D&D 4E 4e price increase?

[rkwoodard]

You are right

Comparing the cost of the core books to a video game is a really bad analogy.

I can assure you that if I took the latest PS2 game home, I wouldn't be able to play it. Why? No PS2!

Compare the cost of the core books to the actual console... that's a better comparison.

Cheers!

This is probably a good analogy for me. I am somewhat interested in the Wii system and saw it on sale for $250. Considering that much lay out (in one chunck) and the amount of time I have to play video games it is not worth it, for me.
4ed at $120. If I had to drop it all at once, I would have to use some of those 5 months to save. But I don't. I will go the route of one book a month and not even notice it.

I can take the books with me to work and read at lunch, break etc. I can snatch a few minutes here and there. So time wise, it is more worthwhile.

So, for the use and the buy in, 4ed will be my choice.

For new player buy-in: I really hope the basic set is a run levels 1-3 or 1-5 with all the bells and whistles.

RK

 

[MerricB]

For new player buy-in: I really hope the basic set is a run levels 1-3 or 1-5 with all the bells and whistles.

Yeah. The basic set will be interesting.

A lot of us have fond memories of the Moldvay or Mentzer basic sets, but I'm not convinced that they're the best way to introduce D&D...

Cheers!

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah. The basic set will be interesting.

A lot of us have fond memories of the Moldvay or Mentzer basic sets, but I'm not convinced that they're the best way to introduce D&D...

In theory, it can.

But truthfully, D&D and AD&D were two separate game entities ... IIRC.

I can see them offer three boxed sets for 4e: One for Heroic set (basic; levels 1-10), Paragon set (advanced; 11-20) and Epic set (master; 21-30).

 

[Vigilance]

God I hate this comparission. It just doesn't apply at all.

They are both luxury items that provide me entertainment.

They both cost money.

I look at the cost vs. how much entertainment I think I will get for that money.

How is that not a valid comparison?

Because you say so?

I also included books in my post.

Entertainment value vs. cost. On that comparison, it doesn't matter if I'm buying a video game, a DVD, a novel, a RPG book or a trip to the massage parlor.

I have 40 dollars in my pocket, and decide how to spend it. By my subjective analysis, D&D competes very well with other hobbies competing for my entertainment dollar.

Seems fair to me.

 

[Piratecat]

God I hate this comparission. It just doesn't apply at all.

I disagree. Both D&D and video games compete for the same scarce resources: disposable income and leisure time. Anyone who has lost a player to WoW or a new baby knows how important the leisure time competition is. The importance of disposable income varies from person to person, but I'd argue that both D&D and video games are both competing for the Entertainment category.

 

[Umbran]

Entertainment value vs. cost. On that comparison, it doesn't matter if I'm buying a video game, a DVD, a novel, a RPG book or a trip to the massage parlor.

I have to agree with Vigilance here, with the caveat that "entertainment value" is entirely subjective.

You can try to tell me 17 different ways that RPGs are not like any other particular luxury or entertainment. But, as a sentient, rational, and thinking critter, I can take those differences into account, given my own tastes and desires, and still make the comparison. The comparison I make is not necessarily very applicable to others - it will be more applicable to those who share my tastes, and less applicable to those whose tastes vary from mine.

 

[Fishbone]

Massage parlors aside, and I'm not sure if this point has been raised but the Canadian and British fans are really going to get screwed on this pricing. They are already getting hosed because they are getting charged "strong dollar" prices for "weak dollar" goods. Slap a price increase on it and it is really dire. Paying down 40+ U.S. dollars for an American book, how much do you think thats going to happen? I suspect rampant filesharing/piracy and in general a turn to more digital forms of the book over hardcover, or perhaps softcover editions, will happen in a big way. They're already happening now because books are expensive as it is.

 

[johnsemlak]

Personally, it's the exchange rate between US and Canadian dollar that makes me grind my teeth when it comes to WotC - or rather, Wizards' seeming complete lack of care for it.

I agree that it would be too much to expect an immediate price change now that the loonie surpasses the US dollar. I also admit one could expect a slightly higher price due to customs and transport. But Wizards' Canadian prices for their most recent or upcoming releases are still as much higher over the US price as they were years ago when the loonie was flying quite low compared to the US dollar. A few examples:

The Spine of the World US price: 25,95 Canadian price: 34,00
Wizards presents Races and Classes US price: 19,95 Canadian price: 25,95
Elder Evils US price: 29,95 Canadian price: 37,95

I could stand a 10% price increase to account for customs and transport. Maybe even 15%. But more than 25%? That's way too much. And while I know the loonie has only recently reached parity with the US dollar, it had been climbing higher for a while now - plenty of time for Wizards to adjust their prices if they gave a damn. Now that the loonie exceeds the US dollar, Wizards' greed and/or lack of care where their Canadian customers are concerned is plain to see.

I don't know much about publishing or book distribution but I find it very difficult to believe that WotC's RPG pricing outside the us is purely 'greed' or a 'complete lack to care'. Does WotC even decide on what price they use outside the US? Even if the answer is yes, is their policy out of line with other publishers?

WotC has no control over exchange rates, remember. I assume they're reacting to things the best they can. They probably concentrate their efforts on the US market, because most of their customers live there. But their market outside the US is substantial--I'm sure thought goes into their pricing policies but it's difficult to forsee exchange rate rises and falls.

 

[Hussar]

Stamp collecting, baseball card collecting, fishing (so long as you only buy the essentials), football (again, provided that you only buy the essentials), baseball (again, essentials), basketball (same deal with essentials), etc, etc. There are quite a few of them, actually. If you're treating fancy shoes and specialized professional play gear as necessary to partake in hobby sports, you need to consider every singel d20 supplement as necessary to play D&D, as well. To be fair, you know

Stamp collecting? For 120 bucks? That's a pretty sad collection.

Decent pair of shoes = 70 bucks minimum. Uniform, 100 bucks. There's every team sport off the list.

Fishing gear for 120 bucks? That's very, very basic, and you still haven't actually gone fishing yet. There's still the price of gas, a boat, license etc.

I'm not even talking about professional gear. A decent pair of shoes and a tennis racket runs you 120 bucks. You still haven't paid for court time.

I'm thinking your idea of cheap hobbies is pretty different from mine.

 

[Maggan]

3e played it smart - bring them in with a low price. 4e could and should take a lesson.

Lowering prices on roleplaying books is never the easy fix to reach significantly more customers.

I think I remember reading Ryan Dancey claiming that if he'd do the launch again, he wouldn't drop the prices. The effect on sales numbers wasn't dramatically different from what they experienced when they raised the prices, so basically what they did with the 20 dollar price was leave money on the table, without gaining significantly higher numbers of customers.

Or in other words, of those that bought at 20, a majority would have bought at 30. And I do think WotC learned from that experiment, but that we aren't liking what they learned and the consequences of the lesson.

/M