Relation Between Message Board Visitors and Product Purchasers

[Samothdm]

It depends. If those 'hundreds' of people would have definitely bought products from company X, then it would likely be significant. However, if only 10% of the 'boycotters' would have normally bought the products, while the rest are just giving lip service, then it would fall under 'fanboy flaming' and promptly dismissed.

Absolutely. I imagine that it becomes very difficult for publishers to try to determine where that line begins and ends. I imagine that many of them may get frustrated and think that the *actual* potential purchasers are much lower, due to all the noise created by people who would never have bought those products in the first place. I know I would get frustrated as a publisher trying to figure that out.

That's part of why the poll of "Will you buy from DTRPG" is flawed - I imagine that a lot of the "No" votes are from people who wouldn't buy PDFs in the first place, no matter who was selling them.

Of the two scenarios, the second is more likely and more common in today's market. Most threats of boycotts are meaningless because a statistically significant number of those who are being vocal about the boycott would have never bought the product in the first place.

Sure, I can see that. But, I think there has to come a point when you see a lot of different people complaining about something that they don't like and you decide to do something about it.

That's very hard to figure out. It's hard to separate the valid claims and concerns from the "Company Y sux!" flaming. But, just because 50 "valid" (or, let's say, "politely worded") concerns are buried amongst 500 "flamer" posts doesn't make the 50 valid concerns less valid.

 

[Samothdm]

Your need to keep bringing everything back around to WotC numbers doesn't seem relevant other than as a basis for the initial potential numbers and I don't feel you cull those numbers down enough to properly bring them into perspective for the discussion at hand.

Actually, I think a thread about groups that buy solely WotC products versus regularly buying non-WotC OGL products could be interesting - get into the "whys" and "wherefores". But, yeah, I think it should be another thread.

Of course, I've been working from the assupmtion that the subject of the thread "Relation Between Message Board Visitors and Product Purchasers" was meant to reflect OGL-material customers since we're discussing this at EN World and the first post speaks to the scope inclusive of OGL-material publishers. Perhaps I've missed the full breadth of the discussion by keying on the aspect?

That's my fault. That's what I had in my head when I started the post. So, let's keep it to non-WotC products since they have a completely different distribution system and marketing plan than everyone else.

 

[francisca]

I'm always amazed at how many gamers out there just buy the PHB and have no interest in anything else at all.

Well, in my 3.5 group, there is me, the DM, and I got tons of hardbacks and pdfs. Another guy spun off and runs a 3.5 game, so he has the core three, but nothing else.

The other two are casual players. They are nowhere near as experienced at D&D as me and the other guy, and simply have not exhausted a quarter of the options available in the PHB, so why shell out for more? Baseline D&D is enough of them, they simply don't think about it much away from the game table.

 

[dren]

My group consists of myself and six others. Of these, I am the only one who visits this board regularly. I am also the major purchaser of game material in the group, which probably explains why I am almost constantly the GM

I am 90% in agreement with your statement, Wombat. I buy 80% of the stuff; including 100% of the pdfs. I am the only one who frequents message boards. I DM, but then I love DMing.

At the same time, when I said no XXX product, nothing else was bought because why buy something you can't use. I am picky about what we use, so basically, I call the shots.

Most of the players have no idea of what sites I go to, they don't really care either. They just want to have fun, and unless an issue is glaringly obvious, they don't care what rules we use. What is important to them in the game is: 1. the basic rule set; 2. the house rules; 3. if we are picking up pizza or sushi for the game lunch.