Congrats
Congratulations to Paizo on the success of the Pathfinder line. They have produced a quality, will written product that consistently does well in the market. I enjoy the Adventure Paths immensely and always look forward to the next one.
As a RPG Retailer I interact with the RPG customer base on a daily basis. I have my own opinions on the state of gaming based on my experiences. As Lisa points out in her post, individual retailers may have different experiences from place to place.
In the interest of full disclosure, I play 4E. I have played 4E since launch. My 3.5 game ended about a year before 4E released and I had no desire to play 3.5 any longer. I was one of those people who liked the idea of 4E fixing the problems of 3.5 and so the WotC marketing plan that offended so many others was actually something that I liked. I have played D&D since 1983 and have played every addition, yet the slaughtering of the sacred cows of D&D did not bother me. I am not exactly sure why.
While I play 4E, I do buy Adventure Path modules for conversion to 4E. I like the stories in the modules and they are well written and fun to read. They are much more entertaining to read than 4E modules and I find the conversion process very simple.
In my store, I have noticed some interesting things about the gaming habits of my customer's. The core player base for Pathfinder is very dedicated to the game. That said, they have some interesting quirks. Many of them have been gaming for years and their groups can be very insular. It can sometimes be difficult for new players to join their games as outsiders are not always welcome.
That said, we do have many excellent Pathfinder players who are always willing to teach new players and expand the hobby. They have an enthusiasm for the game that is infectious.
We have several different Pathfinder groups at our store that meet on a regular basis. They operate independently of the store. This means that they control when events are held and who can play. They have a sign up system through a web page for the group and they are strict on min/max numbers of players allowed at a table. This leads to walk ins sometimes being turned away. This makes it hard to recommend those games to new players as I cannot guarantee them a spot.
In contrast to that, I run the 4E events at the store and do my best to insure that no one is turned away. I am much more confident about recommending my games as I know people will be able to play. This has really spurred sales of 4E at my store as we get alot of new blood into the game.
I also have many customers who played D&D 10, 20 or 30 years ago who want to get back into the hobby, often with their children. These people want to play D&D. They don't care about addition wars or the OGl or any of the politics behind the game. They want to play a game called D&D, not Pathfinder. For them it is the nostalgia of playing D&D that factors heavily into the experience. They want to play D&D and that means 4E, or one of the OOP D&D products we have on our shelves.
I do have a couple of Pathfinder players who will go so far as to interrupt me when I am talking to customers about 4E and say things like:
"If you want to play the game that most people think is really D&D then you need to play Pathfinder."
or
"4E is ok if you just want a to play a boardgame and not really roleplay."
Besides being rude to both me and the customer, it is bad for the hobby in general. Especially when the customer is a casual gamer looking to get back into the hobby with their kids. They don't care about the politics of the game, they just want to play D&D. I know that these Pathfinder players are just being passionate about the game they love, but in the end they do more harm than good for the hobby, IMO.
Also I have noticed that my Pathfinder regulars often ask me if Pathfinder outsells D&D 4E. My D&D 4E regulars do not ask me about sales.
Sorry if I seem to ramble a little here. I just thought I would throw out some observations from someone who deals with customers for Pathfinder and D&D on a regular basis. Ultimately, both games sell well for us and we have many people playing the games which is good for the hobby as a whole. Things are much better that they were in 2008. I once had to ask a customer to leave the store because they were standing next to an in store game of 4E and kept laughing and commenting about how horrible the game was. Nobody, regardless of edition or game, should have to run a game with someone standing over their shoulder making snide remarks about the game they are playing.
