WotC's New Player Strategies - Thoughts?

[Sir Whiskers]

Actually, one really good reason to include miniatures is because they look better than tokens!

I agree 100%- while they aren't really needed to play the game, the mini's and gameboards will make the basic set more attractive. And getting a little cross-promotion in the bargain sure doesn't hurt. What seems clear is that WOTC does not intend the basic set to become a sub-set of DnD, as happened in the AD&D/D&D days.

Also, $12 in 1982 (the cost of the old red-box Basic Set) is equivalent to $23 in 2002

I'm not sure this is a reasonable comparison, as the red-box was a full rules-set, albeit for limited levels. With two 8-page rulebooks and one advanced rulebook, the new basic set seems to be more of a simple scenario, with just enough rules to play a few sessions. I haven't seen the actual rulebooks, of course, so I freely admit I could be wrong about this - I'm extrapolating from the list of contents. But I take your point - $24.95 isn't the same now as it was two decades ago (or three for some of us old farts).

Of course, I also wasn't buying my own clothes or shoes or other things, but we each make our own choices.

Yep. How do you think I could afford all those old Avalon Hill and SPI games? Of course, if we'd spent more time worrying about "clothes or shoes or other things" in junior high and high school, we might not have gotten such a bad rep as nerds and such...

 

[mmadsen]

What seems clear is that WOTC does not intend the basic set to become a sub-set of DnD, as happened in the AD&D/D&D days.

I think you mean that WOTC does intend for the Basic Set to become a subset of D&D -- instead of a separate, parallel game line, as happened in the AD&D/D&D days.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Advertising to a younger audience is... good... Very, very good.

For TV ads I would choose:
Sci Fi Channel
Cartoon Network (just don't show the old D&D cartoon... )
Nickelodeon
Anime Network

Magazine ads would be a bit harder. Teen Beat just doesn't seem the right place somehow. Maybe computer game magazines?

The Auld Grump, who started playing in his teens... sucked in by an ad in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

 

[Azlan]

The MTV crowd thrive on stereotypes and cool factor. You can emphasize all the positive aspects of D&D all you want but if its perceived as nerdy, no one will play it.

Movies like "Bring it On", or "You Got Served", portray the kind of in your face, confrontational cool factor that D&D needs to attract the MTV crowd.

Groan. As if D&D 3.0 wasn't punk-ed enough.

:\

 

[Psion]

MTV ads. Oh, dear.

I'm guessing this commercial will include some of the nicest-looking female gamers you've ever seen, and nary a fat bearded guy to be found...

Maybe they can get Vin Diesel and Lexa Doig to do a spot.

 

[Barak]

No no.. If you want to address the "geek" stereotype, here's how you do the ad.

You have a relatively geeky high schooler walking in the hallway with a couple of D&D books. A "jock" type runs into him, "geek" drops the books, "jock" makes fun of him.

Then you have a couple of -bigger- "jocks" walk by with 3.5 PHs, saying something like "shut up, he's our DM".


The idea is not to get the geeks to look cool and the jocks to look dumb, the idea is to be inclusive.

Plus that's a true story, so it works well.

Alternatively, you could have the first "jock" help the geek pick up his books and comment on them like "Oh wow, Eberron is out? How is it?"

 

[WayneLigon]

...What 13-year-old with an inclination toward sci-fi and fantasy hasn't already been introduced somehow, in some way, to D&D?

Well, okay... I'm sure there are still a few out there, scattered across the country, who haven't had a decent introduction to D&D. Like, um, maybe, in the Amish towns of Utah... ?

Two of my best friends; they have a daughter 16 and a son just turned 13. The kids both play, and both now have their own group of friends to game with. They live in an extremely busy metropolitan area with a population that is large enough to support not one but two gaming/comics stores just within easy driving distance of their house. Most of the kids that their kids play with now had never heard of D&D or that there were such things as tabletop RPG's (as oppossed to computer ones) until my friends showed up. These are kids that were already into computers and console gaming, they watch Charmed and Buffy and Angel, they've grown up playing with Star Wars toys, etc...

 

[bubbalin]

Two of my best friends; they have a daughter 16 and a son just turned 13. The kids both play, and both now have their own group of friends to game with. They live in an extremely busy metropolitan area with a population that is large enough to support not one but two gaming/comics stores just within easy driving distance of their house. Most of the kids that their kids play with now had never heard of D&D or that there were such things as tabletop RPG's (as oppossed to computer ones) until my friends showed up. These are kids that were already into computers and console gaming, they watch Charmed and Buffy and Angel, they've grown up playing with Star Wars toys, etc...

Yeah, I still run into a lot of people who haven't heard of RPGs in the tabletop sense...
Also, if you go into the forums of many licensed games you will get at least one or two confused teenagers a week wandering in and wondering WTF?

 

[francisca]

Nope. It'll be just the D&D rules (though simplified, I expect). Of course, the mini rules are simplified as well, but you won't have any mention of "factions", "commanders", "morale" or similar. Oh, and you'll likely roll dice for damage, unlike the miniature game.

The D&D Miniature game is introduced through the D&D Miniatures Entry Packs.

However, it is cross-promotional, because they'll get the minis and be directed to both the RPG and the Miniatures game.

Cheers!

And isn't $24 still cheaper than many video games? It sure is cheaper than that Final Fantasy bundle for $99 (which includes a 40G disk drive) I saw on TV last night.

 

[francisca]

The MTV crowd thrive on stereotypes and cool factor. You can emphasize all the positive aspects of D&D all you want but if its perceived as nerdy, no one will play it.

Movies like "Bring it On", or "You Got Served", portray the kind of in your face, confrontational cool factor that D&D needs to attract the MTV crowd.

Otherwise you are wasting your money by advertising on MTV.

They'd have to convince MTV that D&D fits in with the lifestyle/social agenda they're selling. Whether or not marekting exec who reviews ads for MTV thinks D&D is "phat" enough would have a huge influence on whether they would ever get aired on the network.

But who knows.

My wife finally got to see the GE ad recently where the scientist guy hooks up with the super model and give her a 3.5 PHB as a gift. She laughed herself silly.