Second, I have no clue what Wizards thinks it is doing with the "red box". The Intro product for D&D has one, and only one purpose: To introduce 12-14 year old kids to the roleplaying hobby and start them on the path to become purchasers of the core books. That product must be designed to sell in mass market stores where it can get the widest possible distribution outside of the hobby core (where you can safely assume that gamers are teaching gamers without the need of a special product to do it). It must be priced correctly vs. the other games it is shelved with, and it must be packaged and presented in a way that a mother would be comfortable buying as a gift for the son or daughter of a friend.
The "red box" looks like a nostalgia product designed to be sold to 40 year-olds who want to relive a moment of their childhoods. I don't get the art or the font - neither will appeal to either kids or moms in CE2011. It doesn't look like any other products in the 4E line so how will people know that it connects? Doesn't even matter what's inside the box - this is one of those things that has to sell on its presentation on the shelf.
Well I guess it is good to know that once and a while I might actually know what I am doing here at this blog and running my company. Now I just need for Hasbro to buy me out and give me a big check. Talk to you later...
Probably because you say things like this:
ReplyDelete"I would have fired the employee on the spot who presented this as a "good idea" to do. "
Respectable Ryan says "I have No clue"
Vitriolic LPJr says fire him :)
Vitriol gets a lot of attention, but it is not respected.
The only thing I can theorize is they're hoping some of those 40-something former players have 12-14 year-old kids they want to teach and play the game with, which is probably true. But would these 40-somethings teach their kids without the red box? If they still play at all, I'd guess yes.
ReplyDeleteNo question the marketing attached to the red box is definitely geared toward nostalgia, and attracting lapsed players.
How do we get new 12-14 year olds playing RPG's who don't have gamers for parents? Where is that product? Where is the push to get them playing with something they could look to and say "that's cool"?
Still waiting.
There are far more 35-50 year old former players than current players (in that age range) and this product should visually appeal to them. Also, the trade dress distinction between it and the Essentials line is not really all that significant. The assumption that people that bought D&D at the toy/book store can't read the words "Dungeons and Dragons" is a bit over stated.
ReplyDelete@Steven: Sorry but someone in the organization researched, developed, and created that video ad thinking it would be attractive to 12 -14 year olds. He wasted time, money a great opportunity to connect with future customers and worst off he doesn't know the customer base he wants to serve. Those things together means he needs to be working somewhere else because he does understand "their corporate culture". That kind of ignorance can kill a company, quickly. I am sorry but that was a silly mistake and never should have seen the light of day.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I would have fired the guy in charge of that project. Donald Trump side it best when they asked him how de deals with employees that make constant mistakes: "I don't. They work somewhere else." If this was his "best work" I have to wonder what the "worst work" looked like.
@Anonymous: The first thing I would do is update the artwork style and look of 95% of the products out there. Paizo did that when they release Pathfinder, Privateer Press did that when they released Iron Kingdoms. These companies have more of "modernized" look and feel to their artwork. Hell even WOTC did that with the artwork from 4E. That is step one. Step two build a $20 started kit to get people interested. Step three asked them if they liked it. If they didn't ask them what could have been better or changed. Repeat step two and three until you get a majority of positive response. It's not rocket science here, we just have to be proavtive.
It was too much a throwback. I still suspect, as I posted on En World, that some bean counter saw millions of lapsed players and decided that bending the 4e system/rules/presentation backward was the way to get them back. Some great builds in the Essentials product but... still way too complex/complicated/not right for people who left the game over complexicty.
ReplyDelete::chuckle:: Yea, I love it when one of us "little guys" gets reamed for doing (or saying) something innovative, or new, or "out of the box". The 3-6 months later, one of the "big fishes" does (or says) the same thing and they're lauded as a "visionary"...
ReplyDeleteIronic, ain't it.
Louis, you know as well as I do that us little guys are incapable of having any original ideas! :P
What video ad are you referring to?
ReplyDeleteAlso, nostalgia is being marketed to kids all the time. GI Joe, Transformers, smurfs, etc.
@Clockworkjoe: here is the link for the video: http://lpjd.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-thought-purpose-was-to-get-new.html. It is the top one and remember while watching this this is supposed to get 12 - 14 year olds excited about D&D.
ReplyDeleteOh that video. I know the history behind that. It's kind of a weird story.
ReplyDeleteBack in 2006, WOTC ran a D&D Fan Video contest through gametrailers.com. I entered a video along with dozens of others. Now the actual contest was run pretty badly but that was probably due to gametrailers. One important thing to note: in order to enter the contest, you had to sign an agreement handing over copyright of the video to WOTC.
You can see the three finalists here http://www.wizards.com/dnd/fanfilmfest/default.asp
First place look familiar?
WOTC is using this video to sell Red Box because it cost them nothing to produce and ads on Hulu are probably pretty damn cheap especially since WOTC is owned by Hasbro. Hasbro buys huge block of ads on Hulu - getting volume discount - and allocates some ads to WOTC. WOTC has no video ad budget but does have fan video it can easily retool for Hulu.
MYSTERY SOLVED