The market dying?

[MongooseMatt]

Well, some prefer discretion. They are not as cavalier about things that might be variously defined as breaches of trust or petty industrial espionage. Of course, people have been known to be cavalier about just such things, haven't they?

Okay, I realise that, for whatever reasons, Skarka and yourself have a problem with me. However, I am getting a little tired of these veiled insinuations.

Will you kindly list where I have breached any trust? Or engaged in industrial espionage, petty or otherwise?

One's politeness tends to fray when they work for a penny a word long enough, I hear (be it by contract or by the terms of employment with expected by word rates). Or when they're sacked for the incompetence of their editor because it would be cheaper to sack them -- general incompetence that would lead to the grossest example of plaigiarism ever seen in the industry, in fact. Me, I don't like it when some weasel implies others are to blame for their legal woes just because they chose a stupidly actionable title for their RPG.

Okay, let's tick these off one by one.

No employed writer of Mongoose has ever worked for a penny a word. Ever. If a writer proves himself (and that part is critical), he will become one of the highest paid members of Mongoose.

We have only ever offered a penny a word to freelancers for a small amount of PDF work - and we were completely up front about it. No one who accepted such a contract was surprised and all had the chance to turn it down.

No one has ever been sacked from Mongoose for the incompetence of an editor or any one else. People _have_ been sacked for taking pay cheques and not doing any work and they have been sacked for gross misconduct - but never for taking the blame for someone else.

I have absolutely _no_ idea what you are talking about with regards to plagiarism or actionable titles. Again, instead of veiled insinuations, say what is on your mind.

Well, that's like 5 staff members in decent-pay-ese, Matt.

Mongoose's pay rates are among the best in the industry. The fact that we insist on a low-paying probationary period for most positions is because we have been burnt in the past. Some people, including some of your own friends I believe, will actually accept a pay cheque when they have done _no_ work for it.

As long as you want to be frank and all.

I'll be as open as I can. Will you?


Still, I have been called a liar and a weasal within a couple of pages - we must be doing something right

 

[Ketjak]

OT: Fantastic Games

I bet that's a fascinating story. What did he do to turn his business around and 'buy a clue'? What's his business like? Is he purely an RPG games retailer or does he have things like boardgames, darts, chess, etc in the mix?

Scott always had (and has!) non-RPG materials in the mix. His store has always been dingy, always been a little cluttered, and as long as I've known it (5 years) has always been glutted with RPGs that didn't sell. His traffic was down, his cash flow was poor, and he didn't carry MWDA and Heroclix during their booms because of personal choices and being burned on early Heroclix and some WizKids tourney support. He also steadfastly refused to provide good customer service by not calling when a customer's (sometimes prepaid) order came in. Frustrating, and I only went in when I couldn't get down to Redmond or Bellevue (when the Wizards stores were still around, even though they were terrible experiences).

Then one day last year (I don't recall when, though it was around July 2004), he put all the RPGs on a ridiculous sale - upwards of 40% on most items, always 10% on big ticket "overpriced" hardcovers, and the "crap-peddlers'" wares were effectively free with enough total purchases. It took a while, but he cleared the shelves of all but the most stubborn junk. He even got rid of his extensive Mongoose collection (he recognized they were inconsistently crappy to mediocre, and people who lucked out and got their mediocre stuff didn't think it was worth the risk of buying more crap, so it stopped selling altogether) and all six copies of Love and War! (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5013&)

At about the same time he added a huge toy section, began carrying D&D miniatures and some clix, and reorganized the store to add more game space (where before he had only one table). He also made the toy guy a store manager. Now the store does brisk business, he carries popular D20 titles and limits his unknown purchases considerably so he carries less dead weight.

 

[Numion]

If there is a big decline, it sure is kept out of sights. Great products coming out, bigger products than ever. I'm sorry, but if it looks like a dog, barks like a dog ..

I mean, if game companies were this adept in hiding the bad times, they'd be working for the government or the MIB.

 

[Maggan]

I mean, if game companies were this adept in hiding the bad times, they'd be working for the government or the MIB.

So, you didn't get the memo? They ARE working for the MIB, all this "roleplaying industry" talk is just a cover up. I mean, just look at it, the "roleplaying industry". It's a contradiction in terms.

Maybe we should rename it the "roleplaying playground" ... but I don't think CIA would like that ...

/M

 

[wingsandsword]

Part of the problem is that until we entered the 21st century, common wisdom was that the industry was recession-proof, as it had thrived through the economic downturns that had previously occurred.

The only industries I can think of that are really "recession proof" are food, utilities & tobacco/alcohol, because even in the worst of times, people still need electricity/water, they need to eat, and they'll want to smoke and drink. What do people need, and what will they always want?

RPG's are, really, a luxury item. They are a relatively inexpensive luxury item that has a pretty dedicated consumer base, so it's pretty resistant. However. . .

The price of gaming books has risen sharply over the last few years. A typical new book at my FLGS is $40, and less than a decade ago typical new books were almost half that. In that time, wages haven't increased much (minimum wage hasn't increased a bit), but it looks (from my POV) that the price of RPG's has risen faster than the cost of living in other aspects and way faster than wages. This means that relatively, gamers have less money to spend on games.

If a gamer has $50 to buy books with in a month (not unreasonable for many gamers I know), not too long ago that could buy you a hardcover and a paperback suppliment (or module), or maybe three paperbacks or two small hardcovers. Now, it's more likely to be one hardcover, or maybe two cheap paperbacks. This means fewer companies will have gamers buying their products, since numerically fewer products are being bought, and it looks like that they fall back to the companies they see as the core of their hobby (WotC and WW).

When the economy picks up (it too works in cycles), and there is more disposable income, I think it's safe to say RPG's will benefit from any increase in spending power among its fan base. I for one know if I had more money, I'd spend at least a fair share of it on RPG's.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Woah, far too much bad stuff in this thread at the moment. This forum isn't the place for name calling and airing personal issues, and I don't think this thread has anywhere to go except down from now on.

I'm closing the thread, but if anyone thinks there is a compelling reason for it to stay open, please email me on the link below.