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| APRIL 2, 2008 |
D&D's influence on computer games was highlighted last month when the death of Gary
Gygax, the game's co-creator, sparked reminiscences across the computer industry. A senior
editor at Wired magazine even hailed Gygax as "architect of the now," seeing the game as
inspiring Internet culture in general, like Gmail accounts and Flickr photo sharing.
Yet Gygax, who had not been involved with the game's development since the 80s, told The
New York Times in 2006 that he wasn't much into computer games and preferred the
intimacy and imagination of the face-to-face game.
"What tabletop gaming gives to people is a reason to get together with your friends and hang
out and do a fun social activity together," said Chris Pramas, a former Wizards employee and
now the president of another game company, Green Ronin Publishing.
Wizards emphasizes that it's trying to keep the good parts of the tabletop game. It will let
players, rather than computers, maintain control of the virtual world. It's also streamlining the
rules of the tabletop game to make it faster to play and more accessible.
D&D had about six million players worldwide last year, according to a survey by Wizards,
though Rouse said the figure may be somewhat inflated. Many of those players probably
yield little revenue for the company. The gamers buy books and sometimes miniatures, but
only one player in the group needs to own a copy of each book.
Wizards does not reveal sales figures, but Pramas estimates the overall market for
traditional role-playing games at $30 million annually.
Meanwhile, the massively multiplayer online (or MMO) game "World of Warcraft" has more
than 10 million subscribers, most of them paying. Publisher Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of
France's Vivendi conglomerate, doesn't say how much the game is earning, but a
back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests it pulls in more than $1 billion per year. U.S.
subscribers pay $14.95 per month.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the online features of fourth-edition D&D will carry a monthly fee
of $14.95, though a one-year contract brings the cost down to $9.95 per month.
The new direction for D&D isn't risk free. "Dungeons & Dragons Online," an MMO game like
"World of Warcraft," hasn't done very well. The game, run by Atari Inc. under a license from
Hasbro, has less than 100,000 subscribers, according to various estimates.
The new edition of the printed game has already caused a rift in the D&D community. Paizo
Publishing, an independent company that publishes popular supplementary books for the
game, announced last month that it will not support the new edition. It says the previous
edition of D&D is a better fit and will even create its own game based on that edition.
Then there's the risk that the future has passed D&D by. Many of the core fans that got
hooked in their teens are in their 30s now and today's teenagers have a wealth of
entertainment options. "World of Warcraft has become the D&D of this generation," said
Pramas, 38. "When I was a kid, if you were any sort of nerd, you played D&D. That's not the
case anymore."
Gygax, the game's co-creator, sparked reminiscences across the computer industry. A senior
editor at Wired magazine even hailed Gygax as "architect of the now," seeing the game as
inspiring Internet culture in general, like Gmail accounts and Flickr photo sharing.
Yet Gygax, who had not been involved with the game's development since the 80s, told The
New York Times in 2006 that he wasn't much into computer games and preferred the
intimacy and imagination of the face-to-face game.
"What tabletop gaming gives to people is a reason to get together with your friends and hang
out and do a fun social activity together," said Chris Pramas, a former Wizards employee and
now the president of another game company, Green Ronin Publishing.
Wizards emphasizes that it's trying to keep the good parts of the tabletop game. It will let
players, rather than computers, maintain control of the virtual world. It's also streamlining the
rules of the tabletop game to make it faster to play and more accessible.
D&D had about six million players worldwide last year, according to a survey by Wizards,
though Rouse said the figure may be somewhat inflated. Many of those players probably
yield little revenue for the company. The gamers buy books and sometimes miniatures, but
only one player in the group needs to own a copy of each book.
Wizards does not reveal sales figures, but Pramas estimates the overall market for
traditional role-playing games at $30 million annually.
Meanwhile, the massively multiplayer online (or MMO) game "World of Warcraft" has more
than 10 million subscribers, most of them paying. Publisher Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of
France's Vivendi conglomerate, doesn't say how much the game is earning, but a
back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests it pulls in more than $1 billion per year. U.S.
subscribers pay $14.95 per month.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the online features of fourth-edition D&D will carry a monthly fee
of $14.95, though a one-year contract brings the cost down to $9.95 per month.
The new direction for D&D isn't risk free. "Dungeons & Dragons Online," an MMO game like
"World of Warcraft," hasn't done very well. The game, run by Atari Inc. under a license from
Hasbro, has less than 100,000 subscribers, according to various estimates.
The new edition of the printed game has already caused a rift in the D&D community. Paizo
Publishing, an independent company that publishes popular supplementary books for the
game, announced last month that it will not support the new edition. It says the previous
edition of D&D is a better fit and will even create its own game based on that edition.
Then there's the risk that the future has passed D&D by. Many of the core fans that got
hooked in their teens are in their 30s now and today's teenagers have a wealth of
entertainment options. "World of Warcraft has become the D&D of this generation," said
Pramas, 38. "When I was a kid, if you were any sort of nerd, you played D&D. That's not the
case anymore."