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I think that it is very important to differentiate between "d20 products" and "d20 publishers". Let's imagine that there were 5 publishers selling 10 products each in August of 2001. And lets imagine that there were 20 publishers selling 5 products each in August of 2002. An individual...

Re: The problem isn't the monster, it's the CR system I am, and I have, but I don't have anything I'd feel comfortable demonstrating yet. I am working on a secret project that will contain my final cut on that system. I expect to work out many of the details of that system with public...

Re: Re: Re: Re: The problem isn't the monster, it's the CR system My opinion is that the design problem can be compared to a tree with many branches and subbranches. [To restate: The design problem is that the inputs to the CR/EL/XP calculation break down above a certain average party...

Re: Re: The problem isn't the monster, it's the CR system I don't accept that as a suitable response. There's a technology out there waiting to be developed that will help DMs select challenges for their parties which are fun, require strategy and tactics, and reward the party for overcoming...

The problem isn't the monster, it's the CR system Fundamentally, the problem with higher level D&D play is that the one-size-fits-all CR system doesn't work. Example: A 20th level Commonor, a 20th level Wizard and the Terrasque are all the same CR. Which would you rather fight? My...

If they took every penny they might spend on advertising and instead sunk it into a deal with GameStop and Wal*Mart for an attractive endcap near the front of the store and some quick salespeson training, they'd get a thousandfold return vs. what they'd get for advertising in a computer gaming...

My comments below are directed at publishers trying to drive an "acquisition" business - that is, converting someone who has never played an RPG into someone who does: Advertising tabletop RPGs is a waste of money. Advertising them outside the core is a waste of a whole lot of money. Tabletop...

The D&D intro boxed set is widely distributed, including Toys R Us. Wal*Mart and Target refuse to carry it because it is D&D; I believe that issue could be addressed with a dedicated strategic effort to change their minds (but WotC's sales team didn't have the time or resources to try while I...

Re: RPGs of the Rich and Famous I'm from Bothell, Washington; a blue-collar suburb of Seattle. I've been following RPG sales trends for 7 years. The proof is in the sales - people are paying more for RPG products and sales are going up, not going down. Conventional wisdom about pricing's...

Yes and no. I wrote an infamous article in another forum used by industry professionals where I indicated that we were going to "use price as a weapon" with the core 3e books. WotC has leverage in this area that no other publisher does, due to the huge volumes of core 3e books, which can be an...

Traditionally, hobby game publishers have believed that having the infrastructure of the channel was worth the increased price consumers paid for product. Whether you believe that theory or not has a lot to do with how much value you get from your local game store, book store, or other retail...

I don't know what you're referring to. I certainly don't think anything is broken - I think things are better today than they've been in 15 years in terms of the health of the RPG market. That doesn't mean that things can't continue to improve. One of those improvements would relate to...

I guess my response is: "Except that the strategy doesn't work". Publishers think it will, but there's no evidence that price sensitivity is more important than other critical factors in what triggers the "buy" response in game customers. I'd argue that higher priced goods which reflect that...

The ICv2 analysis underestimates WotC's revenue. It was probably larger than their guess. Ryan

There are just over 1,600 registered (i.e., paying) Living City players as of this date. We continue to generate about 10 a day. In 2000 (the best year we have data for), there were about 6,000 different people who played at least once in the year. So that's my short term goal; get 6,000...

What would you think about paying to play a MMRPG (no "O")?

Many people who buy a PHB never buy another D&D product. Those of you who buy a DMG usually buy a MM too. Then you stop buying products. About a third of you buy something else beyond The Big Three. One or two books. About a fifth of you buy books "close to the core" like Manual of the...

Nailed it.

Re: oh, why am i posting again??? You have just asked one of the Great Questions. Good work. I have some opinions on the matter which may surprise you. First, I will state that I do not believe that either TCGs or miniatures are currently suffering from illogical pricing. Both markets have...

I'm not being hypocritical. I think that GW (GDW sadly went bankrupt in the early '90s, partially because they charged too little for their products) is using a logical test to determine the pricing of their products - the actual behavior of the market, not what the market says it will do. I'm...