ninjazombie42
Dungeons & Dragons new iteration is coming. How soon is too soon for mew editions? Has it even been 4 years since 4th was out. If 5th, or whatever they are going to call it comes now, how long before 6th comes after that? I`m all for new editions in due time, but I`m also for stability of a lasting system or the timelessness of an old "retro" system. Any thoughts?
Comments
But yeah... I guess 8 years is a little longer than 5 (assuming that 5e doesn't come out until 2013).
Alan
"Nabarians in Nerath":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/nabarians
Personally, I was also suppressed by the sudden announcement of 5e. It was just after I made an investment buying a bunch of 4e core books. I was a little surprised but, you know, it's still a little while from now. 4e works well, so I'll stick with it for a little while.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
-Ken
Now from Wizards perspective it isn't too soon since sales of 4e have been lack luster to say the least and even worse since Pathfinder.
Also awesome, I find tons of books at Half Price Books for them! Finally completed my Encyclopedia Magica collection. Got all 4 books! Only took, what -- 20 years??? I could have bought it on the net sure, but I like to do my collecting the old fashioned way. Its more rewarding.
Further, from a marketing perspective, the aim of WoTC in engineering a new edition was two-fold: (1) To attract a new generation of gamers (and in particular, to attract a generation reared on games like Everquest, WoW and Diablo), and; (2) to reinvigorate sales for new core lineup products from existing brand loyalists. I think it is fair to say that WoTC succeeded in their first aim: they did manage to attract a whole new generation of gamers reared on video games to the pen & paper RPG. However, (a) in courting this new videogamer demographic so heavily; (b) in heavily altering so much that was familiar to both the system and existing campaign settings, and; (c) in abandoning the OGL (and lying to everyone about it beforehand), they failed miserably in their second aim. That is, while it was expected that there would be some attrition in their existing customer base (as there always has been, and likely always will be when a new edition is introduced), they underestimated just how extreme this attrition would be. Witness the mass Exodus of D&D brand loyalists to Pathfinder.
Now the D&D/Pathfinder market is divided up roughly into three camps: (i) _The Old School Renaissance_ those (predominantly long-time gamers) that have either stuck with editions prior to 3e, and or have recently gone back to these latter additions or newer retroclones (a trend which I sense may be increasing among older generations of gamers who are nostalgic for the glory days and wish to honor the recently departed patriarchs of the industry); (ii) _The 3e/D20/Pathfinder_ crowd, which includes gamers who either love the system, didn't want to fork out the cost for a new system and/or were turned off by a, b, or c above and so chose not to switch over, and; (iii) _The 4e Crowd_, which consists largely of a new generation of gamer, with a more modest base of more experienced gamers from previous editions.
What WoTC is hoping to do with 5e, is to bridge the divide between these different schools of thought and bring the wandering sheep back into the fold. Those at Wizbro now perceive that by exclusively courting the youth generation of video-gamers they alienated many long time fans. They now hope to reclaim the trust of former fans by offering them a seat at the round table in designing the newest edition, "an edition for all walks of life!". However ninjazombie, as you pointed out it may be that the timing of this new launch is too soon. Further, it is unlikely that 5e will manage to make good on its vision of crafting a game that will please all the camps. Further, WoTC no longer has the good will they did back in 2008, so the new launch has got to make good on pleasing enough of their former customers to make up for the impending fallout of a (potentially larger) portion of their current 4e customer base. Can they do it? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
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Cheers,
-Arsheesh