Ulrick said:
"Well, you can get hours and hours of entertainment out of a gaming product so its worth the price."
I can't argue against this in the case of the core rule books. These are worth the money spent. But its all these other books that I'm annoyed at.
How many hours of entertainment have you gotten out of Dieties and Demigods? The arms and equipment guide? Or any other book produced by a 3rd party publisher that isn't a module?
How often do DMs allow all that d20 stuff in their games? How many of you have bought something only to have your DM say, "No, you can't use that."
Don't like them? Don't buy them. But trying to somehow convince others that because a gaming book doesn't get regular use it is an unworthy purchase is just asinine.
Frankly, if the book in question provides even one fun idea that I can then stretch into months worth of gaming, or a couple of details that I can use to make my game better, it is absolutely a good purchase.
"But if a bunch of gamers don't buy books then companies will go out of business and the hobby will die!"
So what if companies go under because people refuse to pay full price for RPG books! Some will survive, some won't.
Those that survive will have developed a way to produce the product cheaper. Those that thrive will have it cheaper but at the same quality or even better.
Actually, your logic is flawed.
What will happen is that the companies involved will not be able to keep the talent that creates all of the great stuff being put out now. You are basing your argument on the idea that an RPG company is like any other manufacturer - they put stuff out.
But the fact is, the graphic designers, the artists, the writers - these are talented people that invariably work in this industry because they love it. Most of them can get better paying jobs elsewhere; in fact, the gaming has lost a large number of folks over the years to other industries because the pay is ass.
So, no, sorry. That isn't the way the industry works.
At this point--It's too big. And besides, say for instance, it does die, according to the 1st argument gamers will still be getting hours and hours of enternment out of their books.
Too big?
I'm sorry, are we talking about the same industry? That's got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've read on these boards in quite a while.
But I do know that the average gaming book is priced too high.
Compared to what?
Books of similar quality and creative content? I don't think so. Because if someone pointed out that similar books in a bookstore go for quite a bit more, with quite a bit less content, you'd probably point out that those are overpriced, too.
At which point, we'd have no choice but to assume that "That is too expensive" is less a reflection of an accurate understanding of industry and publishing market, and more motivated by sheerest personal whim and whinging.
I'm sure I'm wrong, though. So...compared to what?
Yet I believe that businesses shouldn't be in business just to make money.
Again. Asinine.
A business exists to make money; many of us are happy to make less money doing something that we love dearly.
"Just to" would somehow indicate that we were doing nothing but. Yet, you continue to argue against our doing so, so what you must mean is that gaming companies should supply excellent quality material at bankrupting prices.
So, would you say that editing "just to make money" to "to make money at all" would be a fair approximation of your intent here?
"If you don't like the prices of rulebooks, then don't buy them!"
I won't, but perhaps I'll take a step further to ask others not to either.
Others have answered this better than I could.
