Robin Laws posts a column about the industry that's actually salient and sane

[goodlookinguratha]

Yes, I think it would hurt the gaming market but only in the short term. In a hauntingly cyclical manner, you would eventually get gaming materials for sale in other, related retail outlets. Hobby shops that cater to rail and R/C hobbies, bookstores, chain and independant, and other such outlets that games were first marketed through in the late '70s. This would make things more difficult for the smaller companies, but those would probably be distributing through the internet, POD and similar channels anyway.

Pretty much. The bookstores around me stock a decent to good selection of RPG stuff, especially WotC and WW and sometimes WFRP, GURPs, Serenity, Shadowrun, etc.

 

[rowport]

Possibly. We do have a lot of disposable income in our little group, and it doesn't hurt that our DM runs his own RPG/comic mail-order business, thus giving us discounts. Still, we do buy a healthy amount of stuff. ...Oh, that I don't think we're that far off the average, and even the ones of us who buy the least own more product than they'll ever use.

Full disclosure: buzz is in one of my D&D groups.

I absolutely agree that "even the ones of us who buy the least own more product than they'll ever use." I am less sure about us being representative, though. I have read any number of posts here talking about the GM being the only one who buys books, to say nothing of the vast number of piracy references. So, while I realize that all of this is anecdotal, I really have no idea how many books are being bought (not borrowed or pirated) by most game groups. It might vary tremendously by demographics, too; I would guess that college-age players buy fewer books but play more often than guys in their mid-30s. Who knows? Not me!

 

[Faraer]

Robin Laws is one of the very few unambiguous visionaries the RPG culture has, and everything he writes is worth reading.

 

[kenobi65]

I absolutely agree that "even the ones of us who buy the least own more product than they'll ever use." I am less sure about us being representative, though. {snip} It might vary tremendously by demographics, too; I would guess that college-age players buy fewer books but play more often than guys in their mid-30s. Who knows? Not me!

My own anecdotal evidence suggests that your group may be aptyical.

I DM for three separate groups; in every case, I buy far more than any of the players do. I'd estimate that half, or more, of my players, own the core book for the game (Player's Handbook for D&D, or its equivalent), and that's it. The other half might buy a few more books (e.g., a DMG for "shopping" for magic items, Complete Arcane if they play a wizard), but that's about it.

And, in our case, demographics have little to do with it. Most of my players are age 35 and above, and most have reasonably good disposable income. With a couple of exceptions, most of my players could buy a $30 book every month without having to worry about it...and yet, they don't.

 

[buzz]

Hmm... I guess the folk in our group are bigger Game Whores™ than I thought. (Which would make sense, as there'd be no problems in the industry if everyone were buying as much as we do.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't worry, buzz, you're not alone- there are more Game Whores™ out there!

And I'm one of them.

I have more disposable income than most of my fellow gamers, so I'm constantly buying stuff for the group to use.

In another thread, I posted that I own 60+ RPGs, another 30 or so boardgames (war & family), CCGs (probably 15 besides M:TG), and at least 4 minis games...and since I'm currently among gamers who are (mostly) D&D only types, most of what I buy does naught but entertain me.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'd like to think that one direction the unscrewedness should take is an emphasis on support products.

It's interesting to note that Robin's article really only focuses on a small part of the game industry, the pen and paper publishers and designers. What would be an interesting complement would be to know how the dice manufacturers are doing?

Some of the respondents mentioned minis and I'm very strucked by what Rackham is doing by creating RPG supported mini armies and mini army supported RPGs. That combined with my own desire to own fewer books with more support products makes me wonder if there isn't a future in integrated products.

Games that come with spell cards, tiles, and all the other accoutrements that should accompany any old game but are all too often absent from the beautiful book artifacts that we acquire. In some ways I would hope that RPGs stop feeling beaten down by magic and settlers and start becoming the next beautiful easy to hand products.

All too often we use the idea of cottage industry as an excuse to look at ourselvs in a bubble, but as the complaints about CRPGs demonstrate this problem is one aspect of the larger picture: the infection of our print culture by new media.

I do not believe that the book is dead, but I do think that it has to become a new adapted creature.

In that light .pdfs are just part of the sickness, a not too visionary attempt to forge print media analogues within the emerging culture. I love 'em, mind you, but they don't yet represent a real engagement with the new reality.

 

[Mistwell]

Interesting stuff.

I still can't help but think that if Hasbro just devoted the money to creating a combo PHB/DMG/MM (reduced versions) into one book and gave it out for free to tons of college freshmen, you would revitalize the RPG industry overnight.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or if they packaged an (extremely) rules light version of D&D with a few adventures in a box as a quasi-boardgame...or online shareware.

Or if they managed to convince a largish number of women to enjoy it...

 

[Belen]

The RPG industry hasn't learned something that I think is an important lesson: each RPG book you buy makes it less likely that you will buy another one. You either fill up on content or get fed up with bad content and stop buying. The industry creates stuff too fast for gamers to process it.

You win the thread.