How many people are buying less books for 4E than previous editions?

[ggroy]

How many people here have been buying less books for 4E, compared to the number of books bought for previous editions like 3E/3.5E, 2E, 1E, etc ... or other rpg games?

In my case, I have certainly been buying less books for 4E. With constant daily rumors of layoffs at work for the last year or so, I find that I've spending a lot less on rpg books and other luxuries like new video games, gadgets, etc ...

 

[Henry]

Strangely, despite my job situation last year, it really didn't affect my buying much - right now, I'm definitely buying as much as I was prior to 2007, but not a big shock since I'm doing better this year. However, what is affecting it is

1) I'm not currently playing any 4E, which means I've canceled my DDI, and
2) Not playing right now, I really don't have much need after I collected Divine Power. After Martial, Divine, and Arcane Power, I really don't have a desire for primal, and the next book I have a desire for will be PH3, because of the Psionics. Barbarians, Druids, Wardens, Shamans all have enough in the PH2 that I really don't feel as if they're short-changed versus the stuff from PH1 - Quite the reverse, I felt the PH1 classes needed the splatbooks to make them more interesting compared to the stuff from PH2!

 

[Dice4Hire]

The economy has not affected my family yet, so that is not a facotr in buying fewer books.

But I am

I bought the PHB, PHBII, MM, MMII, DMG, AVI, AP, DP and that is about it, though I might get MMIII and MMIV in later years.

I jsut do not want to spend the money on the books right now. Or on this system.

I bought all the complete books for 3.5 plus other things, and I felt like there was always something I really wanted to have, that would add to my enjoyment of the gmae.

4E does not feel like that. I feel new books complicate the game, but do not really add to it.

Honestly, it is an odd feeling for me towards WOTC

 

[Herremann the Wise]

I think because of my DDI subscription, I have not been motivated to buy as many 4E books as previous editions. This has allowed me to subscribe to a couple of the Pathfinder lines as well as get a scattering of different pdfs (the most recent being the Fantasycraft pdf). The economic situation has not affected my overall spending (if anything, it has most likely increased).

Our group is playing both 4E and 3.x at the moment with both versions being adequately supported.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[kenmarable]

I'm buying FAR less than 3.x* for 3 reasons:

1) I'm playing less, which in addition to making me sad, makes it harder to justify the spending levels I used to maintain in 3.x.

2) I know WotC probably doesn't want to hear this, but DDI is good enough that it makes many books unnecessary for me. Yeah, they are starting to put more sidebar and additional info in some of the Power books that isn't in the Compendium/Char Builder, but those haven't been enough for me to justify buying any of the Power books. Plus I only bought AV1 because the GSL references specific page numbers. AV2 hasn't much caught my eye. Oh, and as a slight aside as for the campaign settings, FR 4e held no interest for me, and for Eberron 4e I bought the Player's Guide as soon as I could, but haven't bothered with the Campaign Guide, but again, there's not enough I don't already have to justify the purchase - although in that case it's 3.5 overlap instead of DDI.

3) Far less third party support. Still some great stuff out there (although sadly less now that One Bad Egg closed up). But in the height of the 3.x era, I had Malhavoc, Green Ronin, Bastion Press, Paradigm Concepts, Fantasy Flight, and later Paizo all taking bites out of my paychecks - and that's just print books and doesn't even touch the massive number of PDF publishers I purchase(d) from. Now, not a single non-WotC 4e physical book has caught my interest, unfortunately. Some great PDFs, but that's about it.


* My spending in 2e and earlier really is hard to compare since most of my pre-3.0 gaming experience was high school and earlier. I mostly took a break in college, and then as a bona fide grown up got back into it not too long before 3.0.

 

[Ulrick]

I bought the PHB, DMG, MM, Open Grave, and the Adventures vault. I even invested in DDI.

I stopped purchasing not because of financial reasons: I just don't like 4e. And wish it didn't take me purchasing around $150 worth of books to figure that out.

I bought waaay more books for 3.5.

 

[Ourph]

I've purchased fewer books for 4e than I did for 3e, but I currently own exactly one 3.x era book (my 3.0 DMG, because I haven't found anyone who actually wants it yet) while I own about a dozen 4e books (counting adventures). I would probably own quite a few more 4e books if it were not for the existence of the DDI.

The only game system for which I've made a similar number of purchases is WFRP 2e. I think, in total, I bought around a dozen books for that system too. Again, most of those got sold or given away as soon as I got 4e.

 

[Skywalker]

How many people here have been buying less books for 4E, compared to the number of books bought for previous editions like 3E/3.5E, 2E, 1E, etc ... or other rpg games?

In my case, I have certainly been buying less books for 4E. With constant daily rumors of layoffs at work for the last year or so, I find that I've spending a lot less on rpg books and other luxuries like new video games, gadgets, etc ...

Strangely enough, I did not buy many D&D books outside the core except in 1e. However, I am buying most 4e books now. I think the reason in that I am finding that in 4e each new book consistently adds to my game.

 

[MacMathan]

Not for me so far. I would say I have about 90% of what WotC has put out for 4e and a DDI subscription.

So far I would say I am buying at about the same rate as 3/3.5e not counting the DDI.

I was not a big 3rd party buyer then or now so the OGL situation has not effected my buying habits.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I haven't bought any 4E books (not even the core rulebooks) so my spending is definitely down!

In general I would say that my RPG spending has been down in the past year. I haven't bought as many D&D prepainted minis this year as I did last year and I haven't even spent as much on 3.5E books as I have in the previous couple of years. I still have bought a few PDF and I completed my Paranoia collection though.

Overall though I have just about bought all of the books I want for 3.5E. The fact that my current 3.5E campaign is going so well and will last at least another year or two before we finish it has meant that I'm quite happy to hold off on buying the 4E books, especially now that I've gotten past the "Ohhhh!!! New Shiny!!!!" stage!

What I was previously spending on RPG's has probably been diverted back into Blood Bowl, which I have gotten back into in the last 2 years.

Olaf the Stout