So, I bought D&D4 and my reactions are extremely positive. I've raved about it in my preceeding blog post, and I'll probably be babbling about it for some time to come.
But what if it hadn't been Dungeons & Dragons? What if that powerful brand name hadn't been on the cover?
If it weren't Dungeons & Dragons, I might not have heard of it. I would be ignorant of it's existence. When you don't know something exists, it's sort of difficult to buy it and get into it.
If it weren't Dungeons & Dragons, would I have had the inclination to buy it? Would I have possessed the same curiousity? Would I have bought three hardcover books totaling over $100 in price which provided the rules for what appears to be a miniature combat game with a fantasy theme? Well, I did buy Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and that was $80. So, it's possible. Then again, Descent came with lots of toy value: tons of cards, playing chits, interlocking boards, and miniatures. With D&D4, all those miniatures I need are separate. I have to say that lacking the toy value, I probably would have skipped on a non-D&D game in the same format that D&D4 was released in.
If it weren't D&D would it be an interesting game? Oh, hell yeah, it would still be an interesting game regardless of what name it went by. I'm just saying that if it weren't D&D, I probably wouldn't know to check it out and would be extremely reluctant to check it out even if I did know.
Luckily, it IS Dungeons and Dragons, and bears the name prominently. Considering the power of that brand name, almost all other considerations are irrelevant in terms of how widely the game will be embraced. I'm sure tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, will be buying it for the name reason alone. And I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor in my embrace of the game.
The same was true with D&D3 and 3.5. The difference being I didn't like those variants. I still ended up with a box full of the stuff.
Tags: D&D 4e
