WotC Wants You To Help Shape D&D

Wow - that took quite a bit of time!

 

[MNblockhead]

Anyone remember dialing into their local/topical bbs system?

Yep. That sound is one of those sounds I can instantly "hear" from memory, as strongly as conjuring up the sound of a crying baby or broken glass, a dog bark, or cars on the highway passing late at night.

When I think of sounds that were such a common part of life when I was growing up, which just gone now (record static and records scratches, the sound of a rotary phone dial, the clacking sound of typewriters and zip-ding of the carriage return--which is now reduced to ASCII code 13, the sound of a dot matrix printer, etc.) I wonder what sounds my sons are growing up with will disappear by the time they are adults?

 

[DQDesign]

Am I the only one in here to interpret that large survey as first visible sign of 5.5 or 6E approaching?

 

[MNblockhead]

Am I the only one in here to interpret that large survey as first visible sign of 5.5 or 6E approaching?

Probably, but think how special you'll feel if you're right! ;-)

Seriously though, I think this is more about determining what is bringing people into the game to inform marketing spend, gauging interest in tie-in products, and informing future adventure formats.

 

[Jhaelen]

It's definitely about time for 6e!


;-)

 

[RobJN]

Well, that was one rather large bit of marketing. I got through it, but I don't think my answers were the ones they were looking for.

1. I don't like the Realms
2. I don't want your Realms-centric books. (see #1 above)
3. I don't want your Realms-centric merch. (see #1 above)
4. I don't listen to your streams/'casts (see #1 above)

Did anyone else notice those "special edition" and "collector's edition" questions? Sorry, no, I don't want to buy your books again, and packaging it with a pair of Drizz't's underwear is not going to get me to pony up.

 

[ad_hoc]

Am I the only one in here to interpret that large survey as first visible sign of 5.5 or 6E approaching?

Yes. D&D is selling better today than it was in 2014. It is also designed as an evergreen product, even if sales waned, it would hurt the brand to make a new edition.

Well, that was one rather large bit of marketing. I got through it, but I don't think my answers were the ones they were looking for.

1. I don't like the Realms
2. I don't want your Realms-centric books. (see #1 above)
3. I don't want your Realms-centric merch. (see #1 above)
4. I don't listen to your streams/'casts (see #1 above)

Did anyone else notice those "special edition" and "collector's edition" questions? Sorry, no, I don't want to buy your books again, and packaging it with a pair of Drizz't's underwear is not going to get me to pony up.

Why vilify them for selling things?

It doesn't injure you. No one is coming after you for not buying things.

As long as you were honest your answers were the ones they were looking for.

 

[Mercule]

Am I the only one in here to interpret that large survey as first visible sign of 5.5 or 6E approaching?

No. The questions could certainly be interpreted as a nod in that direction, and it crossed my mind. I think 5E is still going really well, though. My guess is that they're doing a pulse check to see how far down the path they want to go with things like the Eberron or Ravnica and whether it's time to shift gears a bit. So, not a harbinger of 5.5 or 6E, so much as checking how to best avoid those.

 

[Mercule]

Well, that was one rather large bit of marketing. I got through it, but I don't think my answers were the ones they were looking for.

1. I don't like the Realms
2. I don't want your Realms-centric books. (see #1 above)
3. I don't want your Realms-centric merch. (see #1 above)
4. I don't listen to your streams/'casts (see #1 above)

Did anyone else notice those "special edition" and "collector's edition" questions? Sorry, no, I don't want to buy your books again, and packaging it with a pair of Drizz't's underwear is not going to get me to pony up.

Yeah. I'm not sure my answers were what they were hoping, either. I was disappointed that there wasn't a way to say, "I value really deep stories, but I explicitly don't want a pervasive default setting." It felt like any time I answered "I like deep campaign lore", it could (and would) be interpreted as support for the Realms.

On the same vein as your answers:
1) I hate the Realms
2) D&D is a TTRPG, I don't understand why that's a separate question
3) I play video games, just not D&D branded ones (mainly because they're all set in the Realms)
4) I also hate the char ops stuff and associated math exercises

I was glad they had the "On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend" coupled with the essay question, though. It gave me a chance to say that they got a 6/10 only because of the Realms and because I viewed setting lock-in as detrimental. If they didn't feature the Realms as prominently, it would have been a 10/10. (Between specifically disliking the Realms and generally disliking home brew not being the default assumption, it does kill almost half my interest in the game. 5E is, mechanically, the best edition of D&D, to date. If the emphasis isn't on a toolkit to build your own setting, with off-the-shelf settings as options for the time crunched, though, I'm going to encourage gamers to play Fate, Savage Worlds, or something else that promotes that creativity.)

 

[TerraDave]

Yay! I finished!

Sheesh. It is huge. Its also important that everyone answers.

Don't like something or do like something, now is your chance.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I loved when it asked if I would recommend D&D to others and when I answered "No", it responded with "Why would you say that?"

My answer, btw, was simply this: D&D is so easily accessible and widely popular nowadays. I don't need to recommend such an obvious and popular choice. I would prefer to suggest alternate game systems that people wouldn't normally consider or may not be aware of. D&D is doing fine without me this time.