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Message: <blockquote data-quote="charlesatan" data-source="post: 3287816" data-attributes="member: 20870">I think you're confusing marketing with advertising. Marketing is a bit wider in scope, and is considered with the public image of the game/company/the individual.Here's what I inferred from Ryan's post (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of my assuptions):1) In terms of sheer profits/sales, yes, the Internet works. That's what he meant when he said "making sales".2) This is where the marketing part comes in. What's your concept of D&D? It's a tabletop game, played with other people with other people in real life. That idea is the result of good marketing. It's not a likely possibility as of the moment, but let's assume all the retailers have gone and the only place you can get your RPG fix is on the Internet (via sites like EnWorld or Amazon or DriveThruRPG for example). When that happens, you're changing the marketing of D&D. Is it still a tabletop game? Yes. But you're muddling the "playing with other people in real life" because sadly (and I'm not saying it has to be) shopping on the Internet isn't a group thing, it's a solo act. Sure, we have Private Messaging, chatting, boards and the like to communicate with other people but there's also the possibility that it's really just you in your birthday suit and all you're really staring at is the monitor and some sites. That's time you're not with your gaming buddies playing tabletops or shopping for table top paraphernalia. Suddenly, D&D books simply seem like game books which you read for yourself and not actually get to actually use in group play. Granted this is all an exagerration and over-simplification. But there's a real dynamic with meeting people in real life and playing a game, or meeting fellow hobbyists in a store (much in the same way people congregate at EnWorld).3) There's also the browsing part. When I'm in the bookstore or a gaming store, sometimes I don't know what to buy. Honestly it's easier for me to browse through a shelf rather than to browse through web pages because of its near-infinite content. If I know what I'm getting, it's not a problem but for people who want to impulse buy (or get lured by it), the retailers are key.</blockquote>

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