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Message: <blockquote data-quote="amerigoV" data-source="post: 5244851">What I find interesting is how these various industries are trying to cope with the rapid pace of technology. The music industry is not dead, but their have been many casualties as more music is distributed electronically. Newpapers struggle with drops in subscriptions but no one is willing to pay for on-line access to their news. Why have cable when I can stream the shows I like and use Netflix for the movies?The gaming industry seems to be on a fence of do they engage the electronic world or just use it as a form of awareness of their product. I am torn on this myself as a long-time gamer. I use Maptools and Skype in my groups to keep wayward gamers connected. On the other hand, there is nothing quite like having everyone at the table just playing without all the gizmos. Wizards has experimented with more electronic tools (DDI) with interesting results. The DDI tools seem good enough that they could liberalize the GSL without feeling like they are losing sales (whats the point of a 3rd party making "yet another fighter" if you will not have access to it in DDI?).The most important thing is to keep the pipeline open to new, younger gamers. My generation (I am 41) has supported gaming for a long time - from teens begging for money for a gaming book to spending the disposable of an adult. 4e seems to be a push to attract younger gamers* (more CCG and anime  features vs. older editions). Although some may grumble, if it attracts more to the hobby, then it is good.* Pure piece of irony. I went to a D&D Meetup for the first time. There was a 3.5 game, a 4e game, and a Traveler game. The 4e game pretty much had the 20-somethings and above. The 3.5 game had a few older players and a bunch of kids (10-14 year olds) - and from the screams they were having a blast. Traveler, of course, had no players - as from anything I have ever seen, people only roll up PCs and never actually play Traveler.So, I do not think the industry is dying, but I am not really sure what it will evolve into.</blockquote>

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