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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Samothdm" data-source="post: 270822" data-attributes="member: 5473">Jim, I totally agree with you that a d20 ad in Maxim would not have the same effect as WotC's 3rd Edition ad a couple of years ago.  I would never really recommend a d20 publisher running an ad in Maxim except in very specific circumstances (such as if a publisher gets ahold of a very popular WotC license to start publishing products based on that license).  But, it would have to be a very popular license.  I can't think of one off the top of my head right now.  What I'm saying is that WotC should be doing more mass media stuff and spending less in the niche gaming magazines.  But, a lot of those magazines count on the revenue that they get from WotC and many of them would probably go out of business if it weren't for WotC's ads running every month.  So, to counter that effect, I'm suggesting that some of the d20 publishers take up that slack and use those niche gaming magazines to support their product lines.  I'm also just curious as to why WotC has, for the most part, stopped advertising D&D.  Since many d20 publishers are former WotC employees, I thought they might have some ideas.  Was it the overall out-of-pocket cost of the ads (yes, Maxim, Boy's Life, etc. are very expensive when you just consider the cost of the ad space).  Or is it that WotC/Hasbro didn't think that the ads "paid out" in terms of the sales that they generated?  If that's the case, how did they come to that conclusion?  What measures did they use to track their sales?  I realize that the great majority of the spending for 3rd Edition would obviously take place at the launch of the product, but to not support it now in mass media is the equivalent of saying, "No one else is going to buy our games, so we're only going to talk to the current players through gaming magazines and fan sites."  Thinking like that will cause this hobby to die a slow death.  So, ultimately, I think WotC needs to be refreshing its player base.  One way to do that is to advertise to people who show an interest in the fantasy genre (fantasy and sci-fi publications and movies/tv shows, comic books, anime fans), gamers in general (particularly computer RPG gamers),  and people who "fit the demo" of gamers (most are young men 12-24 or maybe even 12-34).  Some of this will be expensive, but sometimes you have to spend a little money to make a little money.  The other solution is to pull a Games Workshop plan and simply revise the game every three years or so and do a relatively large marketing campaign to bring in new players and blow off the current players.  Revise the Core Three Rulebooks every three years and tell people that they need these books to play.  Focus only on new players and forget about the current players (who will probably just keep using the same edition that they're comfortable with).  However, I don't see WotC going with this approach (thank goodness).</blockquote>

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