Precisely how did Essentials kill 4e?
Precisely how did Essentials kill 4e?
Nolan Hernandez
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Anthony Powell
It didn't. They ran out of ideas to keep selling books so rebooted so they could sell everyone the same 3 core books again like they do every 5ish years
Kayden Anderson
As stated, it didn't.
Here's the birth, life, and death, of 4e:
Wizards makes 3.0 (Yes, we have to go back this far to show where things went wrong.) It was published under the OGL, meaning any game that wanted to use the same basic mechanics could do so.
This was something they started JUST before being purchased by Hasbro, and lead to an explosion of RPGs, with dozens of publishers adapting the core ruleset of D&D 3.0-3.5 to make their games.
Hasbro wasn't super pleased with this, since it meant that Wizards had essentially created its own competition. Further, Wizards was apparently not as profitable as they would like, so they started trimming things here and there. For about 4 years, the official magazines for D&D were made by another company, Paizo.
This is the foundation of the death of 4e.
(cont)
Isaac Russell
Then, around 2005, roughly 6 years after D&D 3.0 came out, Wizards says "hey, we're making a New Edition soon!". In 2007, they take the publishing rights for the magazines back.
Now, of course, to build excitement for the new edition, Wizards was releasing information about it. And here's the thing: it didn't look like 3rd Edition at all.
While we can argue whether the new design was better or not, and how honestly different it was versus how different it LOOKED, this was a problem to the thousands of consumers they had created for the D&D 3e experience.
As such, many voiced their concerns, or insisted they weren't going to switch to the new system.
Luckily for those people, there was another company there. A company that had just had 5 years of being the official voice for the game.
Two months before Wizards releases 4e, Paizo says "Hey, guys, if you don't want to switch to this weird new system, we've got you covered." They announce they'll be making an RPG to replicate 3.5, with some "tweaks". In the meantime, they'll continue to release these huge campaign supplements for 3.5.
SO they build up goodwill by continuing to support the system, they have the authority given them by the OGL and the legitimacy from their tenure as the magazine publishers.
So, Hasbro, in its efforts to stop a system creating their competitors, spawns a MASSIVE competitor.
This is the first major mistake that leads to the death of 4e.
(cont)
Adam Ross
I remember Paizo's early promises
Those lies still sting
Daniel Ward
I remember how much everyone slagged 4e. There were articles with big red scare tactics lettering that said "ALL 4E CLASSES PLAY THE SAME" and Paizo had their banners with slogans like "3.5 dies? 3.5 thrives!"
Carson Jenkins
Change is always hated. And so the cycle continued
Michael Jones
What did they promise exactly? I don't doubt you or anything, I still can't stand what Paizo is doing both game design-wise and fluff-wise.
Bentley Barnes
I started with AD&D 2E as a kid and haven't switched since desu. I don't see anything I want from newer editions. The problems I have with 3(.5) are the same problems that everyone else has.
Brody Ramirez
Started with B/X and saw no reason to switch to 1e or 2e. The more things change.