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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Belen" data-source="post: 1564955" data-attributes="member: 1405">We have to ask ourselves a question.  Where will our hobby be in 10-20 years?  EnWorld controls a huge number of resources tied to Dungeons and Dragons.  For every person that visits the site, another four exists that share the hobby.  This means that EnWorld controls a significant amount of marketing potential.  I believe that EnWorld can go where no other fan base has gone before.  I work for a professional society and I have seen what a small number of members can do.Unlike a fan site, a professional society can have a much greater influence on our hobby.  The potential is staggering.  However, if depends on EnWorlders willing to spend money to support the hobby.  I think this is not a very far leap from us sending money to save EnWorld!Finance: Imagine.  5000 members who pay a yearly membership fee of 200 dollars.  That is 1 million dollars a year.  This does not include money that could be gained by such things as publications or a EnWorld con.  That type of money could go extremely far.  The more we spend on marketing the hobby, the more potential members we gain.Marketing: An EnWorld Society could use membership funds to market the hobby.  A large company such as Hasbro is not interested in a game that only generates a few million a year; however, we are definitely interested in seeing the hobby grow.Publications: A free subscription to the EnWorld Journal or EN Publishing PDFs?  RW mentioned that Elements of Magic-Revised sold 200.  With a membership subscriber base, that number could be far higher.  Yes, it may be folded into membership, yet by selling it and including it as a part of membership, such PDFs would sell that much more.  Either such books drive new membership, or enough people have them that other want to check them out.  It's a win-win scenario.Benefits:  Any society that controls such a market share and has access to funds, will draw companies to pay attention to us.  I can imagine some companies would offer a special EnWorld discount.  Also, such things like "share the love" threads could be propagated throughout the membership base.There has never been a professional society of fans.  Even the RPGA only exists to promote games at cons.  They certainly do not have the funds to market or grow the hobby.  A society would show people that we care enough to band together, and (more important) that we care enough to part with some money in order to promote the game we love.As the society grows, so would the hobby.  I am not saying it would be easy, but it would be worth it!</blockquote>

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