Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 4549739" data-attributes="member: 18182">Actually, WotC is rather supportive of the FLGS retail market and fully realizes that game stores are vital to introducing new players to WotC's flagship games, D&amp;D, Magic, and others.&nbsp; They care about the industry as a whole because D&amp;D IS the largest part of the RPG industry, just as Magic IS the largest part of the CCG industry.WotC offers extensive retailer support thru the RPGA and other in-store marketing campaigns such as Worldwide D&amp;D Day.&nbsp; Your big box retailers like Borders and B&amp;N don't participate in these, and Amazon certainly does not.&nbsp; However, with RPGs there is just no feasible way that WotC can help retailers vs Amazon when it comes to price.WotC's retail support for Magic is even better, but Magic boosters and decks are rarely discounted online to the same level Amazon discounts game books.Do you know what really kills most local game stores?&nbsp; Poor business practices.&nbsp; In my town at least three game stores curled up and died over the past several years, and in each case it was because they offered poor customer service and did not take full advantage of the strengths of brick-and-mortar stores (they also did not take advantage of WotC's promotions and marketing help).&nbsp; We have one major game store that has survived so far (two if I count Hobbytown), and that store offers a clean, well lit, friendly (non-stinky) environment with helpful sales staff, a huge gaming area for RPGs, card games, board games and etc, and offers demos for many games.&nbsp; (although sadly, they too often ignore much of the marketing help WotC offers for both Magic and D&amp;D, and even industry help like Free RPG Day, and today I had my first crappy customer service experience there too).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dire Bare, post: 4549739, member: 18182"] Actually, WotC is rather supportive of the FLGS retail market and fully realizes that game stores are vital to introducing new players to WotC's flagship games, D&D, Magic, and others. They care about the industry as a whole because D&D IS the largest part of the RPG industry, just as Magic IS the largest part of the CCG industry. WotC offers extensive retailer support thru the RPGA and other in-store marketing campaigns such as Worldwide D&D Day. Your big box retailers like Borders and B&N don't participate in these, and Amazon certainly does not. However, with RPGs there is just no feasible way that WotC can help retailers vs Amazon when it comes to price. WotC's retail support for Magic is even better, but Magic boosters and decks are rarely discounted online to the same level Amazon discounts game books. Do you know what really kills most local game stores? Poor business practices. In my town at least three game stores curled up and died over the past several years, and in each case it was because they offered poor customer service and did not take full advantage of the strengths of brick-and-mortar stores (they also did not take advantage of WotC's promotions and marketing help). We have one major game store that has survived so far (two if I count Hobbytown), and that store offers a clean, well lit, friendly (non-stinky) environment with helpful sales staff, a huge gaming area for RPGs, card games, board games and etc, and offers demos for many games. (although sadly, they too often ignore much of the marketing help WotC offers for both Magic and D&D, and even industry help like Free RPG Day, and today I had my first crappy customer service experience there too). [/QUOTE]

Verification