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Do we want one dominant game, and why?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5246666" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>My point is, if the Little Friends are relying on the Big Boy to do the heavy lifting of bringing in new gamers, they ignore their own potential to bring in new gamers. In this model, anybody who has never played D&D, and isn't interested in playing D&D, is automatically excluded from the market--even if they might like some of the other RPGs out there.</p><p></p><p>And that's incredibly limiting, because D&D is, at heart, the trappings of 1970s-era pulp fantasy grafted onto a tabletop wargame. Through all of its incarnations, it's never really done much to change that; I'm not sure it can, or should. But I suspect there are an awful lot of folks out there who might enjoy "playing pretend," but aren't much into 1970s-era pulp fantasy or tabletop wargaming.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Actually I was talking about an alternative approach there. Clearly the Big Boy/Little Friend approach works; the question is whether something else could work better.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No, it's really not. Most industries are dominated by a handful of giants and a bunch of little folks around the edges. The giants compete with one another and that competition drives innovation. Now and then a giant falls, or a little guy grows into a new giant, but the industry goes on.</p><p></p><p>The "Big Boy, Little Friends" model is different--you've got <em>one</em> giant with no competition within the industry, and which holds the entire industry on its shoulders. If the giant falls, the whole industry goes with it. But the giant has no rivals its own size, to keep it sharp and competitive. It's not a healthy arrangement. Look what happened with TSR; the giant was collapsing under its own weight, and only the intervention of an external force (Wizards of the Coast, flush with cash from M:tG) saved the situation.</p><p></p><p>That said, it may well be that there's only room for one giant in this industry, and one giant is better than none at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5246666, member: 58197"] My point is, if the Little Friends are relying on the Big Boy to do the heavy lifting of bringing in new gamers, they ignore their own potential to bring in new gamers. In this model, anybody who has never played D&D, and isn't interested in playing D&D, is automatically excluded from the market--even if they might like some of the other RPGs out there. And that's incredibly limiting, because D&D is, at heart, the trappings of 1970s-era pulp fantasy grafted onto a tabletop wargame. Through all of its incarnations, it's never really done much to change that; I'm not sure it can, or should. But I suspect there are an awful lot of folks out there who might enjoy "playing pretend," but aren't much into 1970s-era pulp fantasy or tabletop wargaming. Actually I was talking about an alternative approach there. Clearly the Big Boy/Little Friend approach works; the question is whether something else could work better. No, it's really not. Most industries are dominated by a handful of giants and a bunch of little folks around the edges. The giants compete with one another and that competition drives innovation. Now and then a giant falls, or a little guy grows into a new giant, but the industry goes on. The "Big Boy, Little Friends" model is different--you've got [i]one[/i] giant with no competition within the industry, and which holds the entire industry on its shoulders. If the giant falls, the whole industry goes with it. But the giant has no rivals its own size, to keep it sharp and competitive. It's not a healthy arrangement. Look what happened with TSR; the giant was collapsing under its own weight, and only the intervention of an external force (Wizards of the Coast, flush with cash from M:tG) saved the situation. That said, it may well be that there's only room for one giant in this industry, and one giant is better than none at all. [/QUOTE]
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