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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why can't WotC break the mass market barrier?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 3820476" data-attributes="member: 8447"><p>As someone who has always tried to lure new gamers to the table, let me give a couple of observations here.</p><p></p><p>First of all -- Availability. At both Banres & Noble and Border's Books you can find the core books and more on a regular basis; this is true with almost all of their outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area. You are also able to find them at Walden (a subsidary of Border's) with fair frequency and this store also carries the minis. At these stores you are also able to find White Wolf books and some other material (Star Wars rpg, sometimes GURPS, etc.).</p><p></p><p>The Turn Off Factor -- Fewer and fewer people in this country read. Those that do read less material and prefer it to be either strictly informational for getting a job done or on a topic they already enjoy. Equally, while many people like games, they hate complicated (have to know a lot of rules themselves) games. Add to this the basic notion that if you are going to play a game, you have to know <em>all of the rules</em> (a pretty standard mentality). So I have seen many people look at D&D (and other rpg) books and say something equivalent to, "I could never learn all of these rules!" And, actually, I have seen people pick up GURPS or Vampire at B&N or Border's over D&D because there were simply fewer pages to read.</p><p></p><p>Most of us on this board are heritage gamers. Heck, I've been playing for over 30 years now. We forget just what a daunting task it is for people to pick up those books, with no other exposure, no friends to guide us in, read them through, and start playing. It's a <em>lot</em> of reading. </p><p></p><p>Equally, unlike Vampire, which conforms pretty well to an Anne Rice vision of vampires, D&D doesn't really emulate any set of fantasy novels or books other than those made specifically for D&D. If someone wanted to play LotR, for example, they were more likely to pick up the Decipher rules simply <em>because</em> they said LotR on them. I've seen people pick up the Firefly/Serenity game in Border's, again because of this aspect, while they utterly overlook D&D.</p><p></p><p>So, just quick observations. Make of them what you will.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wombat, post: 3820476, member: 8447"] As someone who has always tried to lure new gamers to the table, let me give a couple of observations here. First of all -- Availability. At both Banres & Noble and Border's Books you can find the core books and more on a regular basis; this is true with almost all of their outlets in the San Francisco Bay Area. You are also able to find them at Walden (a subsidary of Border's) with fair frequency and this store also carries the minis. At these stores you are also able to find White Wolf books and some other material (Star Wars rpg, sometimes GURPS, etc.). The Turn Off Factor -- Fewer and fewer people in this country read. Those that do read less material and prefer it to be either strictly informational for getting a job done or on a topic they already enjoy. Equally, while many people like games, they hate complicated (have to know a lot of rules themselves) games. Add to this the basic notion that if you are going to play a game, you have to know [I]all of the rules[/I] (a pretty standard mentality). So I have seen many people look at D&D (and other rpg) books and say something equivalent to, "I could never learn all of these rules!" And, actually, I have seen people pick up GURPS or Vampire at B&N or Border's over D&D because there were simply fewer pages to read. Most of us on this board are heritage gamers. Heck, I've been playing for over 30 years now. We forget just what a daunting task it is for people to pick up those books, with no other exposure, no friends to guide us in, read them through, and start playing. It's a [I]lot[/I] of reading. Equally, unlike Vampire, which conforms pretty well to an Anne Rice vision of vampires, D&D doesn't really emulate any set of fantasy novels or books other than those made specifically for D&D. If someone wanted to play LotR, for example, they were more likely to pick up the Decipher rules simply [I]because[/I] they said LotR on them. I've seen people pick up the Firefly/Serenity game in Border's, again because of this aspect, while they utterly overlook D&D. So, just quick observations. Make of them what you will. [/QUOTE]
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Why can't WotC break the mass market barrier?
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