The Tome Ep 106: 4e One Year Later
Jun 10th, 2009 by TheTome
Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition is one year old and I checked in with Chris Perkins and James Wyatt along with help from a bevvy of bloggers and podcasters along with me.
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“The other problem we had was we over-promised on some of the D&D Insider material - the tools and applications.” Now that has to be the understatement of the decade for D&D. Spoken like a true marketing weasel.
Translated into English: “We hired a bunch of crappy programmers and gave them crappy management and then realized hundreds of thousands of dollars later that we don’t know the first thing about developing software.”
@Todd: You Mean they made the same mistake a lot of businesses make when interacting with IT or projects outside of their core business function? I’m not certain why you think admitting that they messed up makes him a “marketing weasel.”
Maybe your right though: Their intent from the get go was to not deliver on the promises. Sell a bag of goods and then not deliver. fits right into the business model that they would want to alienate their core fan base (read: customers). Its not like they need the fans any way. WoTC is practically a Monopoly, on a commodity right? What do they care if their current fan base gets upset? Its not like there are alternatives for their customers or a continual supply of new money for Wizards… Etc.
I’d rather they get it right than have them put it in our hands poorly designed and buggy.
How would we all feel if we spent money each month on software that DIDN’T work. Its obvious the project didnt go as planned, but its better that they admitted the problem rather than trying to sell us an unfinished product.
I have to say. I agree that they over promised and then afterwards realized they weren’t going to be able to pull it off.
They admitted as much. I would say that they were more cordial about it in the context of the discussion than they were weaselly about it. I felt like (as I talked to them) that they continued a trend I’ve found talking to WotC people in that they are very honest and generally good people.
I would quickly argue (and have) that the designers and authors that work on D&D seem to be pretty well in touch with the community and understand what is going on better than they let on. But that there are some larger mistakes that have been made that have nothing to do with game design.
I’ll also note that neither of the two people we talked to were marketing people, they’re both designers and writers by trade. They only do marketing (like coming on the show) because I worked my tail off for over a month to put it together and to make it worth the time of WotC to let them come on.
Lastly, they DID over promise and it was a mistake. There is no doubt about that. But I do have to say, that what IS out for D&DI is AWESOME. I seriously can’t imagine making a PC anymore without the Character Builder. The time is saves. Really if you don’t care to read the fluff text in the books, a subscription to D&DI is an extremely economical way to get access to all of the books WotC produces.
Jeff,
GREAT PODCAST! I loved hearing the WOTC people interviewed!
Keep up the great work!
One request…more build podcasts like the Elven Rogue.
Seth
Hey, glad you’re enjoying it.
My plan is to make every 5th episode an advice episode with a PC build in it for the first half and an advice topic for the second.
It’s also a chance for me to get many different people on the show. Writers, bloggers, podcasters, and listeners.
I hope that’s often enough for you.
Very cool podcast. I was really bummed when I first found out that the VTT was put on the back burner. They have made me much less bummed with the Char generator. I still believe that with the VTT and all that was supposed to go with it would really expand the game. I know I would love to play more than once a week, but that is not possible for me without being able to do so online. Otherwise I am loving 4e, and so far they just keep putting out tip top stuff. Thanks D