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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 1687977" data-attributes="member: 9225">Well, I suspect a lot of stuff with game stores really have to do with the economics of keeping square-footage for RPGs. How much of a drop can a store take to be able to carry that dead space? How much cost is incurred in keeping the stock? This is something that would probably answer the question. Looking at a bunch of stores in my region, it looks like the successful ones either have almost no space set aside for RPGs in comparison to the rest of their stock (1-2 display racks in a mall, for example) or pay for variety by selling stock online or at conventions (one store I know of that devotes about 20% of its space to RPG -- and has a magnificent selection -- works this way).Certainly there is a relationship between consumer satisfaction and success, but there's a wierd intermediary effect there too. I don't think you can always count on absolute sales. Certainly, products where it's harder to assess quality from the rack (NPC books, adventures) would be more prone to this, as would saturated areas (books on Orcs and such, character class guides). On the other side you have books with severe quality control issues (like Conan) that apparently do quite well. All in all, I think it's a complicated, bumpy ride that can't really be counted on to decide awards.</blockquote>