What is wrong (and right) in the RPG Industry?

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

All right, I'm going to sing a song you've heard from me before.

The single biggest, most severe, numero uno problem facing RPGs--as an entity and as a market--is the complete lack of any true* effort at capturing a new generation of market base.

* (Yes, there have been some attempts, and some have even bee heartfelt. They're insufficient.)

Getting new gamers to drift over from CRPGs and MMORPGs isn't enough. Players inviting their brothers-in-law to game isn't enough. Even gamers teaching their kids to play isn't enough.

For RPGs to remain viable, they must be marketed--intelligently and aggressively--to kids.

There needs to be a D&D cartoon on Saturday mornings, sandwhiched in between Yu-Gi-Oh and One Piece. It needs to be exciting, it needs to be appealing, and it needs to have a sufficiency of product tie-in that kids want to go buy these things.

There needs to be a line of D&D toys. Not just miniatures, though those are certainly applicable, but action figures, play sets, and computer games. (Console and PC, as well as online.)

There needs to be an introductory level version of D&D. Not just a doorway basic set, but a simple and easy to play game that people can pick up when they're 8 and keep playing when they're 19. Yes, I know TSR/WotC was worried about competing with themselves by having two versions of the same game, but I believe--in this instance--the rewards are worth the risk.

To put it bluntly, RPGs need to be made back into a kid's fad.

And it's never going to happen. Never. Because of everyone involved in the industry, only Hasbro has the resources to make it happen, and for them, it's not worth the cost. They already have successful lines; there's no sense in spending the money in an attempt to turn a niche hobby into a new one.

So how is it that we can see the difficulties, and how to adjust them, but Hasbro/WotC marketing can't?

Hasbro will throw a couple ten million down the pipe for a super collector edition of some crappy old board game, but won't try doing a DECENT cartoon?

I mean, look at the craptacular cartoons out there nowdays? You mean to tell me that the D&D world can't match the Chocobot Adventure Hour?

 

[Mouseferatu]

So how is it that we can see the difficulties, and how to adjust them, but Hasbro/WotC marketing can't?

It's not that they can't. It's that there's no financial incentive.

Look at their options:

1) They can pump millions of dollars into D&D, in hopes of turning it into a successful property.

2) They can pump millions of dollars into something that's already a successful property (i.e. Pokemon when they first acquired it), thereby turning both a higher and a faster profit.

The sad truth that we must face is that D&D is a niche market, and there's simply no financial incentive for the "big guys" to try to turn it into anything more. All things being equal, even if they could make it successful, there's always going to be something with wider appeal that they can make even more successful.

 

[johnsemlak]

WotC advancing the OGC pool. Lately? Bupkus. Not even updating the SRD or including newer stuff, or even making stuff OGC and NOT integrating it into the SRD.

Why is WotC addign to OGC considered a requirement for a healthy RPG industry? How many RPGs overall are open anyway? If WotC decide to make 4e closed (like most RPGs), would that be bad? And what is the problem with material being open and not in the SRD?

The lack of support for thier own products. WotC is the biggest culprit in this. Quick, name all the d20 Modern Urban Arcana support products! Name the last 4 d20 Future modules that WotC put out! What's the current d20 Modern default setting?

Well, there's at least some (free) support for pretty much everything on the WotC website. Obviously, WotC choose to devote more support (free online or otherwise) to sucessful lines, and D&D core, Eberron, FR, and DDM seem to be much more successful than Urban Arcana. And what's really wrong here? Is Urban Arcana or d20 Future somehow unusuable without further support?

This "crippled content" crap that has become so popular. Either make it OGC or design your own system. I understand the arguements back and forth, but I still feel crippled content is cheap and mean spirited.

I have no comment here except that some products that have been accused of being 'crippled OGC' are very good gaming products; though I have no idea what this means for the health of the RPG industry.

 

[Mouseferatu]

By the way, when considering what I've said above, it's vitally important to distinguish between WotC and Hasbro. There's no doubt in my mind that many of the folks at WotC would desperately love to "get the word out" regarding D&D.

 

[William Ronald]

By the way, when considering what I've said above, it's vitally important to distinguish between WotC and Hasbro. There's no doubt in my mind that many of the folks at WotC would desperately love to "get the word out" regarding D&D.

I agree, based on what I have seen of the designers. I think Hasbro could try to catapult D&D to a new level, but they have so many other products which they seem to focus their attention on. (Hasbro mostly aquired WotC for the CCG, such as Pokemon.)

Mind you, Mouseferatu, I do generally agree with your analysis. I think a few good introductory products and marketing would help. Mind you, I think Hasbro's executives see WotC as a niche company and the Dungeons and Dragons license as a niche product in WotC.

 

[HinterWelt]

Well, some thoughts. I don't really agree with the OP's initial observations. Not that they are wrong but that I feel they are somewhat limited in scope.

So, let me start with what I feel is wrong right now. I saw right now because things are changing.

• Whining.
• The industry is changing. More and more sales are going online and to discounters. I do not believe all sales will go online but a critical mass of sales will do so and then much of the retail and all of the distributor tier will either die or turn to other products for their living and leave games aside. Note, this is not the end of the industry but a very painful and casualty ridden transmogrification.
• Retailers, whether you like to admit it or not, are a public face of the game industry. In lite of a lack of serious marketing but large companies, retailers are it. Many do a great deal of advertising in thier town helping to advance the hobby. Many do nothing. So, as retailers die and are not replaced, something will need to come and fill the void. Mouseferatu did a great job of summing this up.
• Lower sell through for publishers have led to less profits. Companies have to squeeze a lot more to make the same amounts. I think we will start to see lower production values in some products.
• A distributor tier that is becoming more unstable as we go along. Osseum will not be the last. Gamus was sold. Consolidation will only carry that tier so far. More and more publishers are looking to sell direct to retailer or customer. This makes the advantages of the distro system pale and weaken.

Strengths or good things:

• Adjustments are happening. I think we have had a very rich bullish industry up until now. It is adjusting and some will not like the direction.
• Pdfs are growing. Contrary to some thoughts this is not a bad thing. I feel the supplemental income helps publishers do more with and get more out of their products.

I do not think the industry is going to collapse tomorrow but it is changing. Change is often accompanied by pain. I also agree with Mouseferatu about the need to recruit young players. I try very hard to support this in HinterWelt's products. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not.

Bill

 

[Wolv0rine]

All of which is just sad. The reality is - and I think we all know it - that from a business executive at Hasbo's POV it goes something like this: "D&D? Oh yeah, we own that. Hmm... how's the new 'Wax my ass Barbie' coming along? We need to get another straight to DVD cartoon to the shelves for that one."

The tragedy is it'd be easy, relatively. Look at what Gygax accomplished in his time. With a heck of a lot less to work with than Hasbro has to throw around, too. A good cartoon (it'd have to be on Cartoon Network though, from what I've seen much to my regret Saturday Morning Cartoons appears to be no more than a memory) and a line of halfway decent toys (both of which we had in the late 70's/early 80's), combined with some regular commercials would make me happy as a hog. And would probably work. We don't need to pull in the teens people. There are other ways to pull in the teens that are easier and work better. We're talking about pulling in the grade schoolers. HOw many of us got interested in D&D on the strength of a few 1-page ads in the middle of a comic book and a really hokey cartoon? I know I did. It was more than enough.

And I agree with Mousferatu. Hasbro will Never do it.

There are other problems, in my opinion, but in the middle of dinner that's as far as I'm going.

 

[BobROE]

It's not that they can't. It's that there's no financial incentive.

Look at their options:

1) They can pump millions of dollars into D&D, in hopes of turning it into a successful property.

2) They can pump millions of dollars into something that's already a successful property (i.e. Pokemon when they first acquired it), thereby turning both a higher and a faster profit.

The sad truth that we must face is that D&D is a niche market, and there's simply no financial incentive for the "big guys" to try to turn it into anything more. All things being equal, even if they could make it successful, there's always going to be something with wider appeal that they can make even more successful.

They could try to help support and set up new programs similar to this:
D&D Summer Camp

Wouldn't have to cost to much to do.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, when the leading brand in a hobby is run by a company fairly indifferent to it, it's not a good thing. The biggest company usually expands the marketbase. And Hasbro isn't doing that.

But because D&D has value for related genres, like video games and such, it will never be sold off.

There needs to be a new leading brand.

Much like say video games. Atari dominated it for a while. Then Nintendo. Now it's pretty much Sony. Of course, they pretty much have a built in obsolesence. 4-5 years, and you need a new system.


And on a more personal level, I often wonder why RPG companies are so stingy with review copies. Okay, yeah, maybe only a 1000 or so people will read it (that's pretty much my mininum at RPG.net). But then they give out prizes at chats and things where there are only 20-30 people. Or pulp them for almost nothing. Or sell them on ebay for $1 (or close to it). Seems to me, if they had just given out a few more review copies, maybe they wouldn't have to sell so many on ebay for cheap. (Just a pet peeve. I've bought several times from various companies, or heads of companies, on ebay for really low prices. Most of whom I had approached for review copies and been ignored, previously.)

And on something related to that, I think the hobby really needs a central website. As it is, there's basically RPG.net, but that suffers from quite a few problems. Someplace more like ENworld would be better. (I know ENWorld is going beyond d20, but is still mostly d20 only)

 

[Frostmarrow]

There needs to be an introductory level version of D&D. Not just a doorway basic set, but a simple and easy to play game that people can pick up when they're 8 and keep playing when they're 19. Yes, I know TSR/WotC was worried about competing with themselves by having two versions of the same game, but I believe--in this instance--the rewards are worth the risk.

To put it bluntly, RPGs need to be made back into a kid's fad.

I never really understood why kids need a simpler game. When I was 10-13 years old I knew it was going to be Advanced Dungeons & Dragons or nothing at all. It is now when I'm a family man in my thirties that I long for a simpler game. So maybe they should keep D&D as it is an reintroduce AD&D for the youngsters...