Dungeoneer
First Post
Hmm, micropayments.
I'm not against them, but my feeling is that fundamentally it's a losing proposition. Game rules are hard to protect, both from a technological and from a legal standpoint. Technologically, game rules are very easy to reproduce. And legally they aren't protected in the same way that something like music is.
If you're going to sell game rules, your price had better be very, very low and the process extremely convenient, b/c otherwise piracy makes more sense to rational people who tend toward chaotic neutral. Essentially when you try and sell 'crunch' you're directly competing with people who are distributing the same thing for free.
I think Wizard's needs to make their peace with that and concentrate on making money from the things that they do that are hard to pirate - there will always be a market for nicely bound books with high quality artwork, for instance, no matter how ubiquitous PDFs become. There's also things like miniatures, battle maps, map tiles, tokens and of course dice. These are all ancillary products that can't be pirated.
Then of course there's software services built to make playing the game easier: character builders, character visualizers, virtual tabletops. Charge a subscription fee and watch the money roll in (assuming the tools are good quality).
I honestly believe that Wizards should consider giving the game away for free, or a price very close to free, and instead focus on making money from these kinds of secondary products and services. The cheaper the game is the more players you get. And therefore the more potential customers there are for the 'secondary' stuff, like a virtual tabletop.
An interesting thing about D&D is that players that span generations. You've got college students who are downloading PDFs and playing in their dorms. You've got guys in their 40's and 50's who cut their teeth on 1st edition. The former players aren't going to give you much money because they don't have much money. So give them the game for free (or very very cheaply) and at least ensure that you've got their eyeballs and are building some brand loyalty. Meanwhile you can be selling those middle aged players boxed sets and deluxe anniversary edition coffee table books. Cha ching!
I'm always surprised that Wizards makes so little effort to capture the market for the secondary market that surrounds D&D. Mostly they let third parties fill in those gaps in their product lines. In my mind, that's where the money is. The game rules I can get for free, if I'm so inclined. What I can't get for free are high quality custom minis, or full color cloth maps, or three-dimensional battlefield building kits, or special edition commemorative books with full color artwork commissioned from legendary fantasy artists.
Wizards doesn't sell these things. Instead they focus on trying to squeeze money out of books full of rules, rules can be copied and distributed digitally for free in the blink of an eye.
I'm not saying crunch isn't important. It's the core of the game. But it's not where the money is.
I'm not against them, but my feeling is that fundamentally it's a losing proposition. Game rules are hard to protect, both from a technological and from a legal standpoint. Technologically, game rules are very easy to reproduce. And legally they aren't protected in the same way that something like music is.
If you're going to sell game rules, your price had better be very, very low and the process extremely convenient, b/c otherwise piracy makes more sense to rational people who tend toward chaotic neutral. Essentially when you try and sell 'crunch' you're directly competing with people who are distributing the same thing for free.
I think Wizard's needs to make their peace with that and concentrate on making money from the things that they do that are hard to pirate - there will always be a market for nicely bound books with high quality artwork, for instance, no matter how ubiquitous PDFs become. There's also things like miniatures, battle maps, map tiles, tokens and of course dice. These are all ancillary products that can't be pirated.
Then of course there's software services built to make playing the game easier: character builders, character visualizers, virtual tabletops. Charge a subscription fee and watch the money roll in (assuming the tools are good quality).
I honestly believe that Wizards should consider giving the game away for free, or a price very close to free, and instead focus on making money from these kinds of secondary products and services. The cheaper the game is the more players you get. And therefore the more potential customers there are for the 'secondary' stuff, like a virtual tabletop.
An interesting thing about D&D is that players that span generations. You've got college students who are downloading PDFs and playing in their dorms. You've got guys in their 40's and 50's who cut their teeth on 1st edition. The former players aren't going to give you much money because they don't have much money. So give them the game for free (or very very cheaply) and at least ensure that you've got their eyeballs and are building some brand loyalty. Meanwhile you can be selling those middle aged players boxed sets and deluxe anniversary edition coffee table books. Cha ching!
I'm always surprised that Wizards makes so little effort to capture the market for the secondary market that surrounds D&D. Mostly they let third parties fill in those gaps in their product lines. In my mind, that's where the money is. The game rules I can get for free, if I'm so inclined. What I can't get for free are high quality custom minis, or full color cloth maps, or three-dimensional battlefield building kits, or special edition commemorative books with full color artwork commissioned from legendary fantasy artists.
Wizards doesn't sell these things. Instead they focus on trying to squeeze money out of books full of rules, rules can be copied and distributed digitally for free in the blink of an eye.
I'm not saying crunch isn't important. It's the core of the game. But it's not where the money is.
