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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 6175457" data-attributes="member: 66434">The industry has been moving away from the hobbyist and more towards the consumer model for a while for obvious economic reasons. Adventure paths, subscriptions, and the like are consumer models designed to generate steady revenue. This is smart for the industry because steady revenue is required for sustainability. What is best for the industry isn't always what is best for the hobby. With just the most basic products, the hobbyist can game a lifetime never needing anything else. Hobbyists are thus no longer the prime demographic of the industry. Any industry designed to provide goods & services needs consumers as a customer base. Carving a strong customer base out of hobby populated by do-it-yourself types is not an easy task. After all, if one can game forever with just a basic rule set, how is an industry supposed to keep the revenue flowing? The key is in convincing the customer base that it needs what you have to offer, same as any other business. Thus the "standard" game is pushed as normal play, and gaming material is marketed as a canned experience instead of an unlock your imagination starter kit, for the benefit of sustaining the industry. The whole balance fixation is really about convincing a customer base that they need constant industry product to get the full enjoyment from sitiing around pretending to be an elf with some friends. Based on the frightening demand from consumer gamers, about being told how to go about this I say the industry is doing a heck of a job.</blockquote>

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