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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1460377" data-attributes="member: 10201">But they also care *why* you do. IOW, if all you do is not buy their game, they don't know why--they don't even know that it's because you didn't like the game: you might simply have not had enough money, or even just not heard of it. Likewise, if you buy the game, they only know that it passed some minimum threshhold for value, not what about it you liked (or disliked). Voting with your dollars is only semi-useful, because it sends such a vague message. Talking [writing, emailing, phoning, whatever] can really focus that message.  Correct me if i'm presuming too much, but that indicates that D20 System stuff fits what you want in an RPG, and other RPGs didn't. At least, i'm guessing you're not buying stuff you don't like/want, or passing on stuff you do (funds permitting). For me, in contrast, my total expenditure on RPGs fluctuates with my income, but not so much with what's out there--there's *always* way more RPG stuff that i want than i could ever afford (at least for the forseeable future). Now, for a short perioud there (2001-2) i could almost keep up. Almost. And part of the reason is that i rarely like D20 System stuff (just as i rarely like Palladium games, WoD books, or crunchy systems like GURPS), so if a larger %age of RPG books are D20 System, and the total # of new products stays roughly the same, there'll likely be less i'm interested in. Now, to be clear, i don't pass on something just because it's D20 System--i give anything that seems like it might interest me (usually based on genre/setting/mood/topic) a fair shake. And i'll buy it, and use it, even if it's for a system i don't like (thus my GURPS and D20 System books).Now this i find interesting. At the risk of threadjacking, allow me to inquire: what about D20 System brought you back to gaming? What did it give you that you couldn't get before? And, going back to your previous bit, are you saying that there are non-D20 System books you've bought that you likely wouldn't have bought had there been no D20 System? Why? I don't understand the causality here. Yeah, now the market has some serious instabilities that were either aggravated by the D20 glut, or simply papered over for a while. In the last 3 years, the shelf life for an average RPG product has been cut in half, if not quarter. Evergreen products are almost unheard of now. Distributors are more reluctant than ever to provide backstock. A fair number of distributors wouldn't even look at a product from a new company if it wasn't D20 System. I'm not saying these are because of D20 System. But neither have D20 System products helped the matter. And the sheer glut of D20 products, some of which (like any group) were horrible, has caused distributors to get even more wary of new product, further limiting the market for new publishers. Now, this is firmly the fault of th distributors, who should've been discriminating when buying D20 System stuff, same as anything else. But it wouldn't have happened if not for the seemingly-limitly potential of D20 System (from a sales standpoint)--buttressed by some pretty poor products doing pretty well in sales.For those publishing non-D20 System products, the market is *much* worse than it was before 2000. For those publishing D20 System products, there was a huge bubble, but it's already beginning to subside. And the only trick that anyone's found for fighting it is ramping up production schedules--such as releasing D&D3.5E 1.5-2yrs ahead of the original schedule.</blockquote>

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