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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Console Cowboy" data-source="post: 6007669" data-attributes="member: 100388">First off, let's define the word respect....  <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/respect" target="_blank">http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/respect</a> Next, you simply have not understood - or maybe do not want to since 4e was the Giant Killer that WotC gave up on too early and no one is going to dissuade you from that argument. For other people, however, that same scenario plays out with 3x. Yet the problem is not within the edition wars; they are the Asperger's hobby fever from the industry malaria.  I never claimed WotC is not going to become Blizzard. I said they have to get away from that comparison. You say you are fine with that and look at the market realistically. Perhaps you even believe you do. Yet you want to market RPGs as a cage match between the 800 lbs gorilla and the 90 lbs bookworm whereby you foresee a victory for the bookworm. That is a fantasy. There is a very solid reason why marketing is defined in war terms: because it is a war, like any war, for resources. And that battle, more often than not, takes place in the consumer mind. RPGs are not video games. They never will be. So far WotC persists on defining itself against competitors (Paizo) and fighting on improperly drawn market segmentation (video game market) to its detriment. This also impacts the growth of the hobby, and leads to decline. And the more the bottom line failure supports the claim the hobby is shrinking, the more the hobby will shrink.  I believe the hobby market could expand, might even be ready to expand, and that it certainly has not been fully explored in marketing terms. The fact remains it is not expanding because the responsibility for gaining new hobbyists weighs heavy on the backs of the players. Maybe that model was okay in the 1970's and 80's but it is not a workable model today.  Demographics are not the sole driver of segmentation. WotC needs to understand its product and the media of its product (or were you also disagreeing with my observation that RPGs and video games exist in entirely different media?) when deciding on a target market.  Just because a consumer plays a fantasy themed video game does not automatically make that person a candidate for RPGs. We're not talking Budweiser vs. Pabst, but, apples and oranges. Do people who eat apples also drink Budweiser? Sure, some do. But do not be selling apples in place of beer. That’s sheer and expensive folly.  WotC will realize that only when they respect the hobby enough to have the courage of their marketing convictions. Otherwise, this sloppy seconds strategy of catching breadcrumbs off Blizzard's (or Paizo's) table is all they’ll ever have and the hobby will continue to shrink.</blockquote>

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