Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
We're Finally Mainstream! Now What?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7713214" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Thinking more on the absurdly high number of people playing, I imagine some of that includes double dipping. People playing <em>Neverwinter</em> on the XBox <em>and</em> their PC. Plus alts: it's a Free 2 Play game that puts a *serious* cap on your number of characters and bank space, expecting you to pay for those. But it's far easier to just sign-up with an alternate email.</p><p>To say nothing of people who play <em>Neverwinter</em> *and* the RPG. After all… how many people are really playing a mediocre F2P MMO that really tries to milk you for cash who aren't fans of the brand already?</p><p></p><p></p><p>Maybe…</p><p></p><p>There are two real bust periods that can affect D&D: one is the books not selling, and one is people not playing. Which are very different. </p><p>You only need so many D&D books before your library feels complete, so eventually existing players will stop buying accessories. Meanwhile, sales of the core books are still good, but that's from waves of new players coming into the game. Eventually that's going to slow down as there's only so many interested people willing to buy the books. You saturate the market. That PHB sales are still strong is a huge anomaly that can't possibly last. New gamers aren't maturing fast enough...</p><p>But that doesn't mean people aren't still playing. They're just not buying more/ replacement books. But, financially, that would be a bubble popping. </p><p></p><p>The variant is people stopping playing. Campaigns end; people get busy with life; people graduate college, get married, have kids; life. Now, even if they're not playing, people might still buy the books. So this aspect of bubble poppage would be less apparent. </p><p>However… there is the added twist of other games. After one or three or five D&D campaigns, people might feel finished with the ruleset and want to move onto another RPG. People burn on on systems. I think D&D is in a good place for this, as most of its strongest competition (Pathfinder, Numenera, Star Wars, AGE, Fate) predates 5e. There's fewer "new shinies" to attract attention away from D&D. While I'm critical of Starfinder, it might be coming at a good time for people who've been 5e-ing since 2014 to want to take a break. </p><p></p><p>I think the two "bubbles" are rather interrelated. As people play, they generate attention for the game, which brings in new people and generates sales. And because so many new people have been coming into the game, fewer might be familiar with other RPGs and less likely to drift to competitors as quickly. And since there has been so many steady waves of new and returning players, people are less likely to burn out of the edition at the same time. So there might be more of a rotation of people coming and returning after a break.</p><p></p><p>Theoretically though… the bubble might not pop. I mean, what if it doesn't?</p><p>Video games didn't pop following the mid-80s crash and have been growing steady since then. Magic the Gather and CCGs are no longer at their peak, but they're also not suffering. </p><p>D&D might peak, but the current wave of tabletop and RPG gamers might segue into another game and stay in the hobby, keeping money flowing in the industry as a whole. And if D&D can maintain sales for long enough, enough time might pass for WotC to even release a "revised 5th Edition" without tanking things like in 3e, that can reinvigorate sales of the core rules. (Especially if they can be more restrained in the revision and keep the existing adventures/ accessories usable.)</p><p>And that's not even considering something like the movie being released, which could send a surge of attention towards the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7713214, member: 37579"] Thinking more on the absurdly high number of people playing, I imagine some of that includes double dipping. People playing [i]Neverwinter[/i] on the XBox [i]and[/i] their PC. Plus alts: it's a Free 2 Play game that puts a *serious* cap on your number of characters and bank space, expecting you to pay for those. But it's far easier to just sign-up with an alternate email. To say nothing of people who play [i]Neverwinter[/i] *and* the RPG. After all… how many people are really playing a mediocre F2P MMO that really tries to milk you for cash who aren't fans of the brand already? Maybe… There are two real bust periods that can affect D&D: one is the books not selling, and one is people not playing. Which are very different. You only need so many D&D books before your library feels complete, so eventually existing players will stop buying accessories. Meanwhile, sales of the core books are still good, but that's from waves of new players coming into the game. Eventually that's going to slow down as there's only so many interested people willing to buy the books. You saturate the market. That PHB sales are still strong is a huge anomaly that can't possibly last. New gamers aren't maturing fast enough... But that doesn't mean people aren't still playing. They're just not buying more/ replacement books. But, financially, that would be a bubble popping. The variant is people stopping playing. Campaigns end; people get busy with life; people graduate college, get married, have kids; life. Now, even if they're not playing, people might still buy the books. So this aspect of bubble poppage would be less apparent. However… there is the added twist of other games. After one or three or five D&D campaigns, people might feel finished with the ruleset and want to move onto another RPG. People burn on on systems. I think D&D is in a good place for this, as most of its strongest competition (Pathfinder, Numenera, Star Wars, AGE, Fate) predates 5e. There's fewer "new shinies" to attract attention away from D&D. While I'm critical of Starfinder, it might be coming at a good time for people who've been 5e-ing since 2014 to want to take a break. I think the two "bubbles" are rather interrelated. As people play, they generate attention for the game, which brings in new people and generates sales. And because so many new people have been coming into the game, fewer might be familiar with other RPGs and less likely to drift to competitors as quickly. And since there has been so many steady waves of new and returning players, people are less likely to burn out of the edition at the same time. So there might be more of a rotation of people coming and returning after a break. Theoretically though… the bubble might not pop. I mean, what if it doesn't? Video games didn't pop following the mid-80s crash and have been growing steady since then. Magic the Gather and CCGs are no longer at their peak, but they're also not suffering. D&D might peak, but the current wave of tabletop and RPG gamers might segue into another game and stay in the hobby, keeping money flowing in the industry as a whole. And if D&D can maintain sales for long enough, enough time might pass for WotC to even release a "revised 5th Edition" without tanking things like in 3e, that can reinvigorate sales of the core rules. (Especially if they can be more restrained in the revision and keep the existing adventures/ accessories usable.) And that's not even considering something like the movie being released, which could send a surge of attention towards the game. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
We're Finally Mainstream! Now What?
Top