Gencon State of the Hobby Industry Seminar

[Spriggan]

Ya what Fell said, it's actually quite common knowledge that the first 3 dragonlance books were written to sell the new setting that Weiss and Hickman had designed.  The story and characters were loosely based off of the play testing too from what I understand.  That doesn't mean they're bad books, quite the opposite.  While you and your department may not see it this way, and again this in no way is a slight to what you do Stacer, the head people at Wizards defiantly see the novels as a way of generating interest in their products.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

hang on for a second....

If we're talking Dragonlance, we should recognize that DL was developed initially by a different company, and with a different intention than Wizards.

I mean lets face it, TSR was a one trick pony, they sold D&D and thats it. Sure they dabbled with a romantic choose your own adventure line and novels based on games but the desired result was always the same, ... sell D&D.

Now as I see it Wizards has a different motivation, because wizards is really Hasbro. Selling D&D is certainly an expectation, but far from the only one, they can afford to publish books for books sake, because they want as big a market as possible for dozens of products. I also see them wanting the best products possible as well because good products have good longevity.  A lot of the old D&D hallmarks are gone,... Wizards doesnt really make premade adventure modules for example, and while I think there is a Dragonlance game, there isnt much of a tie in to the novels any more. Even though the new Wizards churns out books, the products are better and more consistent than TSR, and that goes to almost everything they put their stamp on.

Sure they miss occasionally, sometimes books based on games (or vice versa) become fannish and amateur but I honestly think wizards is trying to avoid that.

Thats just my 2 cents of course but still.

[Spriggan]

I'm not saying they're amateurish or trying to be, what I am saying is why do they bother with books if they make little money if not for making D&D, magic and their other games more visible?  After all Wizard's is a businesses and they don't keep publishing games that make little profit (like Star wars D20).  There's nothing wrong with the motive, I guess people here are trying to link me saying "D&D books=advertising" and "D&D books are rank armature crap" which I'm not.  Because, after all, if the books sucked then that wouldn't be very good advertising now would it?

[Fellfrosch]

Their profit margin on books isn't any lower than anybody else's profit margin on books, and there are plenty of companies out there selling books with low profit margins that aren't linked to games at all. In other words, they don't need an excuse for selling books--they are a book publisher, and that's what they do. There is still a lot of game-based stuff, but all of their new lines and expanded projects are unrelated to games in any way. I really think that Wizards looked around sometime last year and said "holy crap, we're a huge publishing house! Let's branch out into new areas and get some non-game properties going."

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

The short way to say what Fell just said is to say "low profit margin does not mean NO profit margin." ie, the books still make some money. Money that wouldn't be there if they didn't do the books. So it's worthwhile.

while I think there is a Dragonlance game, there isnt much of a tie in to the novels any more.

Uhm. that would be wrong. There IS a setting book, and the books and the game DO reflect each other quite a bit. Not that this significantly alters your argument, but it still needs correction.

I really think that Wizards looked around sometime last year and said "holy crap, we're a huge publishing house! Let's branch out into new areas and get some non-game properties going."

And then, if it does well, we can make game books from them!

And don't think I'm not serious. It's still a very different approach, instead of "just another game world" for the D&D ruleset, this is creating settings first, then making tailoring the system to it. If they *do* make game books from them, the game books will be more solid, because they'll be more than just another way to roll out the same rules with no alteration. I'm not saying this *is* what the mucky mucks are thinking, I'm just saying it'd be foolish to discount it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

to be honest I was guessing about a DL book, because I can honestly say I've never seen it for 3e. I thought it was there, but I know it didnt get the fanfare of Eberon or Forgotten Realms how do I know, because it isnt on the shelf next to them (at least not in Borders or Barnes and Nobles) To be fair, I havent browsed the shelves of Game parlor too much for D&D stuff but I dont recall seeing it there either.

But DL is a D&D staple, because many kids were introduced to D&D because of it, and there is a sort of nostalgia because of it. I suspect thats why the series keeps cropping up.

having said that I think Fell hit on something when he said

I really think that Wizards looked around sometime last year and said "holy crap, we're a huge publishing house! Let's branch out into new areas and get some non-game properties going."

I think this is exactly what happened. Sure they may want to make games out of them eventually, but they know that even if they dont they can still sell fantasy with a D&D logo on it even if there is no game. But that game doesnt have to even be D&D,... I mean we know they have a MMORPG coming on line whats to stop them from using some fiction for that. Or a dozen other new ideas that might be rattling around.