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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Smeelbo" data-source="post: 5134487" data-attributes="member: 81898">Today, we opened up our second game room for D&D at 1PM. As of the time of this post, we have three groups of D&D playing: one beginning at 1st level, one at 5th level, and another at 6th level. At 2PM, another table started for a Traveller campaign. We've made this space available to the players free of charge. Over a third of our main sales floor is devoted to open gaming: 6 tables, 36 chairs, available at no cost, 7 days a week, from store open to close.  We host D&D Encounters every Wednesday (I DM it, off the clock), and we've hosted a series of Wednesday night 4E campaigns (volunteer DMs, mostly myself, off the clock) for almost the last two years. On weekends we open up a second game room, another 8 tables and 40ish chairs, and host the local 4E, RPG, and Boardgame Meetup Groups, in addition to running CCG tournaments 7 days a week. We've run every D&D World Wide Game Day, and I volunteer to run them all. We maintain a list of players and their interests, and whenever a new book comes into stock, we give them a call and offer to hold the new book as if they had pre-ordered it, that is, 25% off. We support roleplaying campaigns outside the store as well, and introduce players of similar interests to one another. What exactly is Amazon.com doing for you?In my experience, most players buy no or only a small number of books, and a small fraction of players, mostly GMs, buy the vast majority of books. Given what I've sold in the past, and to whom, I am torn about D&D Essentials. I am not sure what it will accomplish that I can't already with the very well produced existing 4E D&D Starter Box, with mini PHB, DMG/MM, tiles, tokens and dice, for $16.99.Yes, I do appreciate the effort, and they are doing a much improved job providing adventures. However, I do not appreciate being strong-armed, e.g., run these Encounters if you want to sell the product as early as Barnes & Nobles, who does not run events. $25 dollars worth of pizza is nice, but they are essentially pushing their costs onto me. If I get two or more tables at next week's Encounters, where do you suppose the extra pizza money coming from? I could be playing with my own group on my own time, but instead, I am volunteering to run their campaign with their rules.Actually, between two stores, I've sold about a thousand 4E books since release, including about 200 PHB/MM/DMG sets. To keep the game going, I volunteer to run every week, sometimes twice a week. I myself only get to play as a player twice a month. I have every right to be vocally critical of Wizards of the Coast.Our store is similar situated: primarily a CCG shop, big WotC customer, but sales in general are actually up (although 4E sales are declining). However, I must say WotC never treats us that way, I suspect some of what the owner is telling you is B.S., or you don't understand him. What is true is that in order to get certain discounts, you have to maintain a specific volume. The only thing like that I've ever seen is when I order from other suppliers, some of their salesmen are on commission, and they often try to slip in extra product. If we don't catch that within 48 hours of delivery, we are stuck with the product. But it's always something like a couple extra copies of this, duplicate back orders, and so on. In my experience, WotC salespeople are very professional.I said I "feel" like a fire has been lit under them, based on my decades of previous experience with WotC. I was one of the first tournament organizers for Magic The Gathering, way before there was a DCI. Up until now, D&D Game Day Adventures appear to have been farmed out to their B-team, often apparently RPGA volunteers rather than actual staff, some of them so embarrassing they did not even credit an author, let alone an editor. D&D Encounters shows every sign of having dropped a lot of salary and cash. Why the sudden change? Based on the sales numbers I am seeing, I think they are highly motivated to turn things around as soon as possible.I'd prefer it to be less naked. I'd prefer it if the guy I just sold a PHB played on more equal footing. They'll already be behind compared to the more experienced players, why make the inequality more egregious? If recruiting new players is their primary goal, why not a Reknown reward for newbies? Why should the newbie be 3 weeks behind? The intro DDI may be free, but what about that computer?Renown. My apologies. I move a lot of product. I serve a lot of players. I have every right to be critical of WotC. SmeelboAbuser of EZCodes</blockquote>

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