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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2883524" data-attributes="member: 14159">Well, I know I would probably stop, or very seriously curtail, my buying.I hate shopping for RPG books over the internet.  I hate paying electronically, and waiting on the mail to deliver what I want (or paying with a money order and it taking even longer as I have to wait for the money to get there).  I want to hand over actual physical cash and walk out with an actual physical book, when I want it, after browsing it on the shelf and seeing what's in it.  Not wait days after pushing a button and sight unseen (or maybe a few previews that really don't tell you what you want to know).I don't buy .pdf's.  I don't like buying downloads in general, and a free .pdf might be interesting browsing in downtime, I don't like to have my laptop open when I'm gaming, which defeats much of the purpose.  Printing is outrageously expensive because inkjet ink is overpriced like no tomorrow, and copy shops are an unholy mess to deal with because of copyright paranoia (and they still charge so much that I might as well just buy a hardcopy if I can).I like buying physical books from physical stores.  Non specialized bookstores often have a small amount of gaming material, but it's scattered and spotty.  They'll have the core-3 books, a few old WotC books they haven't managed to sell, whatever is new this month, and in the bigger places, a handful of White Wolf books (often not the WoD core book, amusingly enough, typically the Vampire: The Requiem core book and a suppliment or two for it), and maybe a Sword & Sorcery d20 book or something.  That's it.  The FLGS is a place I go to browse what's new, meet and chat with other gamers, buy used gaming books, find obscure books I would have never heard of otherwise, and just enjoy the entire trip.  That's a good FLGS.  I don't think the market really can support a large number of them, but it can support one in a fairly large area, but that's business.Now, about the Robin Laws column, I think that pointing out that RPG's is a niche hobby is an important one.  It won't die, just like racing and flight simulation games didn't make RC cars and planes go away, and video games didn't get rid of model trains, it might get small, but it's a niche that will endure.  It may get small, but there will be people who want to sell them in their own shop, and there will be people who get their kids to play, or introduce their friends.  Will it be The Next Big Thing?  Probably not, just like model trains had their spot in the mainstream light decades ago, but they're a hobby niche thing now.  All this pessimism about "the industry is dying" is getting stale, I've been hearing it for years, and things may get rough, but it's not going anywhere.</blockquote>

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