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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9596976" data-attributes="member: 18">You understand, right, [USER=7025282]@Warpiglet-7[/USER] that what you're describing is a completely uninformed guess?That's not a rational argument, it's a stack of generalizations and guesses and assumptions, none of which you have the slightest bit of non-anecdotal evidence for, and all of which fails to consider whether we're talking about D&D or "the industry". You don't even know if the generalizations are accurate.Because that's the big thing I see here, and I do very much doubt that grogs spend so much more than other groups, that they make a significantly disproportionate impact on D&D specifically. On the industry? I don't doubt it, but if we're going to play the anecdote game, which, with respect, is what you're playing, let's play it.I know a couple of dozen fairly regular RPG players IRL at the moment, like I've spoken to them in the last few years, ranging in age from about 30 to 50, discounting pre-teen kids who aren't buying for themselves (the oldest kid of anyone in my social group literally just hit 13 so that will be changing).So I observe a couple things:1) People new to D&D with 5E tend to have bought more D&D books, by far, than the people who are long-time D&D players (in my anecdotal experience). Certainly in physical. I can only speculate re: digital, but given digital uptake is typically lower with older generations, I don't see that being different here. If I look at people my age who run D&D, most of them have the main three books, and a scattering of other books, mostly adventures. They're often "missing" setting, rules, and monster books. Whereas if I look at the young 30s people (now, younger when they got into it), they have pretty much everything.2) But there is one thing the older players have way more of - 3PP books and fancy 3PP RPG accessory stuff - like tables, dice/dice rollers, battle mats, minis, etc. etc. That Kickstarter-ish 3PP area is where I see friends and acquaintances in the hobby blowing absolutely bazillions. Particularly on board games rather than D&D. It's hard to even remotely spend what people spend on Kickstarting boardgames or incredibly fancy 3PP RPG stuff (some specific to D&D. And I know D&D players and DMs who play regularly, and drop hundreds of 3PP stuff and board games, but don't even have remotely-complete collections of WotC D&D books.This is I think where you and the OP are falling down. Because I do think a lot of disposable income is going into "the hobby" from some people in their 40s, 50s, even 60s or older. But I don't think it's significantly age-deviated on WotC books themselves (and probably age-deviated away from older people on digital). I think that a lot of younger people manage to afford the same WotC books older ones do.Again let's look at you:D&D as a whole is too expensive a hobby if you're really poor - virtually every other RPG is wildly cheaper. The three core book model is a huge outlay compared to other RPGs (this was less true in the 1980s and 1990s, I think), so I think what you're maybe not getting here is that the younger people who do get involved in modern D&D are probably towards the higher end of the earnings spectrum for their age. It's very much a middle-class leaning, educated-leaning hobby, even though it's not exclusionary (at the table) to people not from those backgrounds.And I'm not convinced many more people who are 40+ are blowing cash on "licenced minis" than people in their 30s, frankly, nor am I convinced that market is so large as to mean much to WotC themselves.Again, without any numbers, talk about "licenced minis" is kind of wanky (not insulting you, just pointing this out). It doesn't get us anywhere. It's guesswork and there's no actual reason to believe it's more than a minor sideline.On top of all this, I think there's a real question between:"D&D as a game"and"D&D as a lifestyle brand"I don't doubt that 40+ people spend disproportionately more on D&D as a lifestyle brand. I.e. stuff that's not REALLY for gaming, like licenced minis, ridiculously overpriced and surprisingly low-quality WotC dice (I mean come on...), pure lore books (like the dragon one), etc.But I don't think overall that "lifestyle brand" approach to D&D has paid off all that well for WotC (yet, as Homer would point out!). And that's a good thing! Because being a lifestyle brand and being a game pull D&D in two very different directions. Directions that, I would argue, are not really compatible.</blockquote>

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