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<blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5536124" data-attributes="member: 6957">It depends on whether the similarity in sales figures is because Pathfinder is booming (hooray!) or if they are from WotC declining (boo!).If the market is growing, then all is fine - Pathfinders sales can be balanced by new growth in the RPG industry.If it is because 4e is failing, then things get murkier - it is not all that important which game is doing better if the market as a whole is getting smaller.Ideally, I would love to see Pathfinder matching or beating 4e sales without 4e losing customers. This would represent a large growth in the industry. My game would be growing, but not at the expense of what I still view as the entry point into the hobby. More people have heard of D&amp;D than RPGs in general - they refer to role playing games as D&amp;D, regardless of any actual title.I saw a variant of this a few days ago - a kid (well, teen, anyway) holding up the Pathfinder and calling it D&amp;D. The good thing is that it was not disparaging, it was a happy comment - it was the D&amp;D that he wanted, so for him it was D&amp;D, even though the title said Pathfinder. He and his friends bought both remaining copies of the Core book. (I think that a 40% coupon may have been involved.)They left happy. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> New growth, not a customer straying from one game to another. But at no point did he call it anything other than Dungeons &amp; Dragons or D&amp;D. He knew that it was Pathfinder, but for him it was D&amp;D. More likely there has been some shrinking of 4e, but growth from Pathfinder has a bit more than balanced it - and there are folks who play and/or own both.Not quite a zero sum game, but leaning that way. But the sales numbers for hobby games from the end of last year were encouraging, so I am a bit less worried about a failing D&amp;D, if it is failing, bringing down the hobby with it.The Auld Grump</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheAuldGrump, post: 5536124, member: 6957"] It depends on whether the similarity in sales figures is because Pathfinder is booming (hooray!) or if they are from WotC declining (boo!). If the market is growing, then all is fine - Pathfinders sales can be balanced by new growth in the RPG industry. If it is because 4e is failing, then things get murkier - it is not all that important which game is doing better if the market as a whole is getting smaller. Ideally, I would love to see Pathfinder matching or beating 4e sales [i]without 4e losing customers[/i]. This would represent a large growth in the industry. [i]My[/i] game would be growing, but not at the expense of what I still view as the entry point into the hobby. More people have heard of D&D than RPGs in general - they refer to role playing games as D&D, regardless of any actual title. I saw a variant of this a few days ago - a kid (well, teen, anyway) holding up the Pathfinder and calling it D&D. The good thing is that it was not disparaging, it was a happy comment - it was the D&D that he wanted, so for him it was D&D, even though the title said Pathfinder. He and his friends bought both remaining copies of the Core book. (I think that a 40% coupon may have been involved.) They left happy. :) New growth, not a customer straying from one game to another. But at no point did he call it anything other than Dungeons & Dragons or D&D. He knew that it was Pathfinder, but for him it was D&D. More likely there has been some shrinking of 4e, but growth from Pathfinder has a bit more than balanced it - and there are folks who play and/or own both. Not quite a zero sum game, but leaning that way. But the sales numbers for hobby games from the end of last year were encouraging, so I am a bit less worried about a failing D&D, if it [i]is[/i] failing, bringing down the hobby with it. The Auld Grump [/QUOTE]

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