Price-Sensitive Gamers

[Mr. Lobo]

I don't know if I'm more of a "price sensitive" or a disillusioned gamer or a little of both.

Back in 2000 I bought the rules books and FRCS. I thought the rules books were a great bargain at $19.95 each.

I didn't buy the new supplements for FRCS. While the 3E FRCS was a beautiful book I found that it really didn't add that much more value to my games (which I DM by the way). And that's more to the point as was brought up in previous posts.

Consequently, I got the rest of my FR material from 2E PDF's for $5.00 each.
But what I consider of value is more fluff than crunch. And that is key for me when making my purchasing decisions.

The other thing that made me "price sensitive" was the volatility of the Dungeons and Dragons system. Ever since 3E came out there have been so many official rules clarifications, interpretations, and a new version to boot that I don't feel it a safe bet to spend any more money on it. And when is 4E to be released? That is a BIG concern for me. Why spend a lot of money on 3E and 3.5E swag when 4E could be just a couple of years away? I still haven't got through a good chunk of my 3E stuff yet.

Sure, 3.5E may be a "better" system but I can't bring myself to purchase the new books. $90.00 may not be much to some people but it is for me. Especially when I think $90.00 vs $60.00. And it's just not $90.00. The amount of work required for revamping the 3E products that I have purchased (modules, monster books, etc) to use with 3.5E decreases the value of 3.5E for me.

I did download the 3.5E SRD and am considering buying the PDF versions from companies like creative mountain games for $14.95. So yeah, I guess I am "price sensitive" and the value of having 3.5E for me has increased as the price has decreased!

Another thing to consider is DM/Player supply and demand. If my player base drops to the point where I can't find gamers because they all want to play the "new" system then the value of owning that system goes up and I'll have to pay the price. But if I can find compatible players that still want to play the "old" system then new sytems don't really have that much impact, thus, their value for me is low.

Well, I'm done rambling. Thanks for reading,

Mr. Lobo

 

[thundershot]

If someone publishes Dinopirates on Ninja Island, I'm SO there... But for a setting that colorful, it NEEDS to be in color... (Hmm... maybe Mongoose could do it like the OGL books.. I'd pay full price for that setting..)



Chris

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Nothing like a two year old thread.

Ah, so *THAT* explains why everyone was talking about FRCS

 

[barsoomcore]

If someone publishes Dinopirates on Ninja Island, I'm SO there.

Heard and witnessed. Just you wait, buckaroo.

 

[thundershot]

Bring it on...



Chris

 

[mmadsen]

To reframe the original question a bit, would you buy a lot more products if they were a bit cheaper? Or is the really issue finding products you want to buy at all?

 

[Hjorimir]

I wouldn't buy any more products just because they are cheaper. I look for quality and then I buy, pretty much regardless of price.

 

[thundershot]

There are certain companies whose products a trust a bit more than most.. Like Green Ronin, Mongoose, Necromancer, Fantasy Flight, and a couple others. I have no problem pre-ordering them, because I know I'll probably like them.



Chris

 

[teitan]

I think RPG products are getting out of hand price wise, at least within D20. I want the Conan game but I am NOT paying 50 bucks for it, nor 40 with S&H, too many errors and fubars in it to justify the price and aside from that the price is just way too high for me to afford! The most I will pay for a book is 40 bucks and it better damn well be as good as the FRCS because if it isn't then I won't touch it. I got the Dragonlance book for less than 20 and even then I feel a little ripped off price wise even though I gave it 4/5 in my review, it just feels incomplete and almost like it requires the Age of Mortals book, which isn't a better value.

Yeah, I may get more entertainment value out of an RPG book than a DVD, but if you think about the amount of money you pay for D&D it takes a while to get the value from it. if you buy the core rules at 90 and say the FRCS for 40, well that is 130 dollars. An average of 4 hours per session and if you buy more products you have to account for their use in game then it could take years to get back the entertainment value you invested in when compared to a movie, video game or CD. As an example, I have purchased the core rules twice, all the FR material plus various D20 products... I don't regret the FR material because I use it but the vast majority of the D20 material sits on the shelves and doesn't get touched. Did I get my moneys worth out of these products? Nope. How long does it take to get your money back on a 400 dollar investment? WIthin a year I paid around 2 dollars an hour for my entertainment dollar. That is 4 hours a week for a year, the average session. Now if you calculate missed sessions, running other games etc. that is a BIG investment. COnsidering the average video game is 40 and played for 50 hours that is less than a dollar an hour in a week... considering the emphasis on replay value in video games and you decrease the rate of return on the investment. ALso considering that MOST consoles are also DVD playback as well as CD playback, that increase the entertainment value of the CONSOLE itself.

So with all that in mind... how much is too much for the average consumer which is what the key question should be, not how much for the average gamer because it is the average consumer picking up the product that matters when compared to the gamer. I guarantee most consumers would scoff at the price of COnan or the WOrld's Largest DUngeon (do we really need a dungeon crawl that big?), especially the latter.

Jason

 

[buzz]

To reframe the original question a bit, would you buy a lot more products if they were a bit cheaper? Or is the really issue finding products you want to buy at all?

I already buy what could be considered a lot of products, and price has very little to do with my decisions. A reduction in prices would make me happy, but it probably wouldn't make me buy any more than I already do. E.g., I buy everything that gets released for HERO 5e; the price of the products is irrelevant (wihtin reason).

Whether I will have a use for the product and whether the product is one I consider of high quality are much bigger deciding factors. I.e., I don't consdier US$50 unreasonable for an RPG book, as long as it's something I want and has a good likeliness of being used. The flip side is that, if I don't want a product, no reduction in price is going to make me want to buy it.

Granted, I tend to buy from entities that provide me with discounts, namely Amazon.com or my friend's mail-order business. When I do buy from a brick-and-mortar store, it's usually products that would be roughly the same price online (smaller publishers that don't see big discounts from places like Amazon). Whether this makes me a hypocrite or not, I dunno.