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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 1174575" data-attributes="member: 1129">There has been a lot of talk about the slump of the d20 material.Just as a fan, I'd like to know what companies have been doing to fight it? In some cases, I'm not naming anyone, it certainly hasn't been to improve editing, art, layout, pricing or timely updates to the websites. Another problem is that there is too much of the same. How many books on ships, pirates, spells, priest, and other things do we need? We do not need definitive versions of these core ideas from several different publishers. At first, it was almost humrousous. Oh gee, three books on dwarves. Ah well, get 'em all. After the cute phase, people realized that there were all optional, they often clashed, and the quality varied, even within the same company because a lot of the material was freelance written. Now fans know better and want more previews, reviews and support before laying out those same dollars.I can see 3.5 having an impact on companies as I see a huge backlog of material that looks tempting, but now have no desire to grab. My friends are worse than I am and some have stopped buying anything that wasn't in their 'genre' like Spycraft, Everquest, Arcana Unearthed, or just official like Wizards of the Coast who may not always have perfect editing and proofreading but are 'official', have full color art in most products and are, compared to other d20 books, priced to move.I see some companies like Mystic Eye trying to make sure that they've got a solid footing not only with standard d20 material, but with a lot of brand name recognition through Dragonstar, Arcana Unearthed and Armagedon. I see them making d20 material and going on to OGL with the Fall of Man, and trying to help the community via their consolidation of other companies.I see Green Ronin doing Mutants & Masterminds and building brand loyalty to the M&M Superlink as well as moving into other directions like Spaceship Zero and maintining some top quality in thier d20 product line.I see Malhavok creating a brand that others jump on immediatly, and take advantage of 3.5 to update, revise, and collec their material as well as continue to expand and explore their own alternative engine.Atlas to me, as a reader, is an interesting company. They were around before the d20 fad kicked in with some great books and series like Ars Magica, Feng SHui and Unknown Armies, and have time and time again taken chances not only with Ars Magica as a free PDF, but as Nyambe and other products hit the shelves. I suspect that they are in a great position to either continue d20 support or drop it with little loss in steam.These are just my observations as a fan of the industry and I hope that the d20 slump isn't something that's going to hammer good talent like Mike Mearls and others away from the industry, but at the same time, can't help but wonder if it shouldn't so that other games like Savage Worlds and Exalted can face some new, non-d20 competition that makes some real waves in the industry.</blockquote>

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