Game Pricing

[Ace]

a few weeks ago there was a thread about rpg pricing, in which many members of the industry - lead by ryan d. agreed that rpg products were severely underpriced. in one of the most shameful displays i've ever seen, some members (ie consumers) here gladly said that they would pay more money for their rpg products. in fact, many - in essence- said, "bring it on". i hope those same people realize that if they get their wish, they will be not only be getting jobbed by paying more for the same quality, but they could very well be paying more money to someone who thumbs their noses at them.

I share your concerns about pricing. OTOH Game designers rarely have a good income.
Hard to balance the two

My solution to game pricing is simple, If the game is a bad value I don't buy it.

Game Designers can charge what they think the market will bear and if the price is too high, I won't buy it. It effects me not one whit...

So far I have none of the glossy $40 books (though Godlike tempts me greatly). That price is simply a chunk too much out of my current discrestionary income.

Actually if truth be known I don't have any of the WOTC class books either. They may be $20 for 96 pages but they aren't that usefull to me.

Really there is no reason (once you have the three core books) to buy more than three or four books a year if that.

In the games I have played in recently we used no more than 10% of the stuff we bought, a monters here or there an occasional spell or maybe a prestige class. And the play group has a lot of stuff including Wheel of time, Coc D20, Spycraft, StarWars and a ton of other D&D exclusive stuff. It just doesn't get used that much.

Of course YMMV.


Heck there are at least 2 GIG's worth of free stuff on the internet now and more up every day. Its not hard to make your own material either.

Gaming can be as cheap or expensive as you want.

My advice to the worried is to remember the following...

Let the market find its own equlibrium, If prices go to high then people won't buy and prices go down.

You don't need supplements to play or enjoy the game

If you are really on a budget the core D&D rules are free and the other players can help you fudge the rest.

There are many free games out there you can play if D&D doesn't float your boat.

The only worry I really have is that if the entry into gaming gets to expensive there will in the long run be a lot less players.

$90 (the three core books of el numero uno) to try a game is much to high for an impulse buy IMO.

Yes Yes I know that a new computer game is $50 bucks but it requires very little effort, just plug and play.

D&D OTOH thats work.

 

[Crothian]

Companies don't need to charge the prices they do. Some companies actually charge less then we see in the d20 market. It's like asking the plumber to defend how much he charges. Of course he's going to tell you exactly why he charges that much and actually that he's giving you a deal.

 

[drothgery]

The questions are

1) Are gaming companies making a decent profit with the prices that they charge?

and if the answer to 1 is no (and based on reports that a good designer makes maybe $30K/yr, I'd have to say that it is), then

2) Would gaming companies make more money by selling less at higher prices?

has to be answered.

 

[Fiery James]

The questions are

1) Are gaming companies making a decent profit with the prices that they charge?

and if the answer to 1 is no (and based on reports that a good designer makes maybe $30K/yr, I'd have to say that it is), then

2) Would gaming companies make more money by selling less at higher prices?

has to be answered.

I'd like to make 30K/year working on RPGs! I'm assuming that these are US dollars we're talking about!!

And, in theory, it is possibly for a company to make more by selling less. At least, that's something I'm working on. But, you can also accomplish this by lowering overhead.... anyway, wait and see.


I think, at the end of the day, people should decide on their budget and spend what they choose. If you feel that a book is too expensive for you or doesn't meet the value that is being asked - then DO NOT buy!! I think the market could be served well by consumers having a higher standard in some cases.

Let's see where this discussion goes...

- James

 

[WizarDru]

I spend quite a bit annually on RPGs. I'm out of college, and even with two kids, can find the money to purchase plenty of game materials. I'm more than willing to pay, if the material is good. I eagerly await the KoK Player's Handbook, for example, and the book of Vile Darkness, too. The waste of paper that is 'Rings of Power', on the other hand, can rot on the shelf.

Currently, WOTC hasn't required me to purchase a single thing past the core trio to play. However, I LIKE getting new material, and so do my players. Good supplements will be bought. And James, we all eagerly await what FD's going to do, now that you've 'cut the apron strings', so to speak.

 

[Ace]

I spend quite a bit annually on RPGs. I'm out of college, and even with two kids, can find the money to purchase plenty of game materials. I'm more than willing to pay, if the material is good. I eagerly await the KoK Player's Handbook, for example, and the book of Vile Darkness, too. The waste of paper that is 'Rings of Power', on the other hand, can rot on the shelf.

Currently, WOTC hasn't required me to purchase a single thing past the core trio to play. However, I LIKE getting new material, and so do my players. Good supplements will be bought. And James, we all eagerly await what FD's going to do, now that you've 'cut the apron strings', so to speak.

I like to buy game stuff too.

However as I play several RPG's and collect them I have become kind of choosy about what I buy. For me the biggest three my concerns are Interest, Usuable material and quality of book.

I am willing to pay for a combination of those things.

I would like to say though I really think getting more people to buy game stuff is the real key to improving game writer profits.

Lets say I make a book "Big D20 Book of Awesome OGC stuff" and sell it retail for $40. The customer has to get X value out of it plus whatever "small hobby" markup they are wiling to eat.

The game company "Kewl D20 Games" is only going to get about $10 of this and that hurts. As I understand it the distributor pays about $10, Sells it to the store for about $20 and then the store sells it to the customer for $40.

This is fine for the customer but it really hurts the game company. A big hardback gets only $10 ouch.....

I really wish there was a better way to get the money to the people who create the game.

The options I have seen going PDf or to direct sales don't seems to be very good.

Any other ideas?

 

[frankthedm]

Buying from the books maker does this, but for some reason the manufactures NEVER offer the 20% standard online discount on their own stuff so you pay more for the book due to shipping costs.

 

[Eryx]

I only buy sourcebooks that are useful too me and decent monster books (CC1&2, Legions of Hell, Denizens of Darkness...etc).
I made the mistake under 2nd Ed of buying everthing that came out. Now, I'm more picky because there are a lot of books be released and not everything is what I need for my games (How many books on ship to ship combat do you need!?!).

Of course YMMV.

I've got to ask, what does that stand for?

 

[dagger]

I buy a lot of stuff, I dont mind spending 90 bucks on 3 books that I can use for 10 or more years if I want.

 

[drothgery]

[YMMV]
I've got to ask, what does that stand for?

Your Mileage May Vary, which is to say that you could disagree.