rumble
Legendary Pubber
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2020
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Noodling on this a bit more, and thinking about what others have said here...
We cannot establish a failure to monetize (properly manage) DnD unless we have a shared idea of what DnD is.
We've put out that MCU fans are not comics fans. I'm not educated enough to know if that's true, but it kinda feels right. Probably some Venn overlap.
And remember that in my mind, DnD is not a product. It's a toolkit, a programming language. It could be a language in heavy use, like C++. Instead, it's specialized and entrenched, but in general disuse, like COBOL.
Does anyone sell programming languages? Nope. Only RPG players are that kind of sucker for the pretty face (art and production effort) that comes along with it.
So, monetization...
Evangelization: You can put DnD out there and hope people create something cool with it, which inspires others to buy it. (rules)
Productization: You can create cool things with it and try to sell those things. (splatbooks)
Diversification: You can create things that reference your product to engage people with either the primary or diversified interest. (novels, dice, t-shirts, movies)
Partnerships: You can work with other specialists to create joint efforts that raise awareness and sales (think LEGO Batman, 5e for Wendy's and Rick and Morty).
DnD has survived all this time primarily through evangelization. Contrast with LEGO, which survives through productization (themed sets) and partnerships (LEGO movies).
For whatever reason, DnD does poorly at partnerships... doesn't play well with others, beyond casual cameos.
Someone mentioned that DnD was still not a beginner's game. All the app development is supposed to solve that. Just push a button, and see if you hit. You don't have to know the rules. So now you're created a product for all the people who want to tell stories but can't be bothered with the minutiae of rules.
The GMs will be dragged along with the flow of noobs wanting to adopt the platform for the pretty pictures and pushbutton play. Just one thought.
We cannot establish a failure to monetize (properly manage) DnD unless we have a shared idea of what DnD is.
We've put out that MCU fans are not comics fans. I'm not educated enough to know if that's true, but it kinda feels right. Probably some Venn overlap.
And remember that in my mind, DnD is not a product. It's a toolkit, a programming language. It could be a language in heavy use, like C++. Instead, it's specialized and entrenched, but in general disuse, like COBOL.
Does anyone sell programming languages? Nope. Only RPG players are that kind of sucker for the pretty face (art and production effort) that comes along with it.
So, monetization...
Evangelization: You can put DnD out there and hope people create something cool with it, which inspires others to buy it. (rules)
Productization: You can create cool things with it and try to sell those things. (splatbooks)
Diversification: You can create things that reference your product to engage people with either the primary or diversified interest. (novels, dice, t-shirts, movies)
Partnerships: You can work with other specialists to create joint efforts that raise awareness and sales (think LEGO Batman, 5e for Wendy's and Rick and Morty).
DnD has survived all this time primarily through evangelization. Contrast with LEGO, which survives through productization (themed sets) and partnerships (LEGO movies).
For whatever reason, DnD does poorly at partnerships... doesn't play well with others, beyond casual cameos.
Someone mentioned that DnD was still not a beginner's game. All the app development is supposed to solve that. Just push a button, and see if you hit. You don't have to know the rules. So now you're created a product for all the people who want to tell stories but can't be bothered with the minutiae of rules.
The GMs will be dragged along with the flow of noobs wanting to adopt the platform for the pretty pictures and pushbutton play. Just one thought.