After reading the first few posts I am off on a thought tangent here...That is, how can WOC capitalize on the popularity of fantasy to expand awareness of and the market for D&D? In the discussions about Dragon's and Dungeon's demise I heard the following figures bandied about: a) There are about 5 million people who play role playing games on at least a monthly basis (not sure if that is worldwide or just in the US) and b) The circulation for the magazines is around 50,000 or so each. There are a few other mags out there, but they have much smaller circulation.
Which begs some questions:...
If the two premier magazines for the hobby have such miniscule circulation compared to the base, how does WOC reach the other 4,950,000 regular players NOW to make them aware of the new stuff they bring out? And more importantly, how can WOC and others reach the tens (hundreds?) of millions of other people who enjoy fantasy movies/TV/literature and who therefore might be interested in trying out fantasy role playing? It seems like TV advertising is in order on the right shows (like they did for the sci fi D&D movie, and of course the movie itself was advertising), maybe lobby advertising in theaters, in game advertising in MMORPGs, advertising inserts in console and PC game packages, ads in magazines devoted to Harry Potter and other fantasy TV shows and movies, and anywhere else that attracts the attention of fantasy enthusiasts but is outside the current narrow world of game related publications and stores.