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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roudi" data-source="post: 2618577" data-attributes="member: 12423">I guess now the bigger publishers can quit whining about the "hobbyists" stealing their sales.Let us be honest: moving the lower-sales vendors to a separate site might provide them with more exposure, or it might not.  It depends how much RPGNow is willing to spend to promote both sites.  But this move isn't about increasing exposure to the smaller vendors, is it?I have heard more than a few bigger vendors (specifically those who rely on their sales as a main source of income) complain about "hobbyist" entries in the industry: basically, vendors who produce their products on their spare time and don't rely on their sales as a major source of income.  The complaint is typically that the "hobbyist" products directly compete with (and may actually draw sales away from) products from the more invested vendor.  I can empathize with the bigger vendors a bit, but fact is, that kind of competition is the reality of a free market.The segregation about to take place at RPGNow strikes me as an effort to solve this complaint from the bigger vendors.  Instead of one free market, there will be two, and competition between products in each market will be lessened.  I've heard the rhetoric of "it's unfair that small frys have to compete with the big names!" epoused in these discussion threads, but frankly, the statement I've heard more often from well-selling vendors is "it's unfair for us who depend on this income to have to compete with the small frys!".  So, I guess all the bigger names will stop whining.As an aspiring RPGNow vendor, I feel pretty slighted by this move.  Now, to start as an RPGNow vendor, I have to debut on RPGNow Edge - and in all honesty, there will be no way to remove the "this is not mainsite material" stigma from RPGNow Edge.  Simply by being on RPGNow Edge, you are already showing that your material isn't up to snuff to make it to the mainsite (regardless of it's actual quality).  There will probably be a lot of up-and-comers who decide not to self-publish their material (and get a potentially larger share of sales profit) and instead freelance their work out to vendors who are on the main site.  All the prestige and the sales are on the mainsite - all the rest are on the Edge.As a customer, I love RPGNow, and I can even see how this move might make shopping there easier.  As an aspiring vendor, I am now incredibly wary.  The best place to break into the RPG industry has now become much more of a gauntlet.</blockquote>

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