EN World GameStore Closing

[HinterWelt]

There has been much discussion about how BAD this is going to get.

While that is healthy discussion and it's good to be concerned about the post apocalyptic nature of a possible monopoly and speculate on how the Black hat villians with the handlebar moustaches (DTRPG and RPGNOW) are plotting to swindle all of the vendors out of their hard-earned money, I'm curious about the potential GOOD that can come from this.

Anyone up for a shift to the light side of the Force?

The light burns but I am all for it.

Upsides I can think of...
A single site will be more effective pool of titles for customers. This assumes proper site design but with increased funds and staffing OBS should be able to afford to hire professional developers.

With added capital we would see an explosion of advertising on se-title targeted sites, in-print venues, and con presence. James staunchly does not believe in such things but it is a possibility. An interesting idea would be PDF work shops at cons where games are run using PDFs at the table showing the advantages of quick searching, bookmarks and the like.

hmmm...Better exposure to fan bases of larger companies for smaller press? This is a double edged sword but it could come out well. Basically, you could get WW customers looking at your latest Vampire game. The downside, of course, is you are competing against them for the vampire dollar and that means most folks will think WW before smaller press. Again, a lot of that depends on site design...

That is all I can come up with right now...sure there is more.

Bill

 

[Morrus]

Perhaps you could quote me doing that.

No? Then perhaps you should stop hypocritically putting words into my mouth.



No problem at all. I strongly agree that anyone putting words into other people's mouths should leave this thread.

See you in three days. Perhaps when you return, your manners will have improved.

 

[Urizen]

It would be great to see a proffessional design.

No offense to anyone who did previous coding, but I think the design could have been more streamlined.

I think it's in OBS's best interest to get all the traffic and business the site can handle.

Again, everyone seems to be assuming that they just want to rob us. No offense to anybody but I think that's kind of backwards logic.

At the end of the day this is still a business and without the vendors and their products DTRPG OBS and RPGNOW wouldn't be much of anything.

 

[Umbran]

I've noticed that people involved have posted since I asked the original question.

People involved? Maybe I missed something. It seems to me the only employee that has posted here is GMSkarka, who isn't involved in the decisions. I'm suggesting you actively seek your information from the source. How hard would it be - each of you writing an e-mail? Going over to the forums they provide to find answers?

 

[Mark CMG]

Again, everyone seems to be assuming

Nope. That's far enough. No assumptions necessary. I'm strictly not happy with the rate increase regardless of what might or might not be happening in the future. Bottom line, period.

 

[Paradigm]

Nope. That's far enough. Just the fact that there's a cut off the top is enough to bother me. What might or might not get done has no bearing on why I dislike paying more.

If one averaged 25% commission from ENWGS and RPGNow prior to this merger, one would have to increase sales by 16% either due to the increased exposure (no guarantee but not unreasonable) or due to raised prices (bad for consumer) to make the same money if one was non-exclusive.

I am not pleased that our negotiated rate has changed. But, PCI is going to take the wait and see approach before we do anything with our prices.

 

[Urizen]

People involved? Maybe I missed something. It seems to me the only employee that has posted here is GMSkarka, who isn't involved in the decisions. I'm suggesting you actively seek your information from the source. How hard would it be - each of you writing an e-mail? Going over to the forums they provide to find answers?

So what you're REALLY saying, is STFU and let the non-vendors discuss the issue.

 

[Urizen]

Nope. That's far enough. No assumptions necessary. I'm strictly not happy with the rate increase regardless of what might or might not be happening in the future. Bottom line, period.

That's Fair.

 

[Jdvn1]

To publishers:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3144090

It'd be nice to have a list of those publishers whose websites offer buying options, OBS-free.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Let's assume for a moment that everything is on the up-and-up, that this merger is being enacted with the ebst interests of everyone in mind.

I think another problem with your points is that you continually seem to think that people seeing this as a bad thing are equating it to something dishonest. That need not be so, but, similarly, dishonesty isn't required for something to be less than favorable.

If there is an increase in traffic, that means more exposure which will likely result in larger sales which means more money for everyone.

That IS the goal, isn't it? to make things easier and better for everyone involved?

Well, we're still waiting to see where this increase in traffic is coming from. There's absolutely no evidence that the merger will expand the market. Just merging consolidates the publishers, true, but for many of us who were already tapping into the affected stores, there's no increased exposure--for us to benefit from increased exposure the overall market will have to grow because of the merger. Where is the proof this is going to happen? Indeed, I don't even see anything that would support speculation at even a base level?