. Because some judges believe IP law does not apply to game rules. &quot;Oh we listened to the community&quot; just provided a convenient excuse for the climbdown.But the thing is, it is absolutely true that D&amp;D is under-monetarised. They own an immensely popular brand, and they are struggling to turn a profit, for a very simple reason: you don't have to pay to play. Number of people playing D&amp;D has no relation to the revenue generated. Once one person has the rules, that's it. they can play as much as they like without having to give over any more money to WotC. They try to break even by selling supplements and adventures, but the bottom line is no one needs any of that stuff to play D&amp;D. So it turned out the only thing they made a profit on last year was on licencing a video game.Despite it's current popularity, D&amp;D is in a very precarious position. It's become impossible to turn a profit on it's original concept: face to face tabletop gaming. The production and transport costs have risen too much to sell at prices the market is prepared to pay. But it is kept on life support because without it the IP would lose popularity. But it's only in the licencing can D&amp;D be profitable.I think it's very probable that D&amp;D will be bought out in the near future just for the value of the IP, and tabletop game production wound up.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Paul Farquhar, post: 9290034, member: 6906155"] Actually, not true. It happened because they were told by smarter lawyers that if it did go to court, not only was there a good chance they would lose, there was a good chance that it would turn out that the entirety of the D&D ruleset was public domain. Because some judges believe IP law does not apply to game rules. "Oh we listened to the community" just provided a convenient excuse for the climbdown. But the thing is, it is absolutely true that D&D is under-monetarised. They own an immensely popular brand, and they are struggling to turn a profit, for a very simple reason: you don't have to pay to play. Number of people playing D&D has no relation to the revenue generated. Once one person has the rules, that's it. they can play as much as they like without having to give over any more money to WotC. They try to break even by selling supplements and adventures, but the bottom line is no one needs any of that stuff to play D&D. So it turned out the only thing they made a profit on last year was on licencing a video game. Despite it's current popularity, D&D is in a very precarious position. It's become impossible to turn a profit on it's original concept: face to face tabletop gaming. The production and transport costs have risen too much to sell at prices the market is prepared to pay. But it is kept on life support because without it the IP would lose popularity. But it's only in the licencing can D&D be profitable. I think it's very probable that D&D will be bought out in the near future just for the value of the IP, and tabletop game production wound up. [/QUOTE]

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