Continued support for OOP editions-why?

[Dannyalcatraz]

A better question:

How many would you expect?

Honestly? Very few...unless this edition change turns into this industry's New Coke.

You're only going to buy the books you want. And you can obviously buy them. You're not going to need a second Complete Adventurer down the road, are you?

I don't know. Some books I use to death- many of my 1Ed books have masking tape along their spines. I've also lost some to fire, flood and theft.

"Because I'm human, and therefore emotional" doesn't really, uh, answer the question on a rational level.

No, but it does answer the root question "Why?"

Nobody said the answer had to be rational, just true.

Speculation, reminiscent, is one thing. Gnashing of teeth, being upset, and wanting/expecting a company to continue something that's just not a good idea is another.

See, that sounds "edition war-ish"- there are many people who don't think that 3.X is a bad idea at all, and feel of 4Ed the way some feel of 3.X (IOW, its not good).

If your favorite restaurant wasn't getting enough customers, would you expect them, and complain about them not staying open because you still liked the food?

My internet friend, I'm still trying to recreate the recipes of Dallas area restaurants that went out of business as much as 13 years ago. Estella closed her eponymous restaurant because she was tired and hitting her late 60's. Slattery Rand's Irish Pub closed because the owner didn't pay taxes.

(Ditto Chez Helene of New Orleans, once voted one of the 10 best neigborhood restaurants in the world.)

Businesses fail for reasons other than lack of customers.

Would you expect or complain about your favorite band not making more music/touring if not enough people are buying the CDs/tour tickets to make the ends meet?

I saw Blue Oyster Cult live on stage at a club in Austin, long after their last studio release. There are countless "doo-wop" bands still touring.

A good band can make a living on the road.

The point?

While no longer commercially viable as a mass market product, many things can be commercially viable if targeted at their core market- never underestimate the economic power of the nostalgia factor.

So, the suggestion is that the company should print more of the books, even though they will sell much rarer than they used to?

I'm actually not suggesting that- I was merely answering the question.

However, the answer is still that they could do so and economically should do so as long as the product is successful (IOW, brings in more revenue than it costs to produce), and does not cannibalize sales of the newer product.

After all, nobody's taking "Dark Side of the Moon" off of the market, are they?

And I'm not just talking out of my hat- there are formulae you can find in business texts that not only suggest that you do so, but also allow you to calculate the exact cutoff point.

And do you honestly think that would change if 3.5 was still being printed, on gaming store shelves, besides the 4e books?

"Out of sight, out of mind" isn't just a saying, its a cliche formulation of a real truth. George Orwell knew this when he penned 1984.

I'm a Mac user. I like computer games. I don't own many, but those I do own I enjoy.

However, every year I find some game or the other that I didn't buy because I didn't even know it existed, usually when someone points out the existence of cheat codes for the Mac version.

And that's even with shopping the main Mac software sites.

A buddy of mine worked for the company that produced 4x4 Evo, its seqeul, and Fly.

Some sites had one or 2 of the games. None had all 3.

So, yes, it would definitely be easier to find 3.X gamers if 3.X as long as 3.X remains in the first-run RPG market (as opposed to used-book or internet resale).

 

[Crothian]

I'm curious to people's reasoning behind the worry of "lack of support for edition X"

They don't. The game I prefer to play has about thirty books for it. That's it, and these are not books people can easily find at used stores or even at game stores like 3ed D&D (all my local games stores still carry lots of those books). If I need players for my game, I go find them. It might not be easy but that's okay. I know plenty of gamers that would be willing to give my games a try. I don't need new ideas, there are plenty of old ones in those thirty books. Plus I tend to think of some myself.

But even when I do want something new I can still go get it. Sure, boioks might not be written for my game but that doesn't mean there are not books out there that are useful. I get books of the same genre and feel and use them. It is pretty easy to do. And I can use the new edition of my game even though they really changed it a lot and it doesn't have as much in common as I would like.