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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ashockney" data-source="post: 5141024" data-attributes="member: 1363">Welcome back, Ry!Long time no see, I hope all has been well with you.  You said you've been playing some non D&D type games, care to share your findings?There's a good article by Joe Goodman about the state of the industry around her somehwere, as well as the Greg Leeds thread on this board.  I think the moral of the story is that 4e sold like crazy in the beginning, top three products of all time, but still pretty far behind 3.0's relaunch.  WoTC took 80% of their "player" content digital through the subscription model, and allowing most players to decide to stop buying in bookstores/flgs's, and subscribe instead.  I'm sure there's still a huge "overlap" of people who still buy a book anyway, but my guess is that book sales are probably down significantly on 4e, while subscriptions keep climbing.  TPP support for 4e has been EXTREMELY sparse. You've got to hunt for them to find their product, or you can get to it through digital distribution channels.  The d20 game license has been dissolved by WoTC, and the d20 market has disappeared with it.  The OGL remains intact, thankfully.  Some d20 type support can still be provided through that, but outside of pathfinder, I doubt anyone could afford the expense of a print run, because sales have dropped off significantly.  Paizo has spent from Gencon to Gencon putting on a clinic about how to create a market in the digital age, and their Pathfinder game has done superbly (selling out of the first print run entirely, which I've got to presume was pretty healthy).  They are doing quite a bit of digital and direct distribution through their website in support of the PF line.  I've not read any extensive or detailed review/feedback of the system, so I'd argue that actual use in play is still a shadow of 4e.  Probably about the level of a Vampire: The Masquerade, type of a game.Overall, the Great Recession was unkind to gaming companies, just like everyone else.  There have been a few casualties as a result.  The popular trend has been moving from tabletop RPG into MMORPG (and vice-versa) or into boardgames.  Some of the boardgames have been really expensive, $100+.  Check out boardgamegeek for the latest on which one's are gettign some traction.  My personal favorite from the last year was the game Dominion.  Simple to learn, challenging, with an elegant system, and high replayability.  2010 has seen WoTC refocus it's efforts in two directions for it's SKU product - D&D boardgames (could be sold through much wider distribution channels thanks to Hasbro's influence) and new introductory products and support to introduce new players to D&D (and therefore continue to grow subscriptions...).  See the new "basic" line due at the end of the year and the D&D Experience program being offered through FLGS's.  If you read Morrus's "things are changing" thread, you'll see that ENWorld has altered it's strategy to provide/offer digital offerings on a monthly sub basis, and Morrus is considering how to grow revenues with premium offerings.  It seems that from what we're seeing from WoTC and now ENWorld, this is the most successful, easily adapted model.  The general feel from the pdf component of digital offerings is that there is an inherent limit to their success due to limited offerings/use (a few hundred), and that it is a method of providing "limited" support to push your brand if you offer digital pdf support/downloads at no additional cost (IPR, Paizo, etc.).  Ed Healy spoke on our podcast (Amorphous Blobcast) about the fact that pdf's are really a flawed strategy because they don't fit or utilize the medium (digital delivery) well at all (episode 46).  Related to other digital offerings, it almost has to be mentioned that digital "content" is still evolving towards podcasting, blogs, apps, social media (fb), twitter, and video.  Very interesting.  The ipad is a great example of what's possible, and apps on a digital medium such as this, with 11 hours battery life, and extreme ease in transport, could prove to continue to revolutionize the tools that support tabletop rpgs.</blockquote>

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