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<blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 3816144" data-attributes="member: 40961">I am familiar with about a dozen gaming stores in a total of three urban centers.&nbsp; Not one of them sells RPG books as their primary merchandise.&nbsp; Miniature gaming, card games, and comic books all seem to make up the majority of their merchandise and sales.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Probably because once you've bought a book for an RPG, it lasts forever.&nbsp; All those other items are collectible.I do agree with this.But all this talk about &quot;what would happen if D&amp;D died??&quot; is a bit pointless.&nbsp; D&amp;D isn't going to die.&nbsp; 4e is going to be fine.&nbsp; Some grognards might not like it, but frankly they don't matter very much.&nbsp; There aren't that many of them, and their much vaunted ability to introduce new players to the game is mostly farcical.&nbsp; If a new player comes to a gaming group and asks to play, and a grognard helps them, then yeah, the grognard helped, but if the grognard hadn't been there the player would have still joined the group.&nbsp; I doubt that people who wouldn't have played were it not for the grognards intervention make up more than a tiny fraction of D&amp;D players as a whole.New players are going to evaluate D&amp;D based more on the test of &quot;is it fun?&quot; and &quot;are there people around to play with?&quot;&nbsp; The answer to these questions seems likely to be yes, so 4e will sell just fine.Gamers need to start accepting that no game is a permanent thing.&nbsp; The typical game arises, has an arc of gameplay during which people purchase lots of the product, enjoy it, tell their friends about it... and eventually stop because they've got all they need to buy.&nbsp; The game then slowly dies out, and becomes unsupported.&nbsp; And once they're unsupported, that's their permanent death.&nbsp; They'll get played a little bit at conventions by the older players, but other than these lingering zombies that's the end of their lifespan.&nbsp; A few games are powerful enough in the market to surpass this- but they do so by releasing new editions.This is the way things go.&nbsp; Its the same in the computer game industry.&nbsp; Its the same in the miniature gaming industry.&nbsp; Its the same in the card game industry.&nbsp; Any game which relies on a fandom which purchases its products on a regular basis follows this pattern.Tis life.&nbsp; Don't like it, quit gaming.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cadfan, post: 3816144, member: 40961"] I am familiar with about a dozen gaming stores in a total of three urban centers. Not one of them sells RPG books as their primary merchandise. Miniature gaming, card games, and comic books all seem to make up the majority of their merchandise and sales. Why? Probably because once you've bought a book for an RPG, it lasts forever. All those other items are collectible. I do agree with this. But all this talk about "what would happen if D&D died??" is a bit pointless. D&D isn't going to die. 4e is going to be fine. Some grognards might not like it, but frankly they don't matter very much. There aren't that many of them, and their much vaunted ability to introduce new players to the game is mostly farcical. If a new player comes to a gaming group and asks to play, and a grognard helps them, then yeah, the grognard helped, but if the grognard hadn't been there the player would have still joined the group. I doubt that people who wouldn't have played were it not for the grognards intervention make up more than a tiny fraction of D&D players as a whole. New players are going to evaluate D&D based more on the test of "is it fun?" and "are there people around to play with?" The answer to these questions seems likely to be yes, so 4e will sell just fine. Gamers need to start accepting that no game is a permanent thing. The typical game arises, has an arc of gameplay during which people purchase lots of the product, enjoy it, tell their friends about it... and eventually stop because they've got all they need to buy. The game then slowly dies out, and becomes unsupported. And once they're unsupported, that's their permanent death. They'll get played a little bit at conventions by the older players, but other than these lingering zombies that's the end of their lifespan. A few games are powerful enough in the market to surpass this- but they do so by releasing new editions. This is the way things go. Its the same in the computer game industry. Its the same in the miniature gaming industry. Its the same in the card game industry. Any game which relies on a fandom which purchases its products on a regular basis follows this pattern. Tis life. Don't like it, quit gaming. [/QUOTE]

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