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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rom90125" data-source="post: 3467420" data-attributes="member: 17111">A good friend wrote this 'editorial' for my site, and I thought it should be posted here as well.Paizo and MeTwo days ago I was happily working on my Tome of Battle campaign setting, figuring out how to transition from pen and paper to play by post over the summer. I had the next adventure ready, I was getting responses from posters, and all seemed well.Yesterday, I learned that Dragon and Dungeon magazines are dead. Wizards of the Coast pulled the license that Paizo had been using to publish both magazines.Paizo reacted by retooling their website, launching a brand new game product to fill the lost Adventure Path series, and offering many options to subscribers on how to spend their lost subscription dollars (or to just get a check back).Wizards put a news release blurb on their News section. Written by a suit.Now I work for a corporation in my day life. I know how important customers are. I can't pay my mortgage unless my customers are happy and I honestly want them to be happy with the work I do.So I contrast the responses of Paizo to Wizards. I think about how many times I've seen the editors post on the Paizo website and I remember talking to several of them at Gen Con. And how rarely I've had contact with R&D at Wizards.As a roleplaying customer, I came to the realization that I am not Wizard's target market. I DM but only buy miniatures every once in a while.Wizards makes money on miniatures. So much so that in my opinion the creation of the miniatures D&D game drove the change to D&D 3.5. Modules put out by Wizards now only use monsters that are also minis.I am officially now a dinosaur. I am no longer the market segment Wizards wants. At first, that hurt. Now it just pisses me off.However, I don't want to rant here too much or complain. A realization dawned on me as I struggled with the loss of Dragon and Dungeon.I am Paizo's target market. They don't just want me to buy their products; they would love for me to help write their products (if I'm good enough!). They like poster maps as well as battle maps and they use whatever monsters drive an adventure, or make them up as needed, not just those that match a minis line.My eyes opened further when I realized I've been a Wizard's fanboy for so long because of Paizo. I stuck with D&D and switched to 3.5 because I was sending queries to Dragon. Even recently, when I've stopped pursuing freelance opportunities, I keep buying Wizards stuff because it was in Dragon and Dungeon.Now, the strange part. Paizo will now be endorsing third party OGL products because they can no longer use Wizards closed content. Do I remain a Wizard's fanboy now?Oddly enough, no. I actually enjoy the community part, the friendship part of D&D so much that I have discovered I'm actually a Paizo fanboy. I'm a proud charter member subscribing to the new Pathfinder product. And I might just try my hand at freelancing again.Paizo writes games to make money, I understand that. So does Wizards. The difference is that the R&D guys at Wizards aren't the same people making the business decisions. The suits don't post on Wizards' website.At Paizo, the managers and the gamers and the designers are all mixed together. And they all post online from the editors to the art director to the CEO.And I appreciate that. I applaud Paizo's dedication to their customers. And I applaud each employee for remaining a fellow gamer. Bravo.I'm proud to be Paizo's target market segment. Or perhaps more accurately, one of Paizo's fellow gamers.I excited and ready to tread the path Paizo is laying out with Pathfinder. And maybe, if I work really hard, I'll get to help blaze some new trails along the way.Charlie, Pathfinder Charter Subscriber</blockquote>

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