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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3469403" data-attributes="member: 22424">1) That's 5% of the player base, including a large number who are in prison/in the armed forces/otherwise without internet access. Now, you may not consider those latter categories significant, since they probably don't buy much, but for the vast majority there will come a time when they get out/get home/etc, and then they might. (Oh, and my apologies to anyone offended by my juxtaposition of folks in prison with those in the armed forces - it's just that this time they have something in common.)2) There is a difference between the number who bought Dragon and the number who read it - magazines have a habit of being shared round a group, so I suspect the readership was perhaps 1.5 times the sales figures.3) Similarly, for each copy sold at the newsstand (not subscriptions) there were probably one or two other people who considered buying it each month and decided against. These people are still connected to the hobby by that decision, even if they ultimately don't buy.4) The customer base is rather smaller than the player base. I would wager that of that 1,000,000, more people don't even own a PHB than do own any given book outwith the Core Rulebooks.It's not the thread keeping it alive, but it is a thread. Internet message boards (notably ENWorld and Wizards.com) comprise a second, the FLGS a third, and the player network a fourth. There are probably one or two others I've omitted as well.This move cuts one of those threads, and further harms an already ailing FLGS. If the Digital Initiative works, it will massively strengthen the internet link, and all will be well. But if the DI fails, as I fear and expect it will, the game could well be in real trouble.So, yes, I think this is a big mistake.I'm also somewhat concerned that the Wizards management (but not the design team) may have come to see their customer base in much the same terms as the Warhammer/Magic bases (and perhaps World of Warcraft as well, but I don't really know about that one), where they expect a complete churn of the customer base every two years. Under that model, you get the newbie in, you sell him a lot of stuff very quickly, you make your money, and then in eight months you never see him or hear from him again. The problem with that view, especially online, is that D&D has a much higher 'buy-in' (in terms of reading rules, assembling a group, creating characters and adventures...) than these other things. It's just so much easier to get into WoW that I don't know if large numbers of people will keep coming into the game.</blockquote>

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