The Rumors of my Demise
have been greatly exaggerated.
Same goes for another rumor, I think.
Apis mentioned in the comments of Friday’s post a little rumor going around the Internets about how Wizards of the Coast won’t be at Gen Con this year.
I’ve listened to the reasons people are bantering about. Really, I have. Most of them are pure crap. My favorite is the one that says George Lucas is insanely mad at Peter Atkinson over Star Wars Celebration and the lawsuit. C’mon, boys. Do you really buy into the conspiracy theory that George Lucas is sitting in his throne passing out dictates to HASBRO?!? About something that is, in Lucas terms, a pittance?
photo by Official Star Wars Blog
Now, there is a slight possibility that Hasbro won’t allow WotC to go to Gen Con because of its policy about doing business with companies in bankruptcy, but I seriously doubt that’s going to be the case. There were still Hasbro products on the shelves at K-mart while they were restructuring.
So, why am I so confident that WotC will be at Gen Con? One reason:
Dungeons and Dragons 4E will be less than a quarter old.
It’s possible that Gen Con needs WotC more than WotC needs Gen Con most years. 2008 will be different, though: WotC won’t have sales figures available on 4E by the time they’d need to put events in motion for Gen Con. WotC can’t take the risk that they will alienate a large portion of their fanbase and sacrifice the largest single event-based marketing campaign of the year by sitting it out. WotC needs Gen Con this year to solidify the market position of Dungeons and Dragons 4E.
WotC can’t afford to skip Gen Con, at least not in 2008. DDXP, however successful it’s becoming for them, still isn’t Gen Con.
Am I wrong? What do you all think? Will WotC show in August?
Oh, and 5 Internet points to whomever can tell me where the title quote comes from.
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11 Responses to “The Rumors of my Demise”
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Awesome Deals!
Part of it is not rumor, at least. There was a post on ENWorld (which seems to be down, so I can’t cite it) with a response from Wizards that was very non-committal about Gen Con.
I think you overestimate Gen Con’s importance to Wizards. The fact of the matter is that they don’t need to be there to have a presence, as D&D, Magic, and all their other products will get played there no matter what. However, I think in the end there will be some kind of showing, at least for Gary’s sake.
Dave T. Games last blog post..More than meets the i
@ Dave - Thanks for the response! I’m tickled you came by! I know it’s been dark here for a while, I was worried I’d lost some of my regulars.
I did read the wizards “response.” I question it’s validity. It claimed to have come from their Help Desk.
I’ve worked in enough help desks to know that 1) you’re the last to know what’s going on in the company and 2) Help desk folk aren’t allowed to give out the kind of information he claimed to be giving. If that was truly Wizards’ position, there would be something more official. That, or the help desk guy is getting fired, because they don’t want it to get out yet.
Most years, I’d agree with you about the importance of Gen Con to Wizards. This year, though, is critical. By August, Wizards won’t have reliable numbers on 4E. It would be a bad business move to piss off that many gamers, and miss out on the huge marketing opportunity, by dropping GenCon. This year, it’s just good business sense. If they don’t show, it will hurt their sales, there’s no question.
Could I be wrong? Sure. I don’t think I am, though. Heck, I’ll buy you a Coke at Gen Con if I am (assuming you’re going.)
The DMs last blog post..The Rumors of my Demise
Yeah. At this point, it’s just a rumour. We won’t know until we get word from WotC itself.
The one piece of damning evidence is that there are no WotC events on the Gencon schedule.
There are “WotC/AH” events that are Axis & Allies games, but nothing else.
So they may be coming as presenters, but if they aren’t running games, that’s unusual.
(A second option, of course, is that they have booked an entire room/building for constant pickup 4e games. That also seems unlikely to me.)
Oh, and Mark Twain, in response to reading his own obituary in the newspaper.
EDIT: nor are there any games under the RPGa title in the gencon document, which is extremely odd. There are numerous 4e games run by others, though, such as Goodman Games.
Yeah, like Graham says, the lack of events on the schedule is a tip-off too.
WotC isn’t afraid to bail on a convention when they could use the exposure. They pulled out of Origins when launching Dreamblade, and that might have been a big factor in its failure.
Speaking of Origins, they’ve had their schedule delayed, AND Mike Mearls is a guest this year. Mayhap a switch? We’ll see…
Dave T. Games last blog post..Review: “Piratz Tavern” in Silver Spring, MD
@ Graham - I’m not saying there aren’t clues, or that it’s not possible. I’m just extremely skeptical. Oh, and you’re right about Twain. 5 Internet points for you.
@ Dave - Origins is, what, about a third the size as Gen Con? I’m just sayin, I think it’d be a dumb business move to drop Gen Con altogether.
Definitely an interesting drama, to say the least!
The DMs last blog post..The Rumors of my Demise
The massive (400K) debt owed by Gencon to Hasbro is not a rumor. I find it likely that Hasbro is not pleased with Gencon when they included it in their bankruptcy filing. Whether they will overlook this issue and do a “full court press” at Gencon remains to be seen.
Trask, The Last Tyromancer
Trasks last blog post..Trask Plays 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons
@ Trask - now that’s new info. Great legwork on your research, by the way.
For those that may not have seen it, here’s the post.
That makes it interesting. That, I can buy into.
Still, it will be interesting to see. After that, I’m still at 70-30 that they will still show.
The DMs last blog post..Dungeons and Dragons 4E Cosmology and Core World
Lets not forget the CCGs. Wizards does pretty good with the DCI tourneys and such at GenCon. Can they afford to drop that as well?
Mark Twain was the source. The original version was probably: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
Thanks Trask,
This is a much more viable reason than Lucasfilm issue. Still waiting for some kind of official announcement but I can at least see where this would be in their best interest not to do business at least temporarily with Gencon.
Apis
Well, the question has been answered. From the sounds of it, they were unsure for a while.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=15876256&postcount=1
I learned that we are, indeed, goin’ to Gen Con! Clearly, one of the big thrusts of the show will be 4E.
Grahams last blog post..Pathfinder 12 - Fort of Ogre Decapitation