Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

[TalonComics]

The whole scenario (gamers buy discount books = RPG industry collapsing into total ruin) is every bit as ludicrous as Ulrick's original complaints about price-gouging and demands for a boycott.

And what qualifies you to even say that? I've been working in comics and gaming retail for 10 plus years now. You may think I'm talking out my ass but I'm actually basing my comments on my experiences.

Pardon me if I continue to make my comments based on my experience and the experience of others in the "gaming industry."

~D

 

[Mark]

That's got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've read on these boards in quite a while.

You've been skipping my posts again, eh, Joe?

Keep your Wednesday night at Gencon free for a whole new scenario again, my friend.

 

[Xeriar]

Re: Re: Re: Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

If someone can't afford the hobby, looking for discounts online, bargain bins, whatever, is a perfectly legitimate way to get the goods so that later on when they can afford the hobby, we still have interested players. Poor people deserve recreational activities just as much as us well to do folk.

I generally pay for my GM's books. Helps out a lot

 

[Mark Chance]

And what qualifies you to even say that? I've been working in comics and gaming retail for 10 plus years now. You may think I'm talking out my ass but I'm actually basing my comments on my experiences.

Qualified? I've been living in the real world for more than 30 years. That count? (I bet you say it doesn't.)

For most of that entire 30+ years, the same two or three FLGSes here in Houston have been doing able business. I still buy comics at one of them.

Pardon me if I continue to make my comments based on my experience and the experience of others in the "gaming industry."

I grant you a boon. You're pardoned.

But you're still wrong. The FLGSes of the world are in no danger of extinction, even if I continue to be so underpaid that I cannot afford cover price for RPG books. If you know otherwise, let's see some proof. Surely such an amazing pending catastrophe would make a headline or two somewhere.

Or, since that can't be done (because no such proof exists), just demonstrate how I'm hurting your business specifically.

Doc_Klueless wrote:
There's a difference between can't afford and just-don't-wanna-pay.

Apparently not according to some people.

If someone can't afford the hobby, looking for discounts online, bargain bins, whatever, is a perfectly legitimate way to get the goods....

Again, apparently not according to some people. Rather than being perfectly legitimate, my shopping habits are allegedly contributing to the wholesale collapse of the entire gaming industry.

If you're bitching because you just don't wanna pay the cost, then you need to find another hobby.

Hear, hear!

EDIT: Stealing/piracy is wrong no matter what. I'm talking about legitimate/legal/moral methods of obtaining a book.

And another: Hear, hear!

 

[Yeoman]

Has anyone ever played Zone of the Enders? It's a game for PS2. A cool one, too.

Except that you can easily complete it in two hours, and there aren't secret modes or hidden stuff to keep the interest up.

Good thing I rented it, but had I bought it, I would have paid at least 50$.

So, I definitely think RPG books are not overpriced. More like the opposite.

You know I thought that game was damnably hard when I first played it. Found out later that I had busted the analog controls.

Now as for rpg books being overpriced, I don't see it at all, but I buy lots of technical manuals and software guides, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

 

[herald]

I don't expect that kind of discount. That's part of my entire point. I don't pay full price for RPG books because I'm cheap. I don't pay full price because I can't afford to pay full price.

So, instead of doing without, I shop on line and hunt for substantial discounts. If I can't find those discounts, I do without.

Am I suppose to feel guilty because of this? If so, it ain't gonna happen.

You can't afford to pay Full Price? Alright, common Mark lets face the truth. If you can pay for 60% of a game book, you can pay for the full cost. The differance is at best $10 to $15 dollars more.

To many people think that they have to consume all the game products that come out. No one is obliged to get all the game books that come out.

When I here that people can't afford full price, I have to laugh.

 

[Mark Chance]

You can't afford to pay Full Price? Alright, common Mark lets face the truth. If you can pay for 60% of a game book, you can pay for the full cost. The differance is at best $10 to $15 dollars more.

So now I'm not only contributing to the downfall of the entire gaming industry, I'm also a liar.

Answer these: How much money do I make a month after taxes? How much of that money is dedicated to paying bills, mortgage, insurance, for food, for my children's schooling, et cetera? Of the difference between the two totals, how much gets spent on family activities such as movies or outings to Lake Conroe? Once this total has been accounted for, how much do I have left each month to spend for purely selfish reasons? Now, subtract the amount I spend on comic books each month, and tell me how much money I can put aside for gaming books each month? Quickly now, since you're the expert on my precise financial situation.

To many people think that they have to consume all the game products that come out. No one is obliged to get all the game books that come out.

Here're a few more: How many game books have I bought in the past month? Past three months? Six months? Year? Since you have such in-depth knowledge of my precise financial situation, you obviously have detailed, if not itemized, records of my purchases?

C'mon, now, don't keep us waiting. Enlighten.

 

[CCamfield]

For most of that entire 30+ years, the same two or three FLGSes here in Houston have been doing able business. I still buy comics at one of them.

Hang on. I can understand you saying that you don't have the money to buy rpg books at full price, but comics are expensive for the amount of reading they provide. How many do you buy?

 

[Arnwyn]

Let me get this straight: you bozos are deriding Mark for how he spends his money? He's not even doing anything illegal, and is buying books from outlets selling their goods to consumers through legitimate avenues within the market - and a bunch of people are questioning his buying habits? (And somebody even suggested he's crushing the entire gaming industry buying discounted books within this, if it hasn't changed, capitalist economic system?)

Holy crap. And I thought I've seen it all at ENWorld.

Edit: removed "monkey" comment. I love monkeys as much as the next person, but it's probably not needed here...

 

[Ulrick]

Interesting. I think I might have created a monster.


Its good to see that others aren't paying full price for rule books too, although they're doing it for other reasons besides trying to lower the price of books. Which is a good thing though because it sounds like they've got their priorities straight.

I just wonder how many people who'd like to get into the hobby but who couldn't afford to because books are too expensive. I think we've all encountered potential players who've said, "It's seems cool but the books are just too expensive."

I've had players who refused to buy a Player's Handbook--they were "poor college students" or high school students which was understandable.

If the price barrier of entry was lowered, I wonder how many players that would generate? And thus, renewing the hobby with new players, rather than having it die a horrible death like so many "chicken littles" presume would happen when prices of books lower to a reasonable level.