Tabletopocalypse Now - GMS' thoughts about the decline in the hobby

[prosfilaes]

If we are talking about the demise of RPG's however, wouldn't it be MORE telling that the top selling Amazon RPG is #4? What's even more important on that is that 3 relatively unknown fantasy books are outselling EVERY ONE of the RPG's according to that posting just previous to this?

Overall, the fantasy is the 697th bestselling book, and Gamma World is about 1000. I don't know what historically it's been, but the top computer programming book is about 1250, so we're still somewhere in the range of non-mainstream but still popular sidehobby. I mean fiction sells; the top of the Computers and Internet category is a WoW novel.

 

[Maggan]

As mentioned, it's not clear what timespan this bestseller list is over.

it says "updated hourly" if you navigate to it via the left hand menu system.

So, updated hourly.

EDIT: although, of course, how they update it is not divulged, so we don't know what happens of Pathfinder sells 1 and Gamma World 0 one hour, and then reverse that the next hour.

/M

 

[Lanefan]

it says "updated hourly" if you navigate to it via the left hand menu system.

So, updated hourly.

OK, updated hourly; but are the sales numbers that are being updated hourly a snapshot of just that hour's sales? Of that day? Of the 7 days preceding that hour? Of the month to date? Year to date?

"Updated hourly" isn't very informative without also knowing what is being updated.

Lanefan

 

[UngainlyTitan]

OK, updated hourly; but are the sales numbers that are being updated hourly a snapshot of just that hour's sales? Of that day? Of the 7 days preceding that hour? Of the month to date? Year to date?

"Updated hourly" isn't very informative without also knowing what is being updated.

Lanefan

The is the issue in all of these debates, where we have metrics (Amazon rankings or ICV2 survey) we have no context and thus no way to assign meaning to the metrics we are looking at.

 

[Umbran]

The is the issue in all of these debates, where we have metrics (Amazon rankings or ICV2 survey) we have no context and thus no way to assign meaning to the metrics we are looking at.

Whenever you see a metric, you should ask yourself the purpose of its presentation, to help you decide if it is pertinent to your use.

Amazon does not provide ranking metrics to give you a good idea of how well different products are selling within their market spaces - Amazon's not in the business of providing market analysis. They're presenting them in the hopes they may influence your purchasing choice. Their metric is not likely to be appropriate for analysis.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If we can get all gamers implanted with an RFID chip, we can find out exactly how many gamers there are and see how often they gather in significant groups, much like how zoologists gain data on certain animals that are hard to study.

Presumably, those most of those groups would either be in game shops or as game groups. Counting the groups would give us a better snapshot on the health of the hobby.

So, who wants to be chipped?!









Or do I have to get out my tranq gun?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Whenever you see a metric, you should ask yourself the purpose of its presentation, to help you decide if it is pertinent to your use.

Amazon does not provide ranking metrics to give you a good idea of how well different products are selling within their market spaces - Amazon's not in the business of providing market analysis. They're presenting them in the hopes they may influence your purchasing choice. Their metric is not likely to be appropriate for analysis.

Um! Are we not saying the same thing? I am not the one waving the Amazon ranking or the ICV2 survey to prove anything. Nor am I trying to prove one game/company has more market share than an other.

Looking it up it appears that the Amazon ranking is compiled hourly and the formula has changed ouver time. So extracting meaning from it is difficult even if you know how many book you have sold.

 

[Umbran]

Um! Are we not saying the same thing?

Pretty much. What, did you think that responding to you meant I disagreed with you?

 

[prosfilaes]

Whenever you see a metric, you should ask yourself the purpose of its presentation, to help you decide if it is pertinent to your use.

When you're in our shoes, you collect what data you can find and you draw a picture. You've got to keep in mind what quality of data you have, and know that your picture is going to be inaccurate, but it's better to be the guy who said that there are five planets and they move around the Earth, then the guy who didn't waste any time looking at the stars.

In any case, I was responding to this post:

I haven't had time to read this thread, but does seeing a rating of Dungeons and Dragons as tied with Pathfinder for sales strike anyone else as implausible? I'd be shocked if Dungeons and Dragons didn't have much higher sales than any other game over any one-year period.

Yes, Amazon numbers are much, much more reliable then your gut. So are the ICV2 numbers. Even given what I said above, it's one thing to ignore the stars, and yet another to argue about them without reference to, or in denial of, what is known.

 

[Squnk]

I'm still a noob to d&d but I could easily say that the rise in video games especially MMO games over the last 10+ years help cause a drop in sales, video games are easier to pick up and learn as well as provide an immediate visual stimulus. Atleast for the younger crowd I can understand why they can find video games more appealing than sitting down at a table with pencils and books. Another reason why I believe table top games sales have declined is the buying and selling of used books. I haven't been playing for too long but from what I have seen the most popular versions of tabletop games seem to be the older versions that are often discontinued. So many of these books and assessories are being sold used and don't contribute to the profits to these major companies. But most of all I just think it is the image and misconceptions people have about these games, I have only been playing for about 4 months now and prior to playing I thought most of these roleplaying games were losers that were so unhappy with their own life's that they had to play dress up and pretend to be these fictional heroes. But once I got dragged to a d&d game I came to find out I was completely wrong, it isn't a bunch of nerds playing pretend but instead a group of friends creating a story together. Every since then I have completely become addicted to the game. I know there are so many reasons why tabletop games are on a down slop but it is good to see a place like this where so many people come together because it really shows the health of this game world.