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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Whiskers" data-source="post: 1448218" data-attributes="member: 6941">This is a very important point, one that most people never consider. When we, as consumers, complain about a company's products, we need to remember that the company may not see us as customers, just consumers. The difference:A consumer uses the product, service, etc.A customer buys the product, service, etc.So, at my company, I'm a consumer of MS Office, but the head of IT writes the check. Who do you think Microsoft is really interested in keeping happy, me or him? Same thing with any consumer product, including game systems, supplements, etc. - unless we buy direct from the publisher, we're not his customer. The FLGS is. The online retailer is. Wal-Mart is. Not us. Keeping this fact in mind can help explain why companies (including game publishers) act as they do.This can create an interesting (and self-destructive) dynamic. The publisher produces a module designed to appeal to a particular segment of the market. Consumers love it, but the retailers don't like the way it's designed, or packaged, or its size, or whatever. They don't order it, or don't reorder it. Result: sales not so good. So the publisher changes how it produces the next module. But the changes turn off part of its target market. Result: sales not so good. At some point, the publisher makes a business decision to stop publishing modules, or only publish monsters that cost $40 and up. And we,  the consumer, end up wondering why they won't make the modules we want...One apparent solution is for the publisher to market direct to the consumer, so we're both customer and consumer. This usually means online. But even with sneak peaks, sample pages, etc., it's not the same as picking up a module and thumbing through it at the store. And many people still don't purchase online. Result: sales not so good.I don't have any profound solutions - the current system doesn't work very well for any of the participants: publishers, retailers, consumers. But an effective solution clearly has to address all three groups. Until then, the market for modules isn't likely to change much.</blockquote>

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