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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6385752" data-attributes="member: 177">Or, leave it as it is as a way to help generate discussion.&nbsp; Given the tollbooth model in the article, this seems reasonable.There's a question that the AngryDM doesn't address - does D&amp;D lend itself to being sold?He goes on about how RPGs are complicated, with high barrier to entry.&nbsp; He asserts that creating simpler and simpler products, and selling tutorial products will get people into the game as a whole.&nbsp; He's so convinced that he offers to write the products himself, if they'd give him a license.&nbsp; But I'm not convinced he's correct.&nbsp; There's a term from business that's relevant: being &quot;high touch&quot;.&nbsp; When a thing is &quot;high touch&quot;, it requires a lot of contact with the salesperson to close the deal.&nbsp; In business, this is costly, and businesses spend a lot of effort to convert high touch things to be low touch.&nbsp; But some things are irreducibly high touch - if you break them down to the point where you don't need the extra effort of the salesperson, you're no longer selling the original product.&nbsp; There is a limit to how far down you can go to create an entry-level product, and for D&amp;D, the level you can reach with product alone, without a human salesperson, may not be low enough to open floodgates of new players.RPGs at this time may be irreducibly high touch - if you create a low-touch product to bring them in, the experience it will provide may be different enough from the full game that it doesn't actually serve as an on-ramp.&nbsp; It may be that the apprenticeship, &quot;older cousin,&quot; model is the most effective one for RPGs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6385752, member: 177"] Or, leave it as it is as a way to help generate discussion. Given the tollbooth model in the article, this seems reasonable. There's a question that the AngryDM doesn't address - does D&D lend itself to being sold? He goes on about how RPGs are complicated, with high barrier to entry. He asserts that creating simpler and simpler products, and selling tutorial products will get people into the game as a whole. He's so convinced that he offers to write the products himself, if they'd give him a license. But I'm not convinced he's correct. There's a term from business that's relevant: being "high touch". When a thing is "high touch", it requires a lot of contact with the salesperson to close the deal. In business, this is costly, and businesses spend a lot of effort to convert high touch things to be low touch. But some things are irreducibly high touch - if you break them down to the point where you don't need the extra effort of the salesperson, you're no longer selling the original product. There is a limit to how far down you can go to create an entry-level product, and for D&D, the level you can reach with product alone, without a human salesperson, may not be low enough to open floodgates of new players. RPGs at this time may be irreducibly high touch - if you create a low-touch product to bring them in, the experience it will provide may be different enough from the full game that it doesn't actually serve as an on-ramp. It may be that the apprenticeship, "older cousin," model is the most effective one for RPGs. [/QUOTE]

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