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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Morrow" data-source="post: 2103735" data-attributes="member: 27012">Well used books and remaindering are probably something that's not done enough in the RPG market (though I have seen game stores that do it) but it's also an issue of volume.  How many books does Becks Bookstore move in a day?  How many books does an RPG store move in a day?  That's really a large part of my point.  You can't realy compare two industries with different sales volumes even if they are, broadly speaking, selling the same thing.  And, ultimately, used book sales won't help RPG publishers stay in business, either, so I'm not sure it would be good for the hobby as a whole to start cycling product like that.A few years ago, game publishers were dealing with expectations set in the 1970s and early 1980s.  Do some searching on Google's Usenet archive and you'll find posts from the 1980s and early 1990s with people saying, "I can't believe RPG books cost $20."  Because of that, prices were kept artificially low and didn't keep up with inflation.  Only now is that correction finishing and new RPG books actually cost what those 1970s books would now cost, adjusted for inflation.  And all of that low-ball pricing had a negative impact on the hobby, too.  A lot of game companies died or didn't grow because of it.  China is still a bargain because they refuse to float their currency but I'm not sure how long that's going to last.People have been complaining about that since RPGs starting costing $20 on average.  There are plenty of recreational activities where lots of people don't even bat an eye over spending a lot more money.  I think the bigger problem is that too many role-players are, frankly, cheap.  This hobby is too small for a publisher to price books the way people seem to think they should be priced.I'm not sure the industry can survive on casual buys, anyway.  They aren't selling gum and shouldn't be trying to sell it like gum.  It takes too much work to publish a book and the sales volume is too low to ever make the sort of price point you are thinking of economically viable.  A role-playing system or set of core books is more akin to a game console rather than a console game.  I'm sure the Playstation 2 would sell like hotcakes at $20 but they just can't make them at a profit at that price.Yes, role-playing game companies tried lowball in the past, including early in the d20 days.  I see no evidence that it does anything but bankrupt companies.  That's why there is a joke in retail about losing money on every sale but making it up with volume.The problem isn't price, which is what you are suggesting.  The price point on a new video game or computer game is up there with the price of those expensive role-playing books, and that's not even going into the price of a console game or computer (which is akin to buying a set of core rule-books).  Yes, you can get used console and computer games for much cheaper but the game makers don't care about those sales because that money doesn't flow back to the game maker. I'm just not seeing the lack of money with younger people that you are.  I remember being lucky to have a little black and white television set in my bedroom as a kid and a used car when I get to college (the car was almost as old as I was).  Now I see all the college kids on the same campus I went to driving new SUVs and sports cars and blowing the electrical circuits on campus with computers, televisions, microwave ovens, etc.  There are also plenty of kids walking around with cell phones and iPods.  It's not that the money isn't out there.  It's either (A) the people with that money aren't interested in RPGs or (B) the people who are interested in RPGs have better things to spend their money on.</blockquote>

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