Ken Hite Re: The RPG Industry

[The_Gneech]

How about if pdfs were sold somewhere like Amazon.com? Mainstream enough for you?

Well, no, not really. The presence of the actual physical magazine there as something people can flip through and get intrigued by is what I'm getting at.

-The Gneech

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I'd probably re-up for Dungeon and Dragon in pdf format, if it were heavilly discounted compared to the print version.

Emphasis on heavily for me to even consider it. If subscribers received a pdf copy of each issue along with the hardcopy, it might tempt me into subscribing again, though. PDF only? Again, no way.

 

[catsclaw227]

Emphasis on heavily for me to even consider it. If subscribers received a pdf copy of each issue along with the hardcopy, it might tempt me into subscribing again, though. PDF only? Again, no way.

I posted a poll on this yesterday. Check it out here.

 

[Lackhand]

Well, no, not really. The presence of the actual physical magazine there as something people can flip through and get intrigued by is what I'm getting at.

-The Gneech

Sorry to be a bit late -- but I'm a subscriber to dragon, and my copies come shrinkwrapped polybagged. Aren't they that way in the newstands, too?

 

[tylerthehobo]

Emphasis on heavily for me to even consider it. If subscribers received a pdf copy of each issue along with the hardcopy, it might tempt me into subscribing again, though. PDF only? Again, no way.

Uh...there's all sorts of cool PDF content from Dungeon and to a lesser extent from Dragon available from the paizo website. No, it's not the whole issue, but as a DM, I'm really jazzed that the Dungeon handouts, maps, etc. are available as PDFs.

 

[thalmin]

Sorry to be a bit late -- but I'm a subscriber to dragon, and my copies come shrinkwrapped polybagged. Aren't they that way in the newstands, too?

Most issues are not polybagged, only if they contain loose inserts.

 

[Baron Opal]

I would only be interested in pdf purchases for collections of articles. Things like a year's worth of the Demononomicon or Ecology of ... articles collected together, that I would buy. I prefer to have a book to read through both for tactile and portability needs. It's just far more convienient for me to carry a couple of [Dungeon magazines to work than a laptop. Makes my boss less nervous too, as I work with a lot of sensitive info.

 

[Baron Opal]

It's not that gamers save money by pirating and then go and spend that money on dishwashers. They redistribute it to other aspects of their hobby they can't download.

Hence, why board game and miniatures are so strong. You think people just found hundreds of dollars out of nowhere to buy D&D minis?

You're kidding, right? Boardgames are huge, particularly in Europe. Now that American companies have clued in that adults would actually get together to play an interesting game that challenged an adult mind they're selling well.

 

[Bog97th]

THE RPG Book Club??? Sweet!

Try and quit.

Last time I did, they retroactively declared nearly all of my purchases since joining the club to not be elligible for paying off my commitment upon joining and presented me with a big bill and an e-mail threatening legal action, and this is after I'd purchased more than a dozen books through them.

It took me weeks of long distance phone calls before I could get it resolved, and it was made very clear to me that they felt they were doing me a favor by not taking me to court.

I thought this was an anomaly, since I used them with great satisfaction in the 1980s and 1990s, when I didn't have ready access to book stores (living overseas) and they were great. Now, I find out, that lots of people have stories like mine, with the SFBC claiming "members" owe them all sorts of things the members believed to have already been taken care of.

No problems here....And I think an RPG book club would be a wonderful idea! Especialy one that would allow small press publishers a chance to get the product out to a wide range of customers who may only play certain RPG's and have never tried any others.

 

[Steel_Wind]

You're kidding, right? Boardgames are huge, particularly in Europe. Now that American companies have clued in that adults would actually get together to play an interesting game that challenged an adult mind they're selling well.

No. I'm not kidding. Are you?

The reason boardgames are popular is because people want them. But that's not what I said, is it?

The reason that CCG's, Boardgames and Miniatures are doing so well relative to RPGs is because, in my view, piracy is playing a significant role in this marketplace and monies are being diverted away from products that can be pirated to products that can't be pirated.

I swear that every time the issue of piracy come up on ENWorld, there is a loud "GLURKK" as people shove their heads in the sand and do a collective ostrich. As if piracy can have no substantial effect on sales.

OF COURSE piracy is having a substantial effect on sales. Check the torrents, binary newsgroups and P2P networks. This stuff is freely available and it's a real problem. Is it responsible for the D20 glut? No. Is it responsbile for lowering barriers to entry in RPG publishing? No.

Is it responsible for a good chunk in the overall decline in RPG sales while miniatures are doing extremely well? Damned right it is.