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cpthero2
Great Reader
USA
2286 Posts |
 Posted - 17 Feb 2020 : 19:10:00
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Learned Scribe Rymac,
Sadly, as I've mentioned with my belief of what motivates WotC's behavior in this regard, it is their focus on containing control of the brand through consistent management practices that prevent loss of control over their copyrights and trademarks.
A famous case where a company lost their trademark was Aspirin. Now days that is a colloquial term for something that gets rid of my headache. It was a company once. Because they didn't sue to ensure control of their trademark, and the use became "common", they lost that trademark and patent.
Also, they want to control the narrative. Think about it from a competition standpoint: who else has the Forgotten Realms we can turn to if they don't meet our market demand? No one. Piss off the customers enough, and you see some minor capitulation as you did post-4e, but that is it from them. Why control the narrative though with 5e as they are doing by ditching the entire archive from earlier points in time?
The answer is: they can get a new market segment into their total Forgotten Realms/D&D market while keeping a large share of the original market. I mean, the 100 year gap was the most childishly simplistic market control hack ever. A 2nd grader saw that for what it was. Then all of a sudden Volo was in a frozen suspension machine for those 100 years, and a few of the originals come back to reunite the band?
WotC likely hired a run of the mill marketing VP that applied standard practices of production models to their marketing plan and that screwed it up. Until WotC feels the pain again as they did back in the day with 4e, they have absolutely zero incentive to change their behavior. Standard econ response from them.
Also, I can't remember which thread it was, but I remember seeing a threat that The Sage made back in like 2009 I think where he was calling the entire 'Keep to account for bad behavior in the vein of abusing authors, designers, and generally other people if I recall correctly regarding the 4e stuff. The rage was real, and in some cases, percolates to this day.
Sadly, WotC's executive management team is a bunch of petulant children that are paying on the front and not thinking how they will pay on the back. Some day, they'll get their due.
Best regards,
quote:
Originally posted by Rymac
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
At this time "Under Illefarn Anew" remains a fan project that will not be released to the general public.
-- George Krashos
While I share in the disappointment, I'm not surprised. It would make my decade if WotC started supporting fan projects, not to mention lifting NDAs so never published lore could see the light of day.
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Higher Atlar
Spirit Soaring |
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Under Illefarn Anew
