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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 5246788" data-attributes="member: 177">No, I don't think they do, because their potential in that regard is, on the scale of things, minimal.&nbsp; Bringing in new gamers is, in essence, marketing, and that costs money.&nbsp; Big money.&nbsp; And the small producers have problems just getting product out the door, much less setting up effective marketing campaigns.I wouldn't compare to White Wolf - they came to power in a different age, going to the market in 1991.&nbsp; That's before Amazon.com, before online retail and the downslide of the local bookstore.&nbsp; I don't think they are at all excluded.&nbsp;&nbsp; As far as I can see, the primary route into RPGs is not through the producers of the material, but through other gamers.&nbsp; This is why we need the Big Boy.The Big Boy exists, and has a large mass of players.&nbsp; We have a network (EN World is part of this network).&nbsp; We talk.&nbsp; We talk about things other than D&amp;D - other games.&nbsp; We get together, and play other games, even though we are also D&amp;D players.&nbsp; When we go home, we introduce other people we know to these non-D&amp;D games.Thus, the little guys ride on the coattails of the Big Boy, and can get into the market *without* a marketing budget.Most things you call an &quot;industry&quot; are also orders of magnitude larger than tabletop roleplaying.&nbsp; As you cut the size of the market, you cut the size of the ecosystem, and the number of Big Boys you can have, and how big even they can be.&nbsp; It should not be surprising that our ecology is small.If, somehow, the market grew to ten times its current size, it could support (and I expect would naturally develop) other big players.&nbsp; But we are not D&amp;D wizards who can cast Wish to produce that.&nbsp; We must work with what we have, for the moment, in terms of market size.It is the same thing, on a smaller scale.I repeat - for our purposes, the RPG companies are not primarily in competition with each other.&nbsp; They are in competition with mainstream entertainment.&nbsp; It is that external competition that keeps the Big Boy on its toes, not competition with the smaller producers.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 5246788, member: 177"] No, I don't think they do, because their potential in that regard is, on the scale of things, minimal. Bringing in new gamers is, in essence, marketing, and that costs money. Big money. And the small producers have problems just getting product out the door, much less setting up effective marketing campaigns. I wouldn't compare to White Wolf - they came to power in a different age, going to the market in 1991. That's before Amazon.com, before online retail and the downslide of the local bookstore. I don't think they are at all excluded. As far as I can see, the primary route into RPGs is not through the producers of the material, but through other gamers. This is why we need the Big Boy. The Big Boy exists, and has a large mass of players. We have a network (EN World is part of this network). We talk. We talk about things other than D&D - other games. We get together, and play other games, even though we are also D&D players. When we go home, we introduce other people we know to these non-D&D games. Thus, the little guys ride on the coattails of the Big Boy, and can get into the market *without* a marketing budget. Most things you call an "industry" are also orders of magnitude larger than tabletop roleplaying. As you cut the size of the market, you cut the size of the ecosystem, and the number of Big Boys you can have, and how big even they can be. It should not be surprising that our ecology is small. If, somehow, the market grew to ten times its current size, it could support (and I expect would naturally develop) other big players. But we are not D&D wizards who can cast [I]Wish[/I] to produce that. We must work with what we have, for the moment, in terms of market size. It is the same thing, on a smaller scale. I repeat - for our purposes, the RPG companies are not primarily in competition with each other. They are in competition with mainstream entertainment. It is that external competition that keeps the Big Boy on its toes, not competition with the smaller producers. [/QUOTE]

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