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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 6346405" data-attributes="member: 5143">If you want a real answer to this, I can give you one.  It won't be one that makes you happy, though.The problem is, we now live in a world where you can get everything extremely easily almost immediately.  The internet has created a culture where if something exists, it is available, is likely free or very cheap.  Not only is it available but it is delivered to you instantly.The RPG industry has grown roughly parallel to the video game industry.  In the early days of PCs, the only places to get software was computer stores.  Stores had huge shelves of games and other software.  Then, after the advent of modems came BBSes.  Computer geeks and those really in the know could now find shareware and freeware from their favorite BBS and could skip the stores entirely.  Then came the internet and it became even easier to get what you wanted online and avoid having to go to a store.  But only the truly geeky and nerdy used the internet in those days.  Everyone else went the easier route and bought video game consoles.  That began the rise of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony and their consoles.PC gaming started falling further and further behind.  You needed to know things in order to use a game on your PC.  You needed to know how to set up your video card, you needed to be able to configure Windows correctly.  So PC gaming almost died.  Until the advent of Steam.  Which is when the computer game industry realized that in order to survive they needed to make it as insanely easy as possible to buy and acquire PC games.  Steam installed and configured the games for you in a simple process.  It downloaded them off the internet so you didn't have to leave your home.  Then it connected multiplayer to your friends quickly and easily since you had a list of them in all of your games.Unfortunately, it caused the downfall of many computer stores who no longer had customers coming in to buy software anymore.  Which caused all sorts of promotions to get people into their stores.  None of which worked.  You could order your hardware online to be delivered to your house.  You could get all your software from the internet for cheap or pirated for free.  Most computer stores are now closed.The RPG industry has followed almost the same exact formula, just slower.  Gaming stores were the hub of everything years ago.  You needed to buy all your books there, all of the gamers in your city would go there because there was no other way to meet people into the hobby.Now, slowly over time the internet has had the same effect on RPGs that it has on video games.  The internet is where we connect with other players and plan times to play and places to meet.  More and more people have tablets and laptops where they can easily access all of their gaming materials in PDF form along with electronic tools that make gaming easier.These days, it's completely possible to run and play in a regular game of D&D without ever setting foot inside a store.  You download the PDF of your favorite game from the company's website, you bring it to the table on your tablet and you use electronic die rollers instead of buying dice.  You then ask on your favorite message boards if anyone wants to play and schedule a time that works best for you to play.  You can even play over the internet if you aren't all located in the same location.  More and more this is becoming the norm.The problem is that this entire campaign is designed from the ground up to say, "Stop playing your way.  Play our way instead."It says "So, you'd like to play D&D.  We can do that.  Instead of playing with your friends when it is convenient for you, you should instead go into a store(which you may or may not have) whenever they decide to run it(IF they decide to run it) and play with strangers.  If you don't want to do that, we're going to hold back benefits from you."This really benefits no one except game store owners.  The players could likely get books cheaper online directly from WOTC or from online retailers.  WOTC could make more money by selling directly to the players.  Players could get access to adventures and books faster and could more readily make impulse purchases and play unplanned games.  The only ones who lose are game store owners.The problem is the entire campaign appears to be designed to artificially prop up game stores by artificially restricting access to adventures.  The adventures exist.  If they were freely downloadable from a website it could only mean more people playing and the effort being put into writing them being more worthwhile.  It would encourage more players to both play and buy books.  The campaign is actively saying "You can't have them unless you jump through hoops to get them."People have been taught by the internet age to really hate and try to work around artificial restrictions like "This content is not available in your country" restrictions on video.  The world is global and instant.  It is now a Netflix world of "I'd like to watch Firefly now, I'll click on it and it'll begin playing."  The campaign is saying "Please report to Fox at 7 pm on Wednesdays in order to watch Firefly."</blockquote>

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