Out of curiosity, what reason was given for deleting the piss-taking post at EnWorld? Sure, they have the right to do so, but having a "thou shalt not mock self-declared Big Wigs" policy is pretty fucked up.

Taking the piss out of internet posters is a time-honored hobby in and of itself, and the gag raised some good points. Chief amoung those, I believe, is that Goodman claims to have a lot of data by dint of doing a lot of research though sources he claims to have, but never actually shares any of that raw data with us. Not even cherry-picked numbers.

On the other hand, a post at EnWorld, no matter how valued the forum is, is not really the right place for what would be a lengthy essay full of numbers Goodman may not actually want to disclose, not to mention that I'm not sure if we can get any reliable data out of Wizards.

If I'm allowed my own baseless speculation (and it is the internet, after all), I don't think it really matters if 4th Ed. sells as well as 3rd, or even if it's a better game. (I haven't played it even though I kind of want to. I don't own any materials for it, either even though... well, see above.) What matters, to the company, is that it sells at all. If you determine that you're going to see a decline in 3.5 material and you can get a long-time boost by releasing what is, essentially, a different product with what is, additionally, basically a rehash of books you have released in the past (see Complete line of books, D&D 3.5), you might want to do it.

After that, you can declare success at the drop of a hat. I would like to think that D&D is enough of a draw that you can continue to sell it even if it's not doing well, but I don't think Hasbro would do that. I'm sure there are holes in my speculation, but I'm not really clear on what they are. I'm fine with engaging in what is truly the greatest of internet sins - admitting I'm wrong.

Quote from: The_Shadow;309661Out of curiosity, what reason was given for deleting the piss-taking post at EnWorld? Sure, they have the right to do so, but having a "thou shalt not mock self-declared Big Wigs" policy is pretty fucked up.

Well, it's been general policy there that quoting someone else and altering the words of their post in a mocking way (aka "FIFY" posts) are bad form and generally disallowed. The mod also seemed to think it was insulting.

Which I could see. Still, it was funny.

Quote from: Cranewings;309650Would you say Final Fantasy has the points of light theme?

In setting terms it varies, with the PoL theme being more prominent in some instalments than others.

In terms of gameplay it's PoL all the way. A short excursion to the countryside leaves you wondering how anyone survived the world long enough to build all those beautiful cities.

Well, there's a simple explanation for that...

...Heroes taste better! Just ask a dragon...

The mid 90's were crap for game companies, tho'....

GDW Closed down, while still (barely) in the black.
Task Force was shut down; ADB had to sue to be able to continue to produce product.
FASA Shut down, and sold off the rights to the youngest brother, who formed Wiz Kids.
Mayfair nearly went under, but they got better.
West End went bankrupt. The new ownership avoided licensed products for good reason.
Last Unicorn lost both licenses at the same time, with NO warning. They folded.
Columbia Games was being sued over Hârnmaster rights. (Eventually, both sides got rights... ≤shudder≥)
Paramount lost their suit vs. Task Force and Amarillo Design bureau.
David Webber quit Task Force to write novels, and quit writing the Starfire game engine.
Several other smaller companies folded and were bought by chessex

It really sucked rocks for much of the industry. Gaming was still strong, but game companies were not. The 100# gorrilla wasn't TSR... it was White Wolf, who'd broken out into bookstores, rather than mostly game stores. Heck, you could find WWG games at Waldenbooks... not a whole lot of companies were in the normal book distribution channels, because it was VERY different in terms of return policy from the games and hobbies market.

And WotC was buying up and closing down their RPG competition. No one realized TSR was weak enough to be their next victim...

Quote from: Hackmastergeneral;309622Or that 3rd party rules for 4ed are more onerous than previously, and that the 3rd party zeitgeist of 3ed has come and gone, and we will likely never see its like again.

Never is a too strong word, but I agree that the zeitgeist is "official only, please". Some of that is, of course, burnout; after a few years, if D&D lives that long as a paper and pencil game, we might see a swing in the opposite direction, just like with 3e.

Now GG is thriving not just for the lack of competition, but because you can slot their products into your 4e campaign with a minimal hassle. They have identified and served their target audience well, and are rewarded for it.

Quote from: aramis;309693Last Unicorn lost both licenses at the same time, with NO warning. They folded.

LUG was bought by WOTC and was quietly closed down after the Star Trek and Dune licenses were lost IRRC.

They didn't exactly go under. Wotc paid BIG to acquire the company.

Quote from: Melan;309703Never is a too strong word, but I agree that the zeitgeist is "official only, please". Some of that is, of course, burnout; after a few years, if D&D lives that long as a paper and pencil game, we might see a swing in the opposite direction, just like with 3e.

Now GG is thriving not just for the lack of competition, but because you can slot their products into your 4e campaign with a minimal hassle. They have identified and served their target audience well, and are rewarded for it.

Honestly, we used some third party material in our initial 3ed games, then just dropped em all and went "core only" the quality and balance was too sketchy.  Just never found anything that did it for us.

Quote from: Hackmastergeneral;309715Honestly, we used some third party material in our initial 3ed games, then just dropped em all and went "core only" the quality and balance was too sketchy.  Just never found anything that did it for us.

Hmmm. As for us, it soon became apparent that while WotC products were pretty, 3pp offered stuff that went beyond some design principles that WotC staffers always stuck with (e.g., "always use the core races in settings; they go good everywhere!", "don't design anything better than a metamagic feat, because everyone uses those!", etc.)

Yeah, there was some crap out there, but after you found who the good authors and publishers were (two intersecting sets), it wasn't too hard to navigate.

Quote from: MelanNow GG is thriving not just for the lack of competition, but because you can slot their products into your 4e campaign with a minimal hassle. They have identified and served their target audience well, and are rewarded for it.

Quite.  Identify a need, fill it.  
And good for them, if they are making money at it.  
The 'state of 4e' thing was kind of interesting, as was Goodman's obvious zeal in defending 4e's sales and popularity and whatever spurred on his need to place 'spin' on same.  We'll learn a lot by the speed that 5e is produced, methinks.

Yesterday I got banned from ENW, apparently for posting on the Goodman thread that I wasn't going to respond to another poster's childish insults.  I didn't even say 'childish insults' or anything.  I just quoted his 'grow a spine' line. :\  The standard of modding on ENW is usually very high compared to rpgnet so I don't really understand what happened.

PirateCat seemed to be having trouble keeping his shit together.  Was it me, or did he close more than one thread with complaints about having to babysit?

Quote from: S'mon;309751Yesterday I got banned from ENW, apparently for posting on the Goodman thread that I wasn't going to respond to another poster's childish insults.  I didn't even say 'childish insults' or anything.  I just quoted his 'grow a spine' line. :\  The standard of modding on ENW is usually very high compared to rpgnet so I don't really understand what happened.

That's entirely weird.  You've got about a billion well thought out, substantive posts there, and they ban you over a perceived insult that's actually a quotation back at someone?

Was it a permaban?