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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pramas" data-source="post: 1950151" data-attributes="member: 995">A few notes before I get back to work on WFRP:1) Yes, games compete with all sorts of other entertainment options. That's the cotinuing struggle of the game industry at large. I think we can agree, however, that the RPG pie is only so big and it is not immune to the repurcussions of sales trends.2) Green Ronin has certainly grossed millions of dollars but gross and net are two different things. It is my sad duty to report that I am not a millionaire. 3) I think people shouldn't forget that 3E was a big hit before most gamers had any earthly idea of what d20 was. I would not be too quick to assume that it would have faltered without d20 and the OGL. 4) I don't believe that enough active consumers have been retained by various d20/OGL products to make good on D&D's probable sales losses over the course of 3.0 and 3.5. The "4 million players" line has been quotted a lot over the last few weeks. I can tell you right now there are not anywhere near 4 million active D&D consumers right now. Hell, there aren't even 1 million. So it may make us feel good to think there are millions of others enjoying the same hobby as us, but that has little to do with D&D as a business. 5) The "Skaff Effect" is itself nothing but an unproven hypothesis. Skaff posited it when talking about the TCG market, which is a pretty different ball of wax. One also has to wonder if he would have come up with the same theory if there had been an "Open Card Game" license promoted by WotC that allowed third party companies to produce TCG expansions 100% compatible with Magic. I doubt it.5) This is all just my opinion, based on many years of game industry experience, some hard-won business acumen, and a certain amount of statistical knowledge from my time at WotC. Of course, it's really impossible to know how history would have been different without the OGL and d20. I could very well be wrong. Of course, many theories that sounded good in 2000 have also been proven wrong.</blockquote>

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