Is the age of discounts over?

[DaveMage]

All this means is that Amazon will come up with some discount or rebate program to get around the minimum sale price.

Yep.

This ruling might not have any long-term impact with regard to online RPG sales.

 

[Arnwyn]

On a tangent, how many here think they'll be able to enjoy their amazon or on-line retailers' discounts when the FLGSs are gone?

Me, since:

1) I'm not in the U.S., so I'm just pointing and laughing at all this [hyperbole]; and
2) It looks like Amazon.ca simply 'discounts books', and an RPG book is just a 'book'.

(Of course, this is all theory for me anyways. By the time that the LGSs are gone and the online retailers' discounts are yanked, I'll be long gone.)

 

[Storminator]

Much more relevant than LGS being the entry point for zillions of gamers because we want it to be so.

No. Not "much more relevant..." More like exactly as relevant, which means you are assuming one way, and Felix assumed the other way. Except he stated his as an assumption, and you seem to think of yours as a logical conclusion. It is nothing of the sort. It is an assumption that FLGS are irrelevant.

PS

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, what has barnes and noble done to help the hobby market grow?

Put the product where people can get to it and provide an environment where they can read through the product before purchasing it, which will remain the advantage brick-and-mortar stores have over online, until everyone puts previews online, which I doubt will ever happen.

Can you camp out at one of those cute little tables they have and run a RPG or minis battle game? I doubt it, but then again, your store might be the acception.

If you keep buying coffee, you can do whatever you want at their coffee shop, so long as you don't disturb the other customers.

You mean like in 1995 when Amazon launched whose initial (and successful) market strategy was to not turn a profit for 5 years?

Like during the .com bubble of 98-2001 when everything was going online?

Yeah. That's when I mean.

Go ahead and look at the figures on how many people are actually shopping online. Every news site seems to go over it around Thanksgiving at the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It's only been in the last few years that any significant number of customers have been buying online at all. The WotC stores were going under long before then.

Teh big scary Internet is not the root of the LGS' woes, it's just contributing to existing problems already in place.

On a tangent, how many here think they'll be able to enjoy their amazon or on-line retailers' discounts when the FLGSs are gone?

I don't think Amazon is discounting RPGs as a specific strategy that will change when local stores are gone -- in much of the country, they've been gone for years, if they ever existed -- it's a general strategy.

 

[Storminator]

Me, since:

1) I'm not in the U.S., so I'm just pointing and laughing at all this [hyperbole]; and
2) It looks like Amazon.ca simply 'discounts books', and an RPG book is just a 'book'.

(Of course, this is all theory for me anyways. By the time that the LGSs are gone and the online retailers' discounts are yanked, I'll be long gone.)

How do you know they'll be discount books?

PS

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No. Not "much more relevant..." More like exactly as relevant, which means you are assuming one way, and Felix assumed the other way.

He has zero data points, I have an admittedly flawed opt-in series of polls as a data point. That's not "exactly as relevant."

 

[rgard]

I don't think Amazon is discounting RPGs as a specific strategy that will change when local stores are gone -- in much of the country, they've been gone for years, if they ever existed -- it's a general strategy.

Fair enough, we'll see.

 

[DaveMage]

I'd also add that I think it's a bit too little too late to "save" the LGS model as it has been.

There are certainly some great FLGS still out there, but they seem to be the rare exception rather than the rule.

Finally, the current RPG hobby model itself may be entering its twilight.

 

[Schmoe]

At home. The tiny proportion of people gaming at hobby shops are inconsequential.

I find that assertion absurd. Unless you have hard numbers to back it up, it's no more than an unfounded assumption, and it conflicts with my own personal experience. In the last three places I've lived, I've had at least one FLGS nearby. Each had a very healthy gaming community, and it was not uncommon for new people to be introduced to the game via the store.

Please prove the inconsequence of my experiences.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Finally, the current RPG hobby model itself may be entering its twilight.

I don't think that'll happen. I think it'll be like the comic industry: a hothouse to develop ideas for other mediums. In this case, I think MMORPGs and other computer/console games will continue to pull ideas from RPGs, both IPs and rules systems. You won't find bigger RPG gamers than the developers of MMORPGs.