Wizards Of The Coast don't have an exhibitor stand at Gen Con this year. Something that has caused a bit of a stir to say the least.
Now whilst I can understand that this might be seen as a strange move by WotC at the same time they do have a whole bunch of events planned and do have a special Gen Con exclusive product available from the Gale Force 9 stand (GF9 are representing them to some extent at the show).
That Gen Con exclusive product is called Ghosts Of Dragonspear Castle and it is a D&D Next Preview product. Essentially an early view of the D&D Next ruleset with shiny graphics and typefacing in place.
To get this product you have to pre-order it and collect it from the GF9 stand. Why GF9? Simple. Gale Force 9 produce some high quality accessories for D&D players. Not least of which are their D&D Collector's Series miniatures. Not only do you get the book if you pre-order you also get a limited edition miniature from GF9 along with it.
Ok so they are represented and they have talks with the designers and other stuff but why don't WotC have a stand at this year's GenCon? The outrage! Imagine perhaps the largest publisher not having their own stand! Again the answer is simple.
What are they going to show? D&D Next in Beta? Hardly. 4th Edition products? Why? They're not supporting it going forward so why have a stand to promote / sell the products?
In my view WotC have made the correct decision. It's not like they're snubbing Gen Con, after all they are one of the sponsors of the event and have a number of events planned to meet with fans and talk about D&D Next.
Still the internet wouldn't be the same if there wasn't some outrage...
No comments:
Post a Comment