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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TirionAnthion" data-source="post: 5431977" data-attributes="member: 61048">Retail PerspectiveAs someone who works at a game store, I have mixed feelings about the online content. In one way, the lack of new products is frustrating. Without new releases it can be hard to generate excitement for the Brand. When I don't have something exciting for D&D on the new release shelf, it takes some of the momentum out of the game. However, one way to counter this is to put Essentials on a prominent end cap of an aisle. Make it visible to everyone that walks in the store. It becomes the "look here, D&D!" focal point of the store. This has worked well at my store and we sell a fair bit of Essentials because of it. The problem with DDI, for a retailer, is that it cuts into book sales. Customers are less likely to buy Book X, when they can just get the material in the Compendium. This hurts are sales and cuts down on the amount of product we move. However, if the book does not exist in the first place, then we don't have to worry about competing with the online source. The money we would spend on stocking the book can be better spent elsewhere.For my store, our bigger problem has been competition with online retailers. I have a subset of customers who like to come in, browse through the books and ask alot of questions. After anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes of this they will say "Amazon has this book for 30% less, can you match that?". When I can't they leave. It is frustrating because they never intended to buy from me, they just wanted to get hands on with the product. But that is a topic for another time.On the whole, WotC has been very supportive of the FLGS scene in the last year, with cool products and programs for stores that participate. While the increased online offerings does change the way we stock our shelves, it is not all gloom and doom!Anyway, I hope that gives some insight into the retailer perspective. Someone mentioned upthread that they were curious for a retailer's perspective so I thought I would offer one.As far as my personal feelings, I have been a subscriber since the beginning. I am almost exclusively a DM. I own all of the books (employee discounts are great!). I am not terribly upset about the book cancellations. If I had to choose between spending $20 toe $30 dollars on an essentials update to the PHB or having that material released through my existing DDI subscription, I choose DDI all the way.</blockquote>

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