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<blockquote data-quote="Ahwe Yahzhe" data-source="post: 7647877" data-attributes="member: 55229"><p><strong>Network Externalities and such</strong></p><p></p><p> I'm a latecomer to this thread too, but</p><p>I found the whole "acquisition" and "network externality" portion of this discussion too interesting not to comment. </p><p> </p><p>I think Ryan Dancey has tied the demise of some marketing channels too closely to the issue of network effects and player acquisition. Brick & mortar retail channels may have improved network externalities by increasing the availability of game products, but game products are just as easily obtained through online retail channels today. And while Amazon.com does nothing to reinforce the network effect through player acquisition (as is often bemoaned), neither did brick & mortar bookstores. So that leaves hobby games stores and peer groups as the primary sources of player acquisition. </p><p> </p><p>While Ryan Dancey may be close on his estimate of only 500-1000 hobby game stores left in the US, I think the composition of many of those surviving game stores is telling. Many now-defunct hobby game stores were no better than niche brick & mortar bookstores; when online retailers beat them on product price, availability, and service, they started to go out of business right along with them. Five years ago my local FLGS (the stereotypical narrow-aisled rat nest with posters covering the windows, a disinterested clerk and a stale fast-food smell) was replaced with a new game store designed around a model that other successful game stores seem to be following: A full-spectrum store that sells chess, backgammon, poker, and party games in the front, boardgames in the middle (from "feeders" to Eurogames and various licensed property games), and TRPGs and miniature combat games in the back. (CCGs are in and behind the glass sales counter, as always.) The most distinctive feature of this successful game store (which just doubled in size at its new location), however, is the fact that over half of its square footage is dedicated to tables for playing any kind of tabletop games, with late hours to support after-school or after-work players. This allows for a weekly and monthly scheduled of organized play events that build a local gaming community. Players come in to buy or play one game, and come back to buy or play others, including D&D (and occassionally Pathfinder.) That is why programs like Encounters may be more important to WotC than LFR, because they provide an organized play format in these stores targeted at new player acquisition. (And Lair Assaults to try to bring in experienced players from their home games.) I would back up Alphastream's anecdotal evidence of more new (young) players- I've helped plenty of high school and college students, kids brought in by their parents, and lapsed D&D players (some overlap on those last two categories, of course) learn the ropes of current edition D&D in these short 1 or 2-hour sessions. This is where Paizo has to sell its (excellent) Beginner Box, because it can't survive indefinitely on aggregated (but still dwindling) legacy edition players. If nowhere else, these kind of game stores will be the drivers of new player acquisition.* TRPGs will survive or thrive as part of this larger hobby gaming community.</p><p> </p><p>I'm not sure what VTTs may do other than hold onto TRPG players not supported by a "new-format" game store, but TRPGs are a different playing experience than MMOs and similarly shouldn't be compared to them other than in the largest sense of competing for a gamers' finite budget and leisure time.</p><p> </p><p>-AY</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*Conversely, I always thought that the reason the WotC retail stores (remember those?) failed was their narrow product focus and inability to support organized play- those mall stores didn't have the square footage for game tables.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ahwe Yahzhe, post: 7647877, member: 55229"] [b]Network Externalities and such[/b] I'm a latecomer to this thread too, but I found the whole "acquisition" and "network externality" portion of this discussion too interesting not to comment. I think Ryan Dancey has tied the demise of some marketing channels too closely to the issue of network effects and player acquisition. Brick & mortar retail channels may have improved network externalities by increasing the availability of game products, but game products are just as easily obtained through online retail channels today. And while Amazon.com does nothing to reinforce the network effect through player acquisition (as is often bemoaned), neither did brick & mortar bookstores. So that leaves hobby games stores and peer groups as the primary sources of player acquisition. While Ryan Dancey may be close on his estimate of only 500-1000 hobby game stores left in the US, I think the composition of many of those surviving game stores is telling. Many now-defunct hobby game stores were no better than niche brick & mortar bookstores; when online retailers beat them on product price, availability, and service, they started to go out of business right along with them. Five years ago my local FLGS (the stereotypical narrow-aisled rat nest with posters covering the windows, a disinterested clerk and a stale fast-food smell) was replaced with a new game store designed around a model that other successful game stores seem to be following: A full-spectrum store that sells chess, backgammon, poker, and party games in the front, boardgames in the middle (from "feeders" to Eurogames and various licensed property games), and TRPGs and miniature combat games in the back. (CCGs are in and behind the glass sales counter, as always.) The most distinctive feature of this successful game store (which just doubled in size at its new location), however, is the fact that over half of its square footage is dedicated to tables for playing any kind of tabletop games, with late hours to support after-school or after-work players. This allows for a weekly and monthly scheduled of organized play events that build a local gaming community. Players come in to buy or play one game, and come back to buy or play others, including D&D (and occassionally Pathfinder.) That is why programs like Encounters may be more important to WotC than LFR, because they provide an organized play format in these stores targeted at new player acquisition. (And Lair Assaults to try to bring in experienced players from their home games.) I would back up Alphastream's anecdotal evidence of more new (young) players- I've helped plenty of high school and college students, kids brought in by their parents, and lapsed D&D players (some overlap on those last two categories, of course) learn the ropes of current edition D&D in these short 1 or 2-hour sessions. This is where Paizo has to sell its (excellent) Beginner Box, because it can't survive indefinitely on aggregated (but still dwindling) legacy edition players. If nowhere else, these kind of game stores will be the drivers of new player acquisition.* TRPGs will survive or thrive as part of this larger hobby gaming community. I'm not sure what VTTs may do other than hold onto TRPG players not supported by a "new-format" game store, but TRPGs are a different playing experience than MMOs and similarly shouldn't be compared to them other than in the largest sense of competing for a gamers' finite budget and leisure time. -AY *Conversely, I always thought that the reason the WotC retail stores (remember those?) failed was their narrow product focus and inability to support organized play- those mall stores didn't have the square footage for game tables. [/QUOTE]
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