[Industry] Escapist: State of D&D Present

[Havard]

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 disagree.

One thing is to create a complex ruleset. Another one, to force your customers to read around 1000 pages before they are even able to run things properly.

I agree with that, but you dont have to read 1000 pages to play 4E. Even going by the core books, you dont really need to read the MM or even the DMG. You dont even have to read all of the PHB. If youre not going to DM, 4E is extremely simple since, once you have picked the handful of powers given to you, all you can do is really choose which power to use that round.


But you missed my point. My point wasnt about the ruleset but about its focus. By shifting the focus towards combat and away from world exploration and roleplaying, the focus is moved away from the things that computers cannot do better than P&P.

Also, as to what Mr Dancey said, not the hobby is dying: D&D as a brand is dying, and WoD as a brand is dead already.

The success of Pathfinder and the 40K games shows that the hobby is very much alive. You are right about that.

But D&D as a brand is not dying. As a brand it is still very strong and used to sell a wide range of games, including RPGS, Video Games, Board Games etc. The board games seem to be doing especially well.

The death of D&D as an RPG brand is also far from dying. WotC may not be happy about their sales, but they are still among the top selling RPGs. That they are getting alot of competition at a time when the economy is bad is reason for them to worry, but not a sign of the death of D&D.

It is tragic what happened to WoD, but I think that the success of that company was too tied up in a temporary youth culture as well as an attitude towards gaming that just got old.

And D&D died by its own hands, as I have, I think, demonstrated pretty well:

I have already commented on this. As much as I personally agree with many of these statements, I think they mainly reflect the opinions of the old guard of gamers. As Angelo says, the main focus will always be on attracting new gamers. But over the last few years I think they probably went too far. New gamers tend to be attracted to what their older gamer friends think is cool too.

But D&D is still very much alive and it is very much possible for WotC to regain their market leadership if they make the right decisions.



-Havard