Does Enworld have a major impact in the D20 market?
- Thread starter broghammerj
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MavrickWeirdo
First Post
JoeGKushner said:
White Wolf
Orcus
First Post
Game Stores are definately scaling back on d20 stuff. I've seen it in my local stores and gotten the feed from talking to the owners. But alot of that has to do with game stores finally getting a smart business model. While we all love our local game store, they are often run by gamers who feel a need to have 1 of every product available. That is a horrible business model. It doesnt make sense to do that. So they now realize that net friendly gamers will just go to Amazon to buy most of the books, or ever go to Borders or Barnes and Noble or other big ticket booksellers. So the game stores overreact and cut down to just carrying "official" stuff, thinking that is the solution. It isnt, of course, but it is better than the "1 of everything" model. Because a lot of them got burned with d20 stuff that just didnt sell. And since they cant necessarily tell ahead of time what is quality stuff and what isnt or what will sell and what wont (since those are two totally different things 
) they just go with the "old reliable" which luckily for me usually includes Sword & Sorcery and thus Necro. However, some have taken the "wait and see" or "preorder" approach, which is basically the same as saying "all my customers, please go buy your books at Amazon." The very thing they fear they create. The advantage of the game store is that they can, if they want, generally get the books before Amazon. Thus, they can have the books and sell out of their 4 copies before people can actually get the books from Amazon. But if they wait, then Amazon will have the books in stock and people will get them and then they dont need the game store. Its a crazy crazy situation.
) they just go with the "old reliable" which luckily for me usually includes Sword & Sorcery and thus Necro. However, some have taken the "wait and see" or "preorder" approach, which is basically the same as saying "all my customers, please go buy your books at Amazon." The very thing they fear they create. The advantage of the game store is that they can, if they want, generally get the books before Amazon. Thus, they can have the books and sell out of their 4 copies before people can actually get the books from Amazon. But if they wait, then Amazon will have the books in stock and people will get them and then they dont need the game store. Its a crazy crazy situation.
Orcus
First Post
Matt, you are probably right to exlude yourself from that quote of mine. I would expect your licensed content like Conan, etc, to do about those numbers (and good for you if the numbers are better). But generic, non-licensed new d20 stuff isnt touching 10,000 anymore. We have certainly broken 10,000 on products, but it is not the norm and it is generally on reorders of our oldest and most established sellers.
Belen
Legend
Orcus said:Game Stores are definately scaling back on d20 stuff. I've seen it in my local stores and gotten the feed from talking to the owners. But alot of that has to do with game stores finally getting a smart business model. While we all love our local game store, they are often run by gamers who feel a need to have 1 of every product available. That is a horrible business model. It doesnt make sense to do that. So they now realize that net friendly gamers will just go to Amazon to buy most of the books, or ever go to Borders or Barnes and Noble or other big ticket booksellers. So the game stores overreact and cut down to just carrying "official" stuff, thinking that is the solution. It isnt, of course, but it is better than the "1 of everything" model. Because a lot of them got burned with d20 stuff that just didnt sell. And since they cant necessarily tell ahead of time what is quality stuff and what isnt or what will sell and what wont (since those are two totally different things
Well, a lot of game store owners are not knowledgeable about game companies. My friends tend to let me give them an idea about what RPG books to order because I am an ENWorlder. They have really revitalized the RPG section because of it.
Of course, they always order Necromancer, Mongoose, Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and Fantasy Flight material for d20.
However, without me, they would have no clue in many cases and they'd never order anything but WOTC.
It could be cool if d20 companies could but together promotional packets each quarter for new material that is due on the market. These packets could be placed on ENWorld or sent out to a mailing list and it would give stores a much better idea of what is coming out. Heck, I would be happy to carry this material around on my normal store visits just to help you guys out.
Right now, I use the Alliance catalogue and RPGshop to figure out what is coming out and give a list to my friends. Neither solution is a good solution. d20 Companies need to come up with a better marketing solution. The packets could be just the thing that would tip the balance.
Belen
Legend
Turjan said:You mean like White Wolf's 'Insider'? That one should usually cover Necromancer, Malhavoc and the likes. If you mean whole books, I'd guess that many games shops wouldn't have much need of books exceeding the promotional package.
Necromancer is not sword and sorcery alone.
The insider does not work well for stores. They usually ignore it. Stores need release dates and a product blurb. It would help if all that could be found in one central location as that would make it easier for stores to find out the info they need.
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