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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SiderisAnon" data-source="post: 3277356" data-attributes="member: 44949">Magic Saved Your FLGSSo many people complain about Magic. It's so horrible. It's a curse. It's caused all these problems in the industry. It causes problems for my FLGS.Magic: The Gathering saved your local FLGS and quite possibly saved the industry. (Pokemon helped as well.)I have friends who run gaming shops. One is still running strongly, one closed a couple of years ago. Both have been in and around the gaming industry for years. Some people I know used to run a gaming distribution company (they've since retired). Over the years I have heard a lot of information about the ins and outs of gaming and the profit margin from these people.They are also the ones who convinced me that the beliefs I had picked up from other gamers about the evil of card games were dead wrong.These card games mean more sales for your local FLGS. Without the cards, there are gaming shops that would have closed years ago. These sales don't compete with our gaming supplies. They don't take much shelf space up at all. One poster noted that his FLGS got out of gaming supplies for card games, but that's not a common theme and strikes me as a problem with the FLGS, not with the card games.As for the kids who play Magic taking up space ... yes, they do. They also spend money on cards when they do all those tournaments, and that helps the gaming store pay for that space in the first place. Sure, we have little room for D&D on a Friday night because of Magic, but without the card game we might not have a store at all.Yes, the kids can be loud and obnoxious. On the other hand, have you ever really taken a good look at RPG gamers??? There's a reason that the hobby is known for people with few or no social skills. However, having hung out with both RPG'ers and Magic players, I can say that they all pretty much the same people. Both groups have obsessed players who can talk for hours about their favorite thing in the game, have some regular players, and have some casual players. I admit that the RPG players tend to be a bit older on average, but that's partially because our hobby has been around a LOT longer than Magic.Wizards of the Coast is a company. That means they are looking for a profit. They are not a religion. They are not a government service. They are not a charity group. They're a company, and they have to act like one. Collectible card games make a steady profit for them. Collectible miniatures add a little more to the steady profit. That steady profit helps them keep their doors open and allows them to hire writers and artists to produce quality RPG stuff. (Yes, they produce some books that make me wonder why they bothered, but obviously these books are selling, which means there's money coming in that might finance a book I want.)Sorry for the rant, but I see all these posts complaining about WOTC and how they do things. While I might not agree with everything with WOTC does, I can say that their business practices have not only SAVED my favorite game, they have released numerous books that have been of great value to me. (Not to mention the numerous publications I've bought that were put out under the OGL.) As far as I'm concerned, they've improved the hobby, not ruined it. If the prices I have to pay for that is that WOTC releases a few books I'll never want to buy and has some rules I don't agree with because they want to sell more miniatures ... well, that's no price at all. I've never been one to buy every book by a gaming company I like (assuming they have a decent line size) and I've been writing house rules for thinks I didn't like for over 20 years. So, not real bother. *shrug*</blockquote>

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