creamsteak said:
Does anyone here have divine rank 21? I think that's enough to handle this search?
Eric, I think he's talking about you, o great loremaster.
Here's a feelgood post I also put over in the hackmaster thread. There were some arguments about how WotC isn't doing as good a job as it could've been. I suggest any more such complaints go into a different thread than this, though.
Anyway, on to the feelgoodness.
A few people have brought up the question as to why WotC doesn't release more small products, like single adventures and such, or little tiny products for all the dozens of niche groups of players (gnome barbarians, or just hundreds of random adventures, etc.). The problem is that doing so is a waste of their resources.
Thanks in some ways to Hasbro, and also to WotC execs being kinda smart, you can now buy core rulebooks and core adventures and core supplements in your average book store, and occasionally even in video game and computer stores. You might also see some of the big name, mass market books, like the Scarred Lands stuff from SSS. All of it is pretty straightforward, easy to get into, and flexible for a lot of different types of players. New players can go to these stores and get what they need, and be set for months of gaming.
Then the people who are already fans can go to game-specific hobby stores and pick up some of the wonderful adventures and supplements that can be harvested from the D20 crop. If Thoughts Could Kill probably is a little too specific for WotC to produce on its own, since the effort of marketing and distribute it might cost more than what profit they'd actually make from sales. But for Malhavoc, a small press company, the few sales they do get are much better. They're only having to pay a half dozen employees, while WotC has to support hundreds.
It costs a lot to print and distribute enough copies of an adventure or rulebook so that you can have one or two on the shelf in every Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks. It costs significantly less to get one or two copies into all the hobby stores in the nation. Big chain bookstores outnumber the hobby stores probably 10 to 1 (or more). And, since devoted gamers aren't the main patrons of chain bookstores, it's a waste of materials to try to sell second-tier products there.
It makes much more sense, both for WotC itself, and for the gaming industry as a whole, to have less critical products be produced by those companies that can't afford the costs of releasing in all the big stores in the country. Sure, you can find a copy of
Wild Spellcraft at my local Waldenbooks, but it's more likely to get bought by someone at Oxford Comics than it would be at a chain bookstore.
WotC is smart in their business strategy, and though it might make them seem a little less personal and not quite as "soul-ful" as small press companies, what they're doing is, overall, probably for the best of the gaming hobby. They've made a game that is easy to play, and easy to make your own (read Sagiro's storyhour and dare to tell me that there's no soul in 3e!). And most importantly they've spread the work around, making it easier to cover all the things we gamers want, while simultaneously giving chances to people who otherwise might never be successful in the gaming industry.
Thus to WotC I say, "Great job.
We can worry about getting rid of the whole arcane-divine thing later. 
"
