NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3999191" data-attributes="member: 13966">There've been changes in the magazine industry in the past year or two, as I understand it, and distribution issues, that make it difficult for a new magazine to start up, especially on such a small scale (with such a relatively small consumer base as Paizo's would have).It just wasn't very practical anymore, and it would have been difficult for Paizo to make it successful and profitable, given that they wouldn't be working with a major widely-recognized brand name magazine anymore.  IIRC, it was issues like that which forced them to raise the cover price of Dragon and Dungeon by a few dollars in the last year or two of their print run, to try and make up for the increased costliness of production/distribution.Not many people would buy into a new gaming magazine that first appears on the shelves at 9 or 10 dollars an issue, even if they recognize the Paizo logo on it.  Let alone 12 dollars an issue or so, since the new magazine would have trouble selling ad space to support itself, much moreso than with Dragon.Also, Paizo knew that Wizards of the Coast was going to be making their own online version of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, which would mean that Paizo would now have to compete with their former partners, who hold the biggest brand name in RPGs, for customers.If there was any chance that the online Dragon wasn't going to suck badly, they'd have to hedge their bets that it would not be so unpopular as to drive customers away from WotC and towards Paizo's new gaming magazine, rather than drawing them away from Paizo's print product and towards Wizards' online offering.So, instead, Paizo has started up Pathfinder, basically just a corollary to their existing Gamemastery line of adventures, and something that can more easily be guaranteed profitable.  People always need new adventures to run, and while some folks just make them up wholesale (like me), others prefer the quickness and completeness/professionalism of running printed modules instead.  Because Pathfinder is just a series of Adventure Paths, with a bit of extra material tacked on, it can sell at the price of an Adventure Module and still be profitable (they won't sell as many issues as they would of Dragon or Dungeon, but that's just a given; instead, they make up for it as much as could be expected, by selling quality and a thicker, meatier product).People have developed a reasonable sense of trust in Paizo's ability to put together good adventures, so, especially while Wizards of the Coast is distracted with 4th Edition and barely paying any attention to their online Dungeon/Dragon content, Paizo can continue to gain customers and sell adventure modules with Pathfinder.  And at a much higher price than a magazine could sell for, but considered worthwhile by many folks because of the quality of the product.  Good adventure modules are always desirable.They lose out on some customers, since they're not making Dragon or Dungeon magazine anymore, and because they're not putting out anything equivalent to Dragon anymore, but they maintain a solid niche in the market as adventure-module producers.  They'll keep selling to DMs/GMs, and many folks that they don't sell to anymore would probably just stick to WotC's online Dragon content anyway.  Not me, but, I hate online products (give me hardcopies anyday!) and I prefer player-oriented material rather than adventure modules.  So I'm no longer buying anything from Paizo or WotC, but I'm not a big spender anyway.</blockquote>

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