Has anyone else noticed that WOTC seem to be charging an inordinate amount of money for their books? I saw Sea of Swords (?) by R.A.Salvatore in small hardback for £18.99 in Otikas. It's the first time in a long time that I've not bought a book that I wanted due to the price.

They aren't the people who bought T$R for nothing ;)

WoTc has been going downhill for the last coupla years now... After they cornered the market on the collectable card game, they started to diversify and started to piss people off...

Too many Magic cards being released... Too many rule changes being released... Then they started screwing with D&D... Again, rule changes, hence 3rd edition... Discontinuing older module series... Getting snotty with CRPG developers about what they can and can not publish using the D&D rules...

Now it is all about the books and stories behind all of the games they have... Money talks, and WoTC likes money... The more the better...

Hell, that is one of the reasons it took NWN so long to be released.. The fighting between BioWare, Interplay, and WoTC...

Interplay no longer developes D&D games... D20 games are going to be the norm for CRPG's...

Too bad... Gotta live with it... Not!

Yes, WoTC is truly heading downhill. Prices for D&D books and supplementals are rising, the selling off of D&D Campaign settings like Ravenloft, Dragonlance and L5R to other companies. Wizards has also sold off all their D&D periodicals as well (Star Wars Gamer etc). If I'm not wrong when Hasbro bought over WoTC a year ago, they appointed some suit as WotC's new boss, unfortunately he was later discovered to have embezzled a considerable amount of money from Wizards. Add to the fact that alot of staff who had contributed significantly to Wiazrd over the years had retired, resigned or even worse, been told that 'their services were no longer required'. Well in short, Wizards are screwed.

[ 07-16-2002, 03:16 AM: Message edited by: Rimjaw ]

They deserve being screwed for making 3rd edition D&D. And D20 as the norm for all CRPG's from now on? Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.

Systems like Morrowind's and Wizardry's are FAR superior. And the developers know that. So they won't all go D20.

I've been playing Magic since about '93 (The Legends Extension) it started to go downhill after the Ice Age extension '95,... the extension were either rubbish (homelands...) or way to unbalancing (Urza's Saga,...). Basically just cash cows.

For the defense of WOTC I must say I find 3rd edition D&D far superior to AD&D (remember the Thac0, the negative AC,...) but I still prefer Earthdawn, Shadowrun and Rolemaster (used in Camelot) systems. The D20 is too overhyped.

yes WOTC is declining.... steadily...

hopefully you'll find the book you wanted at the online auctions

I do think whitewolf can do better at making ravenloft more of a horror/fantasy setting, but WotC made them kill the continuity with exsisting d&d worlds, forcing name/background changes for most of the darklords. I haven't bought anything new WotC has put out (aside from some forgotten realms books) since 3rd edition came out, I do however buy older out of print 2nd edition gaming supplies when I can find them (assuming I don't already have them) I played magic for a long time, but stopped collecting when weatherlights came out, too uber for me, and when all the ruleschanges came out every few weeks, I got disgusted and put my collection in storage. I play Bloodwars(a planescape based CCG, made by TSR before they were bought out) or (Werewolf) Rage now.

Really WOTC rise the pirces of the products very much because they know that we will buy them even though the prices are very high. For example, Faiths and Pantheons for the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting was very expensive (33 dollars I think) but I bought it because I love the faiths of Faerun and I wanted extra information on them. You see, WOTC will always rise the prices because they know that we will always love reading Salvatore's, Greenwood's amn others books.

And thats when you realise that in order to translate the stats of the various Gods you will also need to buy WotC's Deities ans Demigods rulebook, which sets you back another $40+. Wizards sure knows how to milk us customers to the last drop.

[ 07-22-2002, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Rimjaw ]