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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 2999756" data-attributes="member: 22260">30 years is a long time. And being first is not always enough.  Bought an IBM PC or made a phone call with AT&T lately? Role playing has not been monolithic. I think what I am missing in a lot of posts is just how competitive the hobby is, or at least used to be. My experience as a gamer for a long time was meeting people who played all these other games. Now a lot of those games are out of print or limping along. The impresion I have is that D&D is more dominant in table top roleplaying then it has been in about 25 years. It takes up more of the shelf space at places that still sell games, it seem to have more buzz (of what little buzz there is), and those people with those other games are not around like they used to be. As was pointed out in an early post, "middle tier" game companies (which at some point where probably large game companies) seem to be disapearing. (of course the irony is that even with its dominance, WotC may still be loosing money on it). Does it really make sense that the growth of D&D from 2000-2004, and the decline of so many other games, is because D&D was the first out of the blocks 30 years ago? The other argument might be that D&D had elements--often derided by others--that has allowed it to stay in the market and thrive even as others have came and went.</blockquote>