The market dying?

[eyebeams]

Just a thought, but, that's pretty much always been true. Or, at least true since the release of 2e. There has always been far more material out there than one individual, or even one group could ever utilize. Whether it's 2e's umpteen campaign settings or 3e's bazillion feats and PrC's, "reader interest" has always been a fairly large drive in DnD books. I'm not so sure if that's really a new trend.

I agree, and agree that there's a limit to how far this can extend. 3.5 is starting to enter into this territory now -- it's pretty much inevitable, given time. The novelty value of the comment comes from pointing out that as one of the common accuations made against non-D20 games, it's kind of a pot/kettle situation.

 

[wingsandsword]

You are still on this number trip? Unbelievable !

Yeah, claiming Palladium is the #3 company in the industry is the most implausible and outrageous claim made in the entire thread.

Since Amazon sales ranks are something of a quantifiable rating of sales we can compare with other books (and has already been mentioned in this thread), I just checked how well they were:
The newly released Ultimate Rifts: #192,162
The normal Rifts Core Book: #986,850

As opposed to say, the also newly released Shadowrun Fourth Edition: #4,053
The also newly released Serenity RPG (a big hit at Gen Con): #1,765
At this moment, the new Mage: The Awakening is at: #636

The been-out-for-two-years Players Handbook 3.5: #881

At least on Amazon, it doesn't look like Palladium is even a legitimate contender in the RPG market anymore.

 

[Turjan]

The number happen to be both relevant and capable of existing regardless of your particular faith in them.

I believe more in statistical science than in your particular and somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation of relevance . I'm thinking of taking your examples in this thread and show the students how not to do statistics .

 

[Turjan]

At least on Amazon, it doesn't look like Palladium is even a legitimate contender in the RPG market anymore.

I may be wrong, but I think they sell most of their stuff via comic stores. As they cater to a relatively young clientele, those are not the typical customer who takes his credit card and buys on amazon.

 

[eyebeams]

Yeah, claiming Palladium is the #3 company in the industry is the most implausible and outrageous claim made in the entire thread.

This bespeaks a real unfamiliarity with the industry and with Palladium's practices in particular. Palladium is an extremely cost-effective operation that sells its back catalogue far more effectively than many other publishers. It has a handful of lines in active development at any given time and keeps its operating costs extremely low.

I'm hardly arguing for the quality of its offerings, but Palladium has been successful for a long time. I will grant that you might at this point replace Palladium with SJG or mix them both up.

 

[eyebeams]

I believe more in statistical science than in your particular and somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation of relevance . I'm thinking of taking your examples in this thread and show the students how not to do statistics .

Given that your chief complaint is that I won't tell you every source, you have no basis to critique what I'm saying beyond pointing out my reticence.

 

[Maggan]

Compared to other games, D&D has never been popular ...

Hmmm ... but isn't D&D sort of considered the most popular rpg out there? I'm not following you here.

Interestingly, here in Sweden the first widely available RPG was a derivate of BRP, and D&D has never been able to touch that in terms of popularity, so first to corner a market is a big thing.

But I thought D&D was the most popular in the US? Or are there distinctions between editions (such as D&D compared to AD&D?).

/M

 

[Turjan]

Given that your chief complaint is that I won't tell you every source, you have no basis to critique what I'm saying beyond pointing out my reticence.

No, I was pointing to your obviously wrong interpretation of the amazon sales ranks and to your obviously wrong interpretation of the sources you listed. Those are two objective statements. Your alleged insider knowledge can be safely disregarded as this is balanced with other alleged insider knowledge that claims the opposite .

 

[eyebeams]

No, I was pointing to your obviously wrong interpretation of the amazon sales ranks and to your obviously wrong interpretation of the sources you listed. Those are two objective statements. Your alleged insider knowledge can be safely disregarded as this is balanced with other alleged insider knowledge that claims the opposite .

As I mentioned earlier, you have an issue with an interpretation of Amazon rankings that has pretty much nothing to do with anything I actually said.

Also, Mike actually agreed with me, with the proviso that D&D could still grow while the rest of the industry shrank. And of course, two other people who worked in thsi industry chimed in to agree with me as well.

So, Turjan, when everyone agrees on a particular statement, what's the precentage involved? You'll have to help my poor, slow self figure that out.

Perhaps your reading comprehension doesn't equal your alleged statistical acumen.

 

[eyebeams]

Hmmm ... but isn't D&D sort of considered the most popular rpg out there? I'm not following you here.


/M

Typo. Just fixed it.