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WotC's Nathan Stewart: "Story, Story, Story"; and IS D&D a Tabletop Game?
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<blockquote data-quote="Trickster Spirit" data-source="post: 7667899" data-attributes="member: 6701829"><p>You know, I understand exactly where you're coming from, but I <strong>really</strong> don't think they're doing things this way to "punish" people for not supporting 4E, or for making Pathfinder so successful.</p><p></p><p>Despite Pathfinder's success, I think there are bigger threats to D&D these days. Honestly, I think Wizards just sees which way the wind is moving, and is trying to chart a new course. If you haven't checked it out already, I'd highly recommend reading through <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?354586-So-What-IS-Happening-to-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Games-Dancey-amp-Mearls-Let-You-Know!" target="_blank">this link</a> which I shared earlier in this thread - it's Morrus' news article about a PAX East panel about the state of the tabletop game industry, and Mike Mearls addresses in details what they see as D&D's chief competition.</p><p></p><p>It's clear that 5E was designed in response to the points he brings up in that panel. I think their new business model takes it into consideration as well. They're focusing heavily on pre-canned campaigns with the APs, and providing an easy entry point for gamers without stable groups through Adventurer's League organized play.</p><p></p><p>In a lot of ways I think 5E has done a better job of assimilating lessons from modern video games than 4E did. Video games aren't more successful than tabletop RPGs because of game mechanics or balance concerns - they're more successful because they're <em>faster</em>. There's a business term that applies here, "friction". Video games have low friction - you need to purchase the disk, put it in your device and maybe install it first, then you're playing the game. Maybe you need to go through a character selection screen first, if it's an RPG, it doesn't really matter though. You're past that screen in sixty seconds or less. For a tabletop game, you have to buy the book, read it, internalize the rules, create a campaign and put together your encounter notes, recruit a group of friends to play, have them all create characters, then meet up at a unanimously agreed upon time and place before you can play. <em>Loads</em> more friction there. </p><p></p><p>Tabletop games won't be able to beat video games at all of those points and remain recognizable. That's why they'll never eclipse video games as an industry or as a part of popular culture. But if you can minimize the drawbacks as best you can, there are also <em>strengths</em> that tabletop games have over video games, and those strengths can draw in new players. The 5E ruleset, and the canned APs / Adventurer League seasons all try to mitigate that as best they can.</p><p></p><p>Paizo also has APs and organized play, but they're definitely catering more to the existing player base. They've put out most of the non-AP products that they <em>can</em> put out, and the full Pathfinder ruleset is definitely a lot more intimidating to new players than 5E is. The Beginner Box is one of the best - no, I'll say it, it <em>is</em> the best onboarding product in the industry right now - but I'm not sure Paizo is moving to position themselves to appeal to new and casual gamers, which I am convinced is the overwhelming majority of the player base. Wizards seems to be targeting those demographics very squarely with their new direction for 5E.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Trickster Spirit, post: 7667899, member: 6701829"] You know, I understand exactly where you're coming from, but I [B]really[/B] don't think they're doing things this way to "punish" people for not supporting 4E, or for making Pathfinder so successful. Despite Pathfinder's success, I think there are bigger threats to D&D these days. Honestly, I think Wizards just sees which way the wind is moving, and is trying to chart a new course. If you haven't checked it out already, I'd highly recommend reading through [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?354586-So-What-IS-Happening-to-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Games-Dancey-amp-Mearls-Let-You-Know!"]this link[/URL] which I shared earlier in this thread - it's Morrus' news article about a PAX East panel about the state of the tabletop game industry, and Mike Mearls addresses in details what they see as D&D's chief competition. It's clear that 5E was designed in response to the points he brings up in that panel. I think their new business model takes it into consideration as well. They're focusing heavily on pre-canned campaigns with the APs, and providing an easy entry point for gamers without stable groups through Adventurer's League organized play. In a lot of ways I think 5E has done a better job of assimilating lessons from modern video games than 4E did. Video games aren't more successful than tabletop RPGs because of game mechanics or balance concerns - they're more successful because they're [I]faster[/I]. There's a business term that applies here, "friction". Video games have low friction - you need to purchase the disk, put it in your device and maybe install it first, then you're playing the game. Maybe you need to go through a character selection screen first, if it's an RPG, it doesn't really matter though. You're past that screen in sixty seconds or less. For a tabletop game, you have to buy the book, read it, internalize the rules, create a campaign and put together your encounter notes, recruit a group of friends to play, have them all create characters, then meet up at a unanimously agreed upon time and place before you can play. [I]Loads[/I] more friction there. Tabletop games won't be able to beat video games at all of those points and remain recognizable. That's why they'll never eclipse video games as an industry or as a part of popular culture. But if you can minimize the drawbacks as best you can, there are also [I]strengths[/I] that tabletop games have over video games, and those strengths can draw in new players. The 5E ruleset, and the canned APs / Adventurer League seasons all try to mitigate that as best they can. Paizo also has APs and organized play, but they're definitely catering more to the existing player base. They've put out most of the non-AP products that they [I]can[/I] put out, and the full Pathfinder ruleset is definitely a lot more intimidating to new players than 5E is. The Beginner Box is one of the best - no, I'll say it, it [I]is[/I] the best onboarding product in the industry right now - but I'm not sure Paizo is moving to position themselves to appeal to new and casual gamers, which I am convinced is the overwhelming majority of the player base. Wizards seems to be targeting those demographics very squarely with their new direction for 5E. [/QUOTE]
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