Local Games Stores Are Dead!

[Utrecht]

A couple of years ago, I used to work for a company that designed and installed Document Imanging and Workflow systems (I have since moved into Call Center and Logistics systems)

But, one of the interesting trends about this industry is that you no longer see it market the paperless office (in fact, they stopped this practive around 1994) - Rather the market these items as Transactional processing and Information Sharing mechanisms - coupled with a workflow engine to provide process improvement.

It is in this area that you seen customers implement "paperless-systems" - and with these metrics that they can achieve the return on investment. The goals here are to accept, analyze and complete more transactions per minute than you used to, while dropping the cost to process.

As Mistwell, the legal profession introduces some rather interesting complications into the whole thing - especially surrounding document retention and electronic renderings of signatures (last I heard, they were acceptable in all 50 states - although the uses varied from state to state - I am most familiar with Colorado and South Dakota)

Thus, it is important to draw a seperation between business and consumer paperless process. the fact of the matter is that business will use paper - until there is a paradigm shift in the workforce and technology - it is simply cheaper to automate paper - not replace it.

At first, I was prepared to dismiss the concept of a paperless comsumer product as well - but jkbrowning brings up a very good point - a great deal of it is what you get used to - so it is entirely possible that future generations would prefer electronic over paper - and I suddenly find myself as one of those curmudgeny old folks......

 

[The Sigil]

There already <i>is</i> such a thing as a paperless office, until that is, it's used by an old generation that doesn't understand that you can read an e-mail on screen, instead of having to print each and every page you get.

How about this one... I have WORKED in a paperless office. It was an office staffed by four twenty-year olds. Being in the middle of Hungary, where computers were not nearly as prevalant in businesses (in 1997-98) as they are today, we couldn't always communicate with e-mail to those on the outside, but the only paper our office generated was (a) letters to other businesses, (b) receipts for sales of items sold for cash (tracking), and (c) for hard copies of contracts or other documents that required signatures to be effective.

Of course, I'm back in the states, working for a conventional company, paper is still everywhere... because (as has been pointed out) most people over the age of 25 (yes, 25) are not really all that comfortable with computers.

My bold prediction: You will see the advent of paperless offices (or "near paperless offices") in any office where no worker was born prior to 1980. Within one or two years of all workers born prior to 1980 leaving a given place of business, that place of business will go paperless. Places of business that have employees born prior to 1980 will be kept back from going paperless in direct proportion to the power held by those "older" employees within the company. And that doesn't just mean position, but actual influence.

There will be "tech-savvy" exceptions to the rule, but that's my prediction. When an office finally eliminates people to whom computers are a "black box" and who aren't really comfortable with them, the office can go paperless. Heck, I see it every day in this office - people who have been USING computers for 20 years but didn't grow up with them aren't comfortable with them. In fact, in our entire office of 30-40 employees, I think I'm one of TWO people who is actually comfortable with computers.

But I've seen it done, and have been part of a paperless office. And I'm telling you, it has to be "young" (though the definition of "young will get older as time goes on) to get a paperless office.

FWIW, though, my Publishing business, though it is of course PDF and a one-man show, has generated exactly two printed copies of documents - both signed legal agreements with artists for use of commissioned artwork (I guess the checks are paper as well LOL). But I think it's a pretty paperless business.

My 2 cents.

--The Sigil

 

[Utrecht]

But I've seen it done, and have been part of a paperless office. And I'm telling you, it has to be "young" (though the definition of "young will get older as time goes on) to get a paperless office.

--The Sigil

ACtually, I have found very few luddites out there - in fact workers of any age are quick to adopt any technology if:

1) It makes their job easier
2) They are incented to do so.

The real reason that you have not seen the "paperless office" (a fallacy anymore - see my above post) is that it is quite simply not cost effective for most applications.

Instuting paperless processes are NOT cheap. Thus, it does not make sense spending $5 Million to solve a $1M problem - the return on investment is not there.

However, spending $5Mill to solve a $10 Mill problem is a now brainer (unless of course you can get a higher ROI on other projects) Pefect applications for Paperless technologies are:

IRS
Post Offices
Insurance Claims Processing
Medical Claims form processing

 

[Pbartender]

Here's a misnomer: FLGSs are going out of business because of internet gaming stores. The truth is, the FLGSs that don't set up an internet presence like myself and several other retailers that post here, are going to lose business because they're not evolving.
There's another gaming store in Denton going out of business this month just because the owner said and I quote, "Selling games online is a waste of time." All that says to me is he was too lazy to even bother. Don't get me wrong though, maintaining an online store is a lot of work and I'm constantly behind working on it and working in my store.

Hey Derek,

Just out of curiosity (and only if you don't mind answering such an impolite question )...

In comparison to your over-the-counter business, how much on-line business do you make? Based on your comment, I'm assuming it's a significant fraction of your sales, but just how significant is it?

 

[The Sigil]

ACtually, I have found very few luddites out there - in fact workers of any age are quick to adopt any technology if:

1) It makes their job easier
2) They are incented to do so.

Adapt to the technology, yes. Understand the technology and feel comfortable with it? No.

How many people want a printed copy of a book "just because I like print better?" Assume, for a moment, that the only place you read it is in your home (where your computer is). Yeah, you could get it PDF, but print is "better." Same principle applies. My contention is that if you didn't "Grow up with it" or it wasn't a "hobby" for you, you will use it, but not be comfortable with it.

Prime example: the metric system. It's easier. It would make things much less complicated. NASA wouldn't have egg on its face for not converting units. Why doesn't the US convert? Answer: Because people aren't comfortable with using it. Changing labelling on everything outside of interstate highways would be exceedingly easy. But US citizens don't know how much soda they're getting in a 3 dl cup, so they won't buy it.

Never underestimate inertia, that's all I'm saying.

--The Sigil

 

[Utrecht]

Adapt to the technology, yes. Understand the technology and feel comfortable with it? No.

Actually, I have found most people go into black box mode - if they accept that something happens behind the scenes - and as long as the results are within some sort of bounds, they will adapt to any technology - afterall if 60 year old bank tellers in Bangor Maine can use accept the technology - anyone can

How many people want a printed copy of a book "just because I like print better?" Assume, for a moment, that the only place you read it is in your home (where your computer is). Yeah, you could get it PDF, but print is "better." Same principle applies. My contention is that if you didn't "Grow up with it" or it wasn't a "hobby" for you, you will use it, but not be comfortable with it.

I agree with this - and it is only under this premise that I can see PDF technology being accepted as a mainstream consumer product - is that people accept that this is the way it is....

Prime example: the metric system. It's easier. It would make things much less complicated. NASA wouldn't have egg on its face for not converting units. Why doesn't the US convert? Answer: Because people aren't comfortable with using it. Changing labelling on everything outside of interstate highways would be exceedingly easy. But US citizens don't know how much soda they're getting in a 3 dl cup, so they won't buy it.
--The Sigil

Massively straying off topic, I will disagree with you here - the biggest reason that the US has not made the transition has nothing to do with accpeting - it has everything to do with the astronomical cost of US Industry converting over to metric. Since there is no organization (i.e. EU) madating that we move or be left out, we can stick with our current system - and we are big enough that we can make it work.

You are right that inertia is a terrible thing to fight - but people are more accepting than you think.

 

[Mistwell]

Adapt to the technology, yes. Understand the technology and feel comfortable with it? No.

How many people want a printed copy of a book "just because I like print better?" Assume, for a moment, that the only place you read it is in your home (where your computer is). Yeah, you could get it PDF, but print is "better." Same principle applies. My contention is that if you didn't "Grow up with it" or it wasn't a "hobby" for you, you will use it, but not be comfortable with it.

I grew up with computers. I am THE first generation of computer users. The first personal computer, a kit you had to put together yourself, was used from the first month it came out. I have no concious memory of a household without a computer.

That said, I will NEVER EVER EVER claim that PDF (or online-only text) is "better" for reading a novel, or an entire rulebook, or continuing education for my field, or comic books, or keeping track of any document that is very important. Nor will most people, in my opinion, who grew up in your generation. I think you are a person in the computer field, and that makes you an exception, not the rule, for your generation (despite sterotypes about the twenty-something generation being all tech-savvy).

The paperless office was a marketing ploy that has been completely dropped, after a brief push when it became technically possible. As mentioned above, as soon as you get to be a medium-large size company, it is not financially feasible to do it.

.

 

[Tiefling]

How many people want a printed copy of a book "just because I like print better?" Assume, for a moment, that the only place you read it is in your home (where your computer is). Yeah, you could get it PDF, but print is "better." Same principle applies. My contention is that if you didn't "Grow up with it" or it wasn't a "hobby" for you, you will use it, but not be comfortable with it.

I have to echo Mistwell here. I'm fifteen years old, I program as a hobby, and I plan to program for a living. If there is anyone on this board who grew up with computers and is comfortable with them, it's me. But I've never felt entirely comfortable with reading a PDF book from cover to cover. There's something tangibly different between the two media, although I have difficulty pinpointing it. Ideally the two could coexist, perhaps with books packaged with CDs that would contain the PDF form of the text. There are some obvious advantages to PDFs that have been described above: they are better for searching an entire library for a spell or monster or obscure rule, or for printing out a few sections and not bothering with the rest, or sharing the text in an environment unsafe to books. If you take a few minutes to back them up you will have them for as long as you care to keep them. And, of course, they allow new publishers to enter the industry on little capital. I'm not vehemently against the idea of PDFs being the dominant medium, and I certainly don't think that it will cause serious harm to the industry (somehow every new and different thing in the industry will cause its doom, or such is the impression I get from this board). However, I hope that physical books will stick around.

I'm thoroughly enamored with the ideas of a U.S. conversion to metrics and a paperless or nearly paperless office, though.

 

[jgbrowning]

I have to echo Mistwell here. I'm fifteen years old, I program as a hobby, and I plan to program for a living. If there is anyone on this board who grew up with computers and is comfortable with them, it's me. But I've never felt entirely comfortable with reading a PDF book from cover to cover.

But in 30 years? Man, its really hard to imagine the changes. How things are going to be so much better. Just look at TVs. If they ever get "book readers" that work like books up to speed, I can easily see books slowly disappearing. You'd have pretty much the best of both worlds that way.

joe b.

 

[drothgery]

Posit a gadget roughly the size of a paperback with a high quality screen (somewhat better than current PDAs and notebook computers), enough memory to hold a ton of books, battery life no worse than a cell phone, and a $99 price tag. I think such a gadget would overcome most people's stated objections to electronic books. Of course, without workable DRM, no one would make the gadget even it were possible...