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<blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 1686789" data-attributes="member: 697">I have this thing where, if I have the time and inclination, I put &quot;industry&quot; in quotes when I'm talking about the game &quot;industry&quot;. I don't think that game companies mean much when compared to gamers as a whole. When all's said and done, it's gamers who choose whether more gamers come into the hobby, or if publishers make books and games that are worth buying and playing.It all comes back to you. All of it. Without gamers, there are no gaming companies. Without your money, all of the RPG companies can just pack up their bags and go home. GAMA, the Origins awards, these things only matter as much as you let them matter.I think that if gamers demanded more from RPG companies, if they refused to buy books that didn't receive any playtesting, if they returned a book to their FLGS for a refund because it has sloppy editing, if they stopped thinking it's OK for a game to have messed up mechanics because you can always houserule them, then things would change.The RPG business isn't a charity. If people stop buying games, game companies will either go under or start making better ones.I think that's where it starts. I think if games are cool, fun, and engaging, then new gamers will naturally flow into the hobby. If they aren't, then all the marketing campaigns in the world won't draw people into the hobby. If RPGs are dull and badly made, the battle has already ended.(As an aside, the notion that the RPG market has shrunk is not one I buy into. My research shows that a successful, non-D&amp;D title from the 1980s sells about the same number of copies as one today. I think there are just as many gamers out there as ever. They just don't buy anything, because they don't see much worth investing in.)EDIT: Turned a nonsensical sentence into a more coherent one, or at least as coherent as I can get.&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing&nbsp; &nbsp; :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="mearls, post: 1686789, member: 697"] I have this thing where, if I have the time and inclination, I put "industry" in quotes when I'm talking about the game "industry". I don't think that game companies mean much when compared to gamers as a whole. When all's said and done, it's gamers who choose whether more gamers come into the hobby, or if publishers make books and games that are worth buying and playing. It all comes back to you. All of it. Without gamers, there are no gaming companies. Without your money, all of the RPG companies can just pack up their bags and go home. GAMA, the Origins awards, these things only matter as much as you let them matter. I think that if gamers demanded more from RPG companies, if they refused to buy books that didn't receive any playtesting, if they returned a book to their FLGS for a refund because it has sloppy editing, if they stopped thinking it's OK for a game to have messed up mechanics because you can always houserule them, then things would change. The RPG business isn't a charity. If people stop buying games, game companies will either go under or start making better ones. I think that's where it starts. I think if games are cool, fun, and engaging, then new gamers will naturally flow into the hobby. If they aren't, then all the marketing campaigns in the world won't draw people into the hobby. If RPGs are dull and badly made, the battle has already ended. (As an aside, the notion that the RPG market has shrunk is not one I buy into. My research shows that a successful, non-D&D title from the 1980s sells about the same number of copies as one today. I think there are just as many gamers out there as ever. They just don't buy anything, because they don't see much worth investing in.) EDIT: Turned a nonsensical sentence into a more coherent one, or at least as coherent as I can get. :lol: [/QUOTE]

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