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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5347217" data-attributes="member: 59082">Nice breakdown, Azgulor, and I agree with the gist of what you are saying. However, I'm not sure that your breakdown disproves the "puppetmaster" view. In fact, it reinforces it to some degree, but simply shows how it is more of a "soft mastery," one that is enforced both by the "big bosses" (Hasbro) and the "middle management" (WotC).A similar situation exists in the book publishing field in general; take sf/fantasy, for example. For the most part, the big publishers only want to publish bestsellers and new authors who have the potential to become bestsellers; the mid-range authors, by and large, are getting driven out. The upper mid-range are able to hang on, but the lower mid-range can't. In many cases it isn't a matter of whether they are profitable or not, but to what degree they are profitable. This is where the "suits" dictate the creative market; certain sub-genres of fantasy simply don't sell well enough (at least based upon the statistics) and most big publishers don't want to risk publishing something too far out of the realm of what has worked before.To put it another way, the "corporate overlords" do not control the market by saying "You must write this or die!!!" Rather, they say "If you don't reach this level of profitability then your contract won't be renewed."A smaller company, one that's finances are in control of "fellow gamers," will likely not see the level of profitability as the bottom line. The bottom line will be making great games and making a living (and hopefully a profit).To put it another way, it is all a matter of priorities. Obviously any business has to at least be able to tread water. And anyone in business is hoping to make a profit. But if you're really in it for love of what you do, and what you produce, then the level of profitability is secondary to the simple ability to create and sell what you love.I cannot say for sure, but I imagine that Paizo will continue producing RPGs as long as they are able to maintain themselves as company; that is, as long as they don't start losing lots of money. In other words, while I'm sure they want to make as much money as possible, they won't stop doing it if they aren't making bucket-loads. But I imagine if D&D's level of profitability were to dip below a certain level it would be put on cryo-freeze or sold to the highest bidder.Now it may be that, as you say, Hasbro doesn't care how WotC makes its profit, just as long as they keep on doing so. Hasbro probably gives two shyts about D&D; the execs at WotC are likely the ones that differentiate which of their lines are making what level of profit, and whether or not a lower level of profit can be carried by the lines that make higher levels of profit.So we have three major levels: 1) Hasbro, who gives WotC a budget and expected level of profit.2) WotC, who decides how profitable each product line, including D&D, has to be in order to meet Hasbro's "request"; and3) D&D, who decides what stuff to produce, with the line given by WotC in mind.But the point being, there is a chain of command and communication. It is not Hasbro that directly dictates to D&D, or so I would imagine, but through the middle-man of WotC, who puts the pressure on our "fellow gamers" at D&D. But everything WotC does in terms of "lording over" D&D is directly the result of Hasbro's dictates.</blockquote>

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