[Industry] Escapist: State of D&D Present

[Havard]

Not all gamers are so optimistic. "I think the tabletop RPG market is enduring a kind of death. I think it is transforming into something that isn't a viable commercial business for more than a handful of people," said Ryan Dancey, former VP of RPGs at Wizards and marketing guru at White Wolf/CCP. Dancey was instrumental in developing the OGL before the 3rd edition era of D&D, but he foresees the RPG industry becoming a dead hobby like model trains. "Kids stopped playing with trains, and the businesses that remained dedicated to hobbyists who got more disposable income as they grew up, until the price of the hobby was out of reach of anyone except those older hobbyists. Eventually, it became a high-end hobby with very expensive products, sold to an ever-decreasing number of hobbyists. As those folks die, the hobby shrinks. That is what is happening to the tabletop RPG business."

I think this analogy is flawed. I have no idea whether the hobby is managing to attract kids these days or not, but if they arent I dont think it has anything to do with price.

I believe that this is the heart of the problem:

Andy Collins worked under 4E Lead Designer Rob Heinsoo at Wizards of the Coast and eventually became Design & Development Manager around the release of 4th edition. Collins told The Escapist back in 2010 that the changes he and Heinsoo implemented in D&D were meant to catch the game up with the way that people played modern games. Collins believed players have a short attention span, and were, perhaps, "less likely [to be] interested in reading the rules of the game before playing." "I'm not just talking about younger players now, but anybody. We've been working to adapt to that, the changing expectations of the new gamer."

The young designers working at Wizards wanted to stretch their design muscles to make a new game - something that they could call their edition. "Designing new editions is the work of younger, more energetic folks," said Collins. While 4th edition offered elegant tactical combat and an equanimity between classes never seen before in the game, many of the people who played Gygax's Dungeons & Dragons in the 70s and 80s didn't understand why concepts they held to be sacred were axed.

Pre-prepared, "we'll do it for you" type games will loose out because video games will do that better. While new generations of gamers may well be different from the older generation, I am sure that there will always be kids out there who are willing to sit down for hours and dream up worlds of their imagination. RPGs are great because they are not limited by technology. Sure a computer generated map looks nicer than anything you could make yourself, but a hand drawn map can stimulate your imagination to no end.

I also think Eric Mona is spot on here:

"I think, at least from my initial observations, that 4E put too much emphasis on the battle grid and not enough emphasis on the world outside of combat. That, in combination with the sacred cow-killing, made it feel like a whole different game to a lot of people, including me," added Erik Mona, publisher at Paizo, creators of Pathfinder.

This isnt so much about 4E itself, but WotC's attitude about focusing on the "battle Grid". Again, cool and exciting fight stuff is something other types of gaming can do better. Creating your own world is something nothing does better than Pen & Paper.

-Havard