Does Enworld have a major impact in the D20 market?

[Belen]

Could be said of any of the "big" boys though like Green Ronin, Malhavoc or Necromancer. Heck, I know Paradigm is still putting out quality material and their Living Arcanis is still running, but you don't hear too much about them here though.

Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and Necromancer are not big boys. They are definitely third-string. Great companies, but no where near the size of WOTC.

 

[DaveMage]

I certainly would never have purchased a pdf but for ENWorld's influence.

Ditto.

However, there were two other things that helped me start buying .pdfs:

1) Fiery Dragon releasing the printed dungeon tiles. That got me interested in Ed's .pdfs.

2) Coupons. Phil Reed posting those coupons in the publisher's forum enticed me to check out some of those products and actually buy a few.

 

[Hand of Evil]

PDFs and small press get the most help I think, everyday I see where a thread is started asking some question and then you would see a little know product being posted to the thread (see nomad thread for an example) and I can't tell you how many times I have promoted some mapping program (if not all of them).

 

[Vascant]

Everyone is talking about PDF's so this may seem a little off topic perhaps.

Software related to d20, honestly it has very little to no impact. The reason for this is not just Enworld's fault though. Tons of would be projects becoming vaper ware has it's effect on people and now most in d20 seem to just not get involved. Come on, how many times have we all seen a post for a d20 framework? I can say from personal experience, I knew d20 and programming yet did not see what was coming when coding a major d20 project.

A major problem is where enworld sticks d20 software, along side PSP and Warcraft guild posts. It just doesn't get the traffic, the publishers forum gets more traffic. Just like books need to be edited, software does need to be tested, that takes people and time. I don't know if anyone realizes it but this is 2005 and everyone here as computers, so why aren't we doing more to get better software projects involved in d20? Why don't d20 software programmers have a forum like publishers?

 

[philreed]

2) Coupons. Phil Reed posting those coupons in the publisher's forum enticed me to check out some of those products and actually buy a few.

Hey, they work! Speaking of which, the August coupon book is now available (see sig) but it will be updated today or tomorrow to include another publisher. I don't have time yet to devote to a serious announcement but once I get free of Paradigm Concepts I'll spread the word.

 

[MonsterMash]

I would be completely amazed if the regular RPG buying population is greater than 200-250,000.

Given that a publisher with a good reputation and with books that have a fairly strong sales will probably print 2-3000 copies that sounds about right. With the exception of Wizards, and maybe Mongoose very few publishers sell above that sort of figure for any book, so the influence of ENWorld can be there, but I definitely agree its greater for smaller publishers and pdfs. After all if something gets a great review and good word of mouth here its only a few clicks away to buy a pdf.

 

[Psion]

That's right. I had completely forgotten about those PDFs -- what was that, 1997? 1998?

They may very well have been the first ones that I ever noticed.

Under cybergames, man were they expensive. But when UMA for 4e hit and left the shelves before I could get a copy, it was a saving grace.

Greg Porter also put out CORPS in PDF pretty early on.

 

[Henry]

A major problem is where enworld sticks d20 software, along side PSP and Warcraft guild posts. It just doesn't get the traffic, the publishers forum gets more traffic. Just like books need to be edited, software does need to be tested, that takes people and time. I don't know if anyone realizes it but this is 2005 and everyone here as computers, so why aren't we doing more to get better software projects involved in d20? Why don't d20 software programmers have a forum like publishers?

This aside I can contribute to. If the push for d20 Software RPG Aids were prevalent enough to warrant its own forum, it definitely would receive one. However, its traffic level would seem proof that there's not a big push or demand for it at present. Here, form follows function wherever possible, and evidence to me indicates even if it had its own forum prominently displayed, the traffic still wouldn't increase. But a glut of posts on developing and testing d20 Aids over a sustained period would definitely indicate a need for such.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and Necromancer are not big boys. They are definitely third-string. Great companies, but no where near the size of WOTC.

Third string? What other d20 publisher is higher than them? Mongoose perhaps?

Second point, that they're not the size of WTOC is true but the point is, I doubt they are effected by En World. Each has their own forums and those forums are quite busy in and of themselves.

 

[Belen]

This aside I can contribute to. If the push for d20 Software RPG Aids were prevalent enough to warrant its own forum, it definitely would receive one. However, its traffic level would seem proof that there's not a big push or demand for it at present. Here, form follows function wherever possible, and evidence to me indicates even if it had its own forum prominently displayed, the traffic still wouldn't increase. But a glut of posts on developing and testing d20 Aids over a sustained period would definitely indicate a need for such.

Well, I have to second this one, Henry. I would like to see the e-aids become more prominent here at ENWorld. It may not need its own forum, but they are not exactly easy to find.