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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beginning of the End" data-source="post: 5328774" data-attributes="member: 55271">I think there are generally three lines to be drawn:(1) The Minimalist. These guys just want a minimal structure, and anything more than that just gets in their way. Where exactly this line is drawn can vary a lot, but most minimalists draw the line at "just the core".(2) The Utilitarian. These guys will buy anything that is useful for their campaign. They'll go deep, but only if the depth addresses their immediate needs. So if they're running a campaign set in the Serpent Kingdoms, you can probably sell them the Complete Guide to Serpent Kingdom Mating Habits. But you'll never sell them anything for the Gold Coast.(3) The Collector. They'll buy everything because they want a complete collection. This can be driven by the appeal of high quality material, but it can also be driven by a "gotta catch 'em all!" mentality.Of course, in all cases you hit the ceiling of monetary limit. This can be very bad for completist collectors, however: People who would buy everything in order to "keep their collection complete" can very suddenly become people who don't buy anything at all because they can't keep up with your releases, and once their collection is no longer complete they lose their motivation for further purchases.The minimalist and utilitarians will invest in core products, but you'll generally only get a perpetual churn of fresh product if you build up a sufficiently large supply of collectors and then set the right pace for your product so that you don't break their backs.The advantage of having multiple lines is that you can potentially create "sub-collectors" -- people who couldn't afford to collect your complete product line, but can afford to buy all the books about the Forgotten Realms (for example). The disadvantage is that you can end up fracturing your market without any appreciable gains.The potential limitation of WotC's approach is that they're not fully exploiting the potential of utilitarians and collectors. But if they manage the product lines correctly, they may be able to serialize the utilitarians: Play the 2010 setting for a year, and then be ready to pick up the 2011 setting and adventure products.In a thought potentially more appropriate for the If I Was Running WotC thread, I'd be experimenting heavily with trying to create unified play experiences: Publish the core setting book in January and run both an adventure path an Encounters series from January thru December. Next year we do it with another setting. My "core" releases would be the smaller portion of my release schedule, and each product would be focused on potentially evergreen expansions to the breadth of the game instead of depth-building variations on existing themes.</blockquote>

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