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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2387306" data-attributes="member: 26473">I'm afraid I have to say that I'm on-board with those who question the validity of Mr. Dancey's research methods. My first impression on reading the quote above is that a study population consisting entirely of twelve year-olds may tend to skew the results somewhat. :\ This is one of the key problems of corporate research: the results, and quite often the methods, are 'proprietary' and therefore there is no way to objectively examine the sampling methods and data analysis for rigor. Any claim to insight is, and should be treated as, highly suspect.The point was made earlier, and bears repeating, that the entire subject of sales and market share as a measure of success ignores the fact that the rules-bloated 3e system benefits from decades of branding that the current rules did nothing to create. The question I would like to hear answered some time is this: would d20 have been as successful in terms of sales if it didn't come with the D&D brand name attached to the flagship product? What if there was no "3e" but rather "d20 Fantasy Roleplay" instead, without the D&D moniker? Would it occupy the same market segment that 3e D&D does?That would be an interesting market research question actually: present 3e D&D and generic d20 "fantasy roleplaying" to a study population of novice gamers - how much does branding affect rules acceptance by new gamers?Another issue affecting market share is the OGL - all those products out there, regardless of genre, that include the words "Requires the use of..." affect sales as well. If I purchased Sidewinder: Wild West Adventures and the 3.0 core rulebook, am I really weighing in on the success of the d20 system or am I just buying a book I need to run a game, a game that doesn't require any of the rest of the rules-bloated 3e/d20 system?On an entirely personal and subjective note, I'm switching to C&C specifically because character creation is simpler and takes less time - I'd be happy to join a focus group to prove that, if Messrs. Dancey and Mearls are interested.</blockquote>

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