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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thorin Stoutfoot" data-source="post: 492667" data-attributes="member: 1887">Last time I checked, WoTC's layoffs were across the board, mainly because CCGs (which were a fad) were dying off, not because D&D was doing badly. (Several D&D business staff members have come forward here on these boards to say that D&D 3e beat all expectations in terms of sales volume and profit, just that it wasn't enough profit to offset declining volume in CCGs)RPG design is turning out like many intellectual property industries to be like Rock Music. The top stars can make it and do well and make more than a decent living, while the average musician... Well, there's a joke that went around: "What do you call a musician without a girlfriend?" "Homeless!"In this situation, you can either ignore where the market is going, or try to get out in front of it (thereby potentially getting run over, but also potentially doing better than expected). When I look at the shelves, I'd say that Sword & Sorcery Studios isn't just doing well, they're growing their lines by leaps and bounds. The same could probably be said of Mongoose publishing (sheesh, 3 new d20 games in a year?!!). So I'd say that those that got in front of the d20 tidal wave and took the risk and plunged in made money and are now in a very solid position.It probably pisses the others off that they, despite putting in huge amounts of work and spending lots of their own money, are still struggling to make ends meet in their "boutique" corner of the market. I would however, like to remind them that most of these companies (Dreampod 9, Atlas Games, and Hogshead publishing in particular) were around 3 years ago, and had the same market opportunity that Sword & Sorcery and Mongoose publishing had the guts to invest in, but didn't, so in such cases, they only have themselves to blame. Now, if you didn't do so because you didn't believe in d20 (or because you don't like d20 fans, or whatever), then well, the ones who did believe in the d20 market *deserved* to win!(I remember a post by John Nephew on RPG.net lamenting that he decided to go with publishing "boutique modules" rather than go whole hog, make a big bet, and publish "Relics & Rituals" type of material instead, pipe up if I'm wrong, John!)In short, if you ignore market realities, you're going to be very disappointed. And this goes for anything you do, whether it's making computers, writing software, or doing RPGs.</blockquote>

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