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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7358053" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Funny thing, 3e also increased it's number of games between Q3 and Q4 of last years. </p><p>Does that mean 3rd Edition D&D is still a healthy living game with a growing playerbase? </p><p></p><p></p><p>It ties into the Jam Study:</p><p><a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf" target="_blank">https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345 Articles/Iyengar & Lepper (2000).pdf</a></p><p><a href="https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better</a></p><p><a href="https://digitalintelligencetoday.com/the-jam-study-strikes-back-when-less-choice-does-mean-more-sales/" target="_blank">https://digitalintelligencetoday.com/the-jam-study-strikes-back-when-less-choice-does-mean-more-sales/</a></p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/your-money/27shortcuts.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/your-money/27shortcuts.html</a></p><p></p><p>The results were pretty clear, when given lots of choices, people took longer to make a choice and felt less satisfied with the choice they had made. </p><p></p><p>Which apples very much to RPGs, when you can buy one book out of dozens of choices. It's harder to know which one is the "right" one for you and easy to question that choice after. </p><p>But it also applies when picking one class out of several, one archetype out of a many, and one feat out of a multitude. </p><p></p><p>To say nothing of the intimidation factor of seeing that many books and thinking you might nee to know it all. Paizo has commented many times that the size of the <em>Core Rulebook</em> has been noted as daunting and intimidating, and has scared people off in the past. </p><p></p><p></p><p>It's called the Pareto Principle: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle</a></p><p></p><p>And it's very true in gaming, as one person per table tends to be the "book buyer" and the rest just use their books. Which is often 80/20 because you have the book buyer and the four book users. </p><p>You seem to be pushing it to an extreme, implying that 20% of that 20% are collectors who provide the majority (or even 80% of 80%) of the profit...</p><p></p><p></p><p>I've seen this conversation so often I've written a <a href="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/2819" target="_blank">lengthy blog on the subject</a>.</p><p></p><p>We've seen waves of content released for 2e, 3e, 3.5e, 4e, and a number of other games. It has <em>never</em> worked out well. Nobody fondly looks back at the d20 glut and says "those were the days".</p><p>Giving the fans what they want is a good thing, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the game line. </p><p>This isn't just my opinion. This WAS the opinion of Paizo as well. Funny thing, when they started, the three-hardcovers-a-year release schedule was their attempt at being slower than WotC and not doing the book-a-month of WotC. They talked at length about keeping the number of new classes restrained and all that. </p><p>But even the slower pace of Pathfinder's release schedule just slowed down hitting bloat. (And the size of the books and their percentage of new crunch didn't help.)</p><p></p><p>There's also a quality factor. How much of the stuff released by Paizo is actually thoroughly playtested? Pretty much zero. They just don't have the time. (And even back when they did public playtests, the window was too small to *really* test the actual mechanics in more than a single session.) It's theory crafting all the way. </p><p></p><p>A fast release schedule is basically the equivalent of a buffet. It's literally quantity over quality. I don't think I can be faulted for suggesting that the #2 RPG company (briefly #1) should be more concerned with releasing fewer high quality products than releasing more average quality products.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7358053, member: 37579"] Funny thing, 3e also increased it's number of games between Q3 and Q4 of last years. Does that mean 3rd Edition D&D is still a healthy living game with a growing playerbase? It ties into the Jam Study: [URL]https://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Iyengar%20%26%20Lepper%20(2000).pdf[/URL] [URL]https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better[/URL] [URL]https://digitalintelligencetoday.com/the-jam-study-strikes-back-when-less-choice-does-mean-more-sales/[/URL] [URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/your-money/27shortcuts.html[/URL] The results were pretty clear, when given lots of choices, people took longer to make a choice and felt less satisfied with the choice they had made. Which apples very much to RPGs, when you can buy one book out of dozens of choices. It's harder to know which one is the "right" one for you and easy to question that choice after. But it also applies when picking one class out of several, one archetype out of a many, and one feat out of a multitude. To say nothing of the intimidation factor of seeing that many books and thinking you might nee to know it all. Paizo has commented many times that the size of the [I]Core Rulebook[/I] has been noted as daunting and intimidating, and has scared people off in the past. It's called the Pareto Principle: [URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle[/URL] And it's very true in gaming, as one person per table tends to be the "book buyer" and the rest just use their books. Which is often 80/20 because you have the book buyer and the four book users. You seem to be pushing it to an extreme, implying that 20% of that 20% are collectors who provide the majority (or even 80% of 80%) of the profit... I've seen this conversation so often I've written a [URL="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/2819"]lengthy blog on the subject[/URL]. We've seen waves of content released for 2e, 3e, 3.5e, 4e, and a number of other games. It has [I]never[/I] worked out well. Nobody fondly looks back at the d20 glut and says "those were the days". Giving the fans what they want is a good thing, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the game line. This isn't just my opinion. This WAS the opinion of Paizo as well. Funny thing, when they started, the three-hardcovers-a-year release schedule was their attempt at being slower than WotC and not doing the book-a-month of WotC. They talked at length about keeping the number of new classes restrained and all that. But even the slower pace of Pathfinder's release schedule just slowed down hitting bloat. (And the size of the books and their percentage of new crunch didn't help.) There's also a quality factor. How much of the stuff released by Paizo is actually thoroughly playtested? Pretty much zero. They just don't have the time. (And even back when they did public playtests, the window was too small to *really* test the actual mechanics in more than a single session.) It's theory crafting all the way. A fast release schedule is basically the equivalent of a buffet. It's literally quantity over quality. I don't think I can be faulted for suggesting that the #2 RPG company (briefly #1) should be more concerned with releasing fewer high quality products than releasing more average quality products. [/QUOTE]
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