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combatmedic
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Nov 2015 : 12:41:03
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quote:
Originally posted by Gyor
I don't think he's upset, but I doubt he's happy anymore, because WotC isn't giving anything to be excited about, the SCAG is poor substitute for a FRCG, there are barely any novels being done, it all started with so much promise, then was basically left to rot on the vine.
I imagine WOTC is focused on getting more people to buy 5E rule books. That is where the money is. Why focus on a campaign setting? Plenty of people will never buy the SCAG because they:
Run a homebrew setting and are not in the market for a " boxed" world
Run in a premade setting but just use a wiki or something like that, and some maps taken from the net
Run in one of many other published settings
Are not at all interested in FR and may even have negative vibes towards it
Are players, not DMs, and so do not invest much money in world products
Add up all those categories and I suspect you have an overwhelming majority of people likely to buy new D&D books. Especially that last category.
But I could be wrong.
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YMMV= Your Mileage May Vary. I'm putting it here so I don't have to type it in every other post. :) |
Edited by - combatmedic on 12 Nov 2015 12:42:56 |
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Shadowsoul
Senior Scribe
Ireland
705 Posts |
Posted - 12 Nov 2015 : 13:34:56
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quote:
Originally posted by combatmedic
quote:
Originally posted by Gyor
I don't think he's upset, but I doubt he's happy anymore, because WotC isn't giving anything to be excited about, the SCAG is poor substitute for a FRCG, there are barely any novels being done, it all started with so much promise, then was basically left to rot on the vine.
I imagine WOTC is focused on getting more people to buy 5E rule books. That is where the money is. Why focus on a campaign setting? Plenty of people will never buy the SCAG because they:
Run a homebrew setting and are not in the market for a " boxed" world
Run in a premade setting but just use a wiki or something like that, and some maps taken from the net
Run in one of many other published settings
Are not at all interested in FR and may even have negative vibes towards it
Are players, not DMs, and so do not invest much money in world products
Add up all those categories and I suspect you have an overwhelming majority of people likely to buy new D&D books. Especially that last category.
But I could be wrong.
Sounds to me like they've backed themselves into a corner. |
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
#8213; J.R.R. Tolkien
*I endorse everything Dark Wizard says*. |
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combatmedic
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 12 Nov 2015 : 13:52:25
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I wouldn't say that. The commercial success of 5E just isn't tied to FR.
I am a member of fansites for Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, etc. A lot of guys online would like to see new iterations of their favorite setting. But I think only a small minority of collectors would just go out and buy all the new versions of old settings.
So which setting to do first? Old or new? And how much of your limited capital and design team time and effort do you out into it?
Last time WOTC did market research of which I am aware, they learned that most DMs run homebrew.
And the best selling product ever, IIRC, was the AD&D PHB (first edition)
Looked at as a business model, I am pretty sure focussing on rulebooks is the way to go. Sell core books. Sell splat books. When bloat sets in and people start griping, reboot to a new edition. It has worked pretty well thus far.
There is also the question of where TSR messed up by putting out so many campaign setting specific products.
And the real killer is that now so many old settings are available again on PDF. Why spend the money and time making a new product that may not sell well when it costs almost nothing to sell PDFs of older products? If a fan wants to run FR, a whole library of books may be purchased at cheap prices. Ditto the other old TSR settings.
I am not suggesting that WOTC won't make more FR stuff, or that other settings will never show up in print. I just mean that they are likely doing the smart thing by focusing on selling rulebooks and generic modules.
YMMV |
YMMV= Your Mileage May Vary. I'm putting it here so I don't have to type it in every other post. :) |
Edited by - combatmedic on 12 Nov 2015 13:55:19 |
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Do you think Ed is happy with the current state?
