By Jason Campbell
Dear Hasbro, Inc.;
Did Dungeons & Dragons 5.24 buff player character abilities and options to sell more books?
Yes.
Is this a good idea?
No, and it flies in the face of Hasbro’s stated goals (as a public company their primary goal by definition is to increase profits for their shareholders.)
That will increase sales, while making the game more difficult to run for Dungeon Masters. But the problem of increasing profits is one that TSR encountered very early on. People can buy a book and play forever, never spending any more money.
One way to solve this is to find a way to tie D&D to a subscription model, where most software companies have turned lately. This makes sense since a lot of the current Hasbro executives came from software companies. But a better answer has been stated by other executives in the recent past: make D&D a lifestyle brand.
That phrase made many older fans bristle, but it’s really the best thing for the game. Look at how Pokemon has made money. Walking through a shopping area or amusement park you’ll see tons of Pokemon shirts, toys and posters. Many of these fans have never played the card game. This is what Hasbro could do with D&D.
If D&D followed a similar path the growth in profits could be from additional items. Look how ravenous people were for an owlbear toy after the most recent D&D movie. If Hasbro spent more effort expanding the reach of the D&D brand, the game itself could be left to the people at WotC who are great game designers, and the game would improve when it needed to, without a drive to increase profits by X percentage.
OK? Cool beans.
Thanks,
Jason C.
What do you think? How can WotC increase profits while making Dungeons & Dragons better for all players? Let us know in the comments.
