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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8677878" data-attributes="member: 19857">It shouldn't have to actually.  I can see why that model works from a publisher and retailer end (though it only works for a while - and suffers from diminishing returns over time) but as far as player bases go the supplement treadmill model only seems to matter in the sense that it keeps the fact that the game exists in people's minds.  The idea that once a game stops publishing new supplements it's "dead" is weird from a player perspective because if you have the game it shouldn't matter if they're still making it or not (though I fall into that thinking too - I was shocked this summer to discover that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still being published and you can still buy the print books new).  Especially because most players only buy the core book anyway (which is part of why supplement treadmills have diminishing returns and eventually lead to new editions to try to get the whole player base to spend some money again).But other models suffer from a monetization problem - how do you keep a player base active in a way that doesn't involve selling them supplements every month/few months and a new edition every few years? Who's going to do it?  Long ago I thought Organized Play programs would be the thing that could do that, but they're expensive to run and have the chicken-and-egg problem that you need to have a player base of sufficient size to get enough of a subset of those players to show up regularly to make it work.  And you still have to be producing content for them consistently to make sure your OP GMs have adventures to run so in a way the need for a supplement treadmill problem is just moved around rather than solved.</blockquote>

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