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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 1239187" data-attributes="member: 697">It's worth pointing out that the US economy as a whole isn't doing very well, though it supposedly shows signs of growth. That has to color everything we discuss concerning the RPG business.I think there are a lot of problems facing all RPG publishers, particularly those who produce d20 material. First and foremost, there is no established study of RPGs or really any form of game. Design and production are all based on guesswork and conventional wisdom. IME, 99% of the RPG business' conventional "wisdom" is based on how people wished things worked, rather than how they actually functioned. d20 threw a bucket of cold water on the business's face and forced a lot of people to wake up to some harsh realities. There still a lot of legacy thinking behind RPG design, namely that RPGs should mimic fiction as closely as possible, but those misguided ideals are slowly falling by the wayside.In a way, I think it's a natural progression that we'd go from strong sales to weak sales over time. Without an established body of knowledge, game companies are literally shooting in the dark. After a while, customers are going to get fed up with products they don't like. I think there were a lot of people jazzed up about RPGs when 3e came out, and they bought tons of stuff. Now, they look at that stuff and don't like a lot of it and rarely use the rest of it. A few books really stand out as cool products they use again and again, but not enough to get them to buy as often as they used to.It's also worth noting that the average gamer doesn't have much in common with people who read these forums or write reviews for the various web sites. What people here see as quality doesn't necessarily equal what the average game buying person sees as quality. I don't think the two are so far apart at EN World than at other sites, but that divide is still there. People who read message boards are usually veterans, yet companies rely on the Internet for a lot of feedback and ego stoking. What people say on line does matter to companies.So, we have a situation in which the available feedback is not always good feedback.I think these factors combine to put us where we are. I wouldn't be surprised at all if WotC's sales have remained strong. The D&D minis seem to have taken off very well, while their customer support cards (y'all do fill those out, right?) give them a very useful measure of what the customer base likes and dislikes.FWIW, I think that the total number of gamers has grown. RPGs seem smaller only because they're lumped in with hobbies that produce more money in a steadier stream: CCGs and collectible minis games. The key lies in publishers' making stuff that gamers want to buy, rather than making stuff that they (the publishers) want to produce.</blockquote>

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