So..um..how's that GSL coming along?

[justanobody]

If the official game is a game I want to play, there is no doubt that being "official" is going to boost that game to the top of the heap. If, OTOH, WotC is losing significant money to "non-official" games, perhaps that is because those games are offering something WotC is not? The same holds true for suppliments, etc. "Official" is automatically better unless there is an overwhelming reason why it is not, and if that overwhelming reason exists, then it would only be an asset to WotC to find out what it is.

So true. Superior product will win my money every time.

Why would I buy the McRibs after I found the patties half-a-dozen for $3 the same price as a McRib? Take it takes 3 to make a meal for me, then for that $9 I can purchase the rest of the buns, pickles, BBQ sauce for under that $9 and have twice the meals and get the same or maybe better taste from it.

So having the "Mc" or not becomes moot when I can find a better/equal product cheaper. If McDonald's want my money again they will have to pull off something like 10 hamburgers for $1 so it is worth my money in this failing economy. Doubtful they can do that with McRibs.

If "Official" wants the money, then they need to offer the best product, just like everyone else.

[/sidetrek]

 

[Fifth Element]

Why would I buy the McRibs after I found the patties half-a-dozen for $3 the same price as a McRib? Take it takes 3 to make a meal for me, then for that $9 I can purchase the rest of the buns, pickles, BBQ sauce for under that $9 and have twice the meals and get the same or maybe better taste from it.

You've missed the point of restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants. That is, you don't have to prepare the food yourself (saving time and effort), you don't have to clean up (again saving time and effort), etc. That's valuable to many people.

It's a poor example.

 

[justanobody]

You've missed the point of restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants. That is, you don't have to prepare the food yourself (saving time and effort), you don't have to clean up (again saving time and effort), etc. That's valuable to many people.

It's a poor example.

Well the local McDonalds to me sure don't clean up either....

Let us translate that to a superior RPG product then. You don't have to fix typos, guess errata, etc in a non-official product that costs less.

The concept of fast-food was also lost in the fact that now even fixing and cooking yourself takes less time than ordering in most of them.

Either way, quality over brand.

 

[Fifth Element]

Either way, quality over brand.

Sometimes brand can be good. Say you want to take a bunch of people to a restaurant. It's usually easier to find a place you'll all enjoy (or at least are willing to try) if it's a place familiar to everyone.

 

[justanobody]

Sometimes brand can be good. Say you want to take a bunch of people to a restaurant. It's usually easier to find a place you'll all enjoy (or at least are willing to try) if it's a place familiar to everyone.

That has little to do with brand, and more to do with quality.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Personally, trying to avoid "copy & paste publishing," while an admirable goal on the surface, seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

I mean, where's the competition, here? There were a few 3e products that did the copy-and-paste thing extensively, but they either did very new things as well (like Arcana Unearthed), or were mere format shifts (the Pocket SRD), both of which weren't products anyone at Wizards seemed to have much of an interest in making. They filled a void, and I'd be more than a little surprised to hear the people who bought those products not already owning a PHB/DMG/MM or at least using the online SRD extensively.

My guess is that it's not a competition issue. It's an issue of barriers to entry. In the "copy & paste publishing" scenario, anyone with a little time, a few thousand bucks, and a desire to be a game publisher can flood the hobby game channel with poorly-selling product that chokes the profit out of the RPG category. That was very much the state of the industry circa 2005.

Eliminate that, and create a scenario in which every single word of a 65,000-word sourcebook must be original, and you create a barrier to entry that will restrict the volume of new product entering the RPG marketplace--hopefully a restriction that favours product more likely to sell.

[Is this the end-all-and-be-all solution for avoiding a glut? Hardly. But I bet a lot of decisions about the GSL are being made with glut-avoidance in mind.]

 

[Morrus]

So true. Superior product will win my money every time.

Why would I buy the McRibs after I found the patties half-a-dozen for $3 the same price as a McRib? Take it takes 3 to make a meal for me, then for that $9 I can purchase the rest of the buns, pickles, BBQ sauce for under that $9 and have twice the meals and get the same or maybe better taste from it.

So having the "Mc" or not becomes moot when I can find a better/equal product cheaper. If McDonald's want my money again they will have to pull off something like 10 hamburgers for $1 so it is worth my money in this failing economy. Doubtful they can do that with McRibs.

If "Official" wants the money, then they need to offer the best product, just like everyone else.

[/sidetrek]

That, unfortunately, makes you an exception. Millions of people worldwide will still happily eat the McRibs without a second thought. You can try to eductae them on superior, cheaper food every day for the rest of your life, and yet McDonalds will still continue to sell McRibs to droves of eager customers.

Your $9 simply does not matter when millions of other people are gladly paying it.

 

[tenkar]

That, unfortunately, makes you an exception. Millions of people worldwide will still happily eat the McRibs without a second thought. You can try to eductae them on superior, cheaper food every day for the rest of your life, and yet McDonalds will still continue to sell McRibs to droves of eager customers.

Your $9 simply does not matter when millions of other people are gladly paying it.

People are paying for the conveinience of near instant satisfaction. That is why it is called "fast food".

McRibs is a horrible example from my POV... you couldn't pay me to eat that (nor the homemade equivalent)

 

[Raven Crowking]

That, unfortunately, makes you an exception. Millions of people worldwide will still happily eat the McRibs without a second thought. You can try to eductae them on superior, cheaper food every day for the rest of your life, and yet McDonalds will still continue to sell McRibs to droves of eager customers.

Your $9 simply does not matter when millions of other people are gladly paying it.

Which also goes to show that the vast majority of people will buy D&D because of brand recognition, even if the edition turns out to be a McRib. So what, then, is the point of preventing Cut & Paste publishing, esp. given the general notion that "It's kinda like D&D" eventually gets people to try D&D?

I would love a good answer to that question.

It seems to me as though WotC is jumping through hoops to try to prevent something that doesn't actually harm the "900-lb gorilla" of name-brand recognition, but their attempts to prevent it harm both 3pp that would support them and the customers that would buy their products.



RC

 

[Morrus]

People are paying for the conveinience of near instant satisfaction. That is why it is called "fast food".

Ermm.... yes? Or were you just agreeing with me?