Cergorach
The Laughing One
One of the definitions:
But the current publishing environment isn't the same as it was a few years ago, the player base is split, not only in 3(.5)E and 4E, but also True20, Spycraft, Pathfinder, etc. While the market of potential customers has shrunk, the number of competing publishers has also declined. Then we have format, subscription services seem the next big thing in the internet market (outside of the RPG market). WotC has done it, but no one else has, WotC isn't throwing numbers around. Maybe Monte got hold of the subscription numbers through an old contact, but I highly doubt that (pure speculation).
I seriously doubt that Monte had the figures appropriate for his customer base, his format, or the current market. Monte's only current relevant sales figures are the BoEM pdfs and the print book, it seems to sold well, or so I guess.
But the market for the BoEM pdfs or the BoEM print book aren't the same as a subscription based webservice. So there would have been a lot of guessing on Monte's part, the same goes for WotC and DDI. There hasn't been a real precedent for such subscription services. Unless of course you count World of Warcraft a subscription based RPG, but many MMOs fail because they aim to be the next WoW...
lmpjr007 has even less relevant information (he ain't Monte, no offense), so what can he do but speculate or 'guess', we just don't have sufficient information to make anything but a guess.
I think Monte can pull this off and make it profitable, Paizo could do it and WotC is doing it. I think very few others could successfully pull it of.
I've been thinking a few years about free content supported by adds and donations, but haven't done anything significant with it as of yet, but I did just register the name epicdungeon.com thanks to Monte ;-)
Normally, when you try to sell a product you have a lot of demographics. The only company in the RPG business that might have something like that is WotC, I'm guessing that none of the 3pp have that information. Thus they need to rely on their own experience in the field and apply that to the current publishing environment.guess said:
But the current publishing environment isn't the same as it was a few years ago, the player base is split, not only in 3(.5)E and 4E, but also True20, Spycraft, Pathfinder, etc. While the market of potential customers has shrunk, the number of competing publishers has also declined. Then we have format, subscription services seem the next big thing in the internet market (outside of the RPG market). WotC has done it, but no one else has, WotC isn't throwing numbers around. Maybe Monte got hold of the subscription numbers through an old contact, but I highly doubt that (pure speculation).
I seriously doubt that Monte had the figures appropriate for his customer base, his format, or the current market. Monte's only current relevant sales figures are the BoEM pdfs and the print book, it seems to sold well, or so I guess.
But the market for the BoEM pdfs or the BoEM print book aren't the same as a subscription based webservice. So there would have been a lot of guessing on Monte's part, the same goes for WotC and DDI. There hasn't been a real precedent for such subscription services. Unless of course you count World of Warcraft a subscription based RPG, but many MMOs fail because they aim to be the next WoW...
lmpjr007 has even less relevant information (he ain't Monte, no offense), so what can he do but speculate or 'guess', we just don't have sufficient information to make anything but a guess.
I think Monte can pull this off and make it profitable, Paizo could do it and WotC is doing it. I think very few others could successfully pull it of.
I've been thinking a few years about free content supported by adds and donations, but haven't done anything significant with it as of yet, but I did just register the name epicdungeon.com thanks to Monte ;-)
