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The Sales of D&D vs. AD&D vs. AD&D 2nd Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7851549" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>It's not a popular opinion, appropriately enough, because it undermines appeals to (un)popularity, but it is entirely consistent with observations of the hobby and it's market. Myriad excellent systems have been published in the decades between the fad and the comeback of D&D, and, while they might earn praise from the niche fringes outside the D&D core of (and gateway to) the community, and win the occasional "best new game award," remain completely unknown to the mainstream, so have no chance to achieve any popularity, whatsoever.</p><p></p><p>In particular, it's worth considering that <em>sales</em> don't exactly correlate to people liking the system, since you haven't had much opportunity to judge the system (nor become apprehensive of or desensitized to its issues), until after you have it your hands. Of course, that was a lot more true of the fad years, when D&D was this mysterious thing adults were all worried about being possibly Satanist and/or suicide-inducing, than it is, today, when you can very likely pre-judge the system before trying, let alone buying, as videos of people playing it, embracing its oddities, & still having fun, as well as fans nerdraging or gushing over it, are all readily available on-line.</p><p></p><p>But, as long as people are insecure in their own judgement and want the comfort of conformity, popularity will remain an important factor in adoption, and thus sales. Ironically, while that applies to D&D in the context of the TTRPG hobby, that hobby is still <em>very</em> small. (But, I know, 40 million people have played D&D! Sure, at least once, since 1974. OTOH, 250 million play soccer (un-American football), currently, and 3.5 billion, literally about half the world, are fans). </p><p>So, the appeal to unpopularity fallacy is always available, too. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>But, ultimately, sales due to the positive qualities of a product, and sales due to perceived popularity feeding on itself in a fad (or comeback) cycle, are still sales. And D&D sales are people being introduced to the hobby, even if it's not an ideal introduction, it's better than never having tried any TTRPG, at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7851549, member: 996"] It's not a popular opinion, appropriately enough, because it undermines appeals to (un)popularity, but it is entirely consistent with observations of the hobby and it's market. Myriad excellent systems have been published in the decades between the fad and the comeback of D&D, and, while they might earn praise from the niche fringes outside the D&D core of (and gateway to) the community, and win the occasional "best new game award," remain completely unknown to the mainstream, so have no chance to achieve any popularity, whatsoever. In particular, it's worth considering that [I]sales[/I] don't exactly correlate to people liking the system, since you haven't had much opportunity to judge the system (nor become apprehensive of or desensitized to its issues), until after you have it your hands. Of course, that was a lot more true of the fad years, when D&D was this mysterious thing adults were all worried about being possibly Satanist and/or suicide-inducing, than it is, today, when you can very likely pre-judge the system before trying, let alone buying, as videos of people playing it, embracing its oddities, & still having fun, as well as fans nerdraging or gushing over it, are all readily available on-line. But, as long as people are insecure in their own judgement and want the comfort of conformity, popularity will remain an important factor in adoption, and thus sales. Ironically, while that applies to D&D in the context of the TTRPG hobby, that hobby is still [I]very[/I] small. (But, I know, 40 million people have played D&D! Sure, at least once, since 1974. OTOH, 250 million play soccer (un-American football), currently, and 3.5 billion, literally about half the world, are fans). So, the appeal to unpopularity fallacy is always available, too. ;) But, ultimately, sales due to the positive qualities of a product, and sales due to perceived popularity feeding on itself in a fad (or comeback) cycle, are still sales. And D&D sales are people being introduced to the hobby, even if it's not an ideal introduction, it's better than never having tried any TTRPG, at all. [/QUOTE]
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