WotC and brick and mortar retail stores - Greg Leeds weighs in

[Mallus]

King's article fits my experience. I do shop online because of the price and convenience and I don't frequent my local gaming store because my group already has a great place to play.

King also makes a great point about the effect information technologies have had on the consumer/retailer relationship. The 'community' might be in your store, or it might just as well be online, and game store workers are no longer the experts, at best they're mere one of number of experts, most of which are your customers who spend their leisure time doing product research (for free).

 

[Thanlis]

I did find it worthwhile to learn that retailers are currently forced to host WotC promotion events to get a bonus that online stores get for free - the possibility to sell new product as early as possible.

Third guy is just grinding his axe. None of my local big box bookstores had PHB3 as early as my FLGS. You couldn't get PHB3 online from either Amazon or B&N before the official release date. You could get it from local game stores a couple of weeks early, because any game store that participates in organized play events gets to break street date now.

He may have a local B&N that's breaking street date, and it's true that WotC can't do much about that (they're not about to pull their books from the mass market), but what WotC can do is give local game stores a way to match or beat the B&N violations.

Also:

At various Reknown totals, players gain the equivalent of encounter powers for their characters, above and beyond what they entitled to for their class, level, and magic items, and some of the highest Reknown rewards are awarded for using specific products.

Ha ha ha. OK, so here's the reward for getting 10 Reknown:

Benefit: Re-roll a Saving Throw against an effect 1/session.

Since each session is one encounter, that is indeed an encounter power. Not a game-breaking one. So OK; how long does it take to get 10 Reknown?

Renown Point (RP) Awards

* accomplishment; maximum frequency; RPs awarded

* Complete an encounter; 1/session; 3rp
* Reach milestone; 2/chapter; 2rp
* Use DDI Character Builder; 1/season; 5rp
* PH3 class and/or race; 1/season; 2rp
* PH3 feat; 1/season; 1rp
* Revive a dying PC; 1/season; 1rp
* Hit for 15+ damage against 1 enemy; 1/season; 1rp
* Kill 3 minions in 1 attack; 1/season; 1rp
* Take 50 damage in 1 session; 1/season; 1rp
* Survive 8+ sessions without dying; 1/season; 1rp
* Complete all quests; 1/season; 1rp
* Moment of greatness; 1/season; 1rp

So the single biggest reward is for using the Character Builder. This is free, since we're talking level 1 characters here. The second biggest reward is for completing an encounter; you'll get that the first session. There's 8 points right there. If you did have the PHB3 in hand, you could hit 10 and get the reward card immediately. If not, you'll have to wait one more session to get the card. Horrors.

But what about the other rewards? Well, there are only two of them, at 30 points and 50 points, and they'll only be given out at the end of the season. So basically having the PHB3 gives you one extra session with a fairly minor power.

Since it's a 12 session season, anyone can reasonably easily get to 30 points -- it's 36 points from attendance alone. Go to the trouble of using the character builder, and you can get to 41 points. There are three chapters, and two milestones per chapter, so there's another 12 points. 53 points easily attainable without the PHB3. Note that the max you're getting from using PHB3 stuff is 3 points. Yeah, that's huge.

Oh, and you can't use more than one reward per session, and you have to pick the reward card you're using before the session starts.

 

[Obryn]

That third post is the sort of gamer paranoia that has led me away from gaming stores. I get enough of that online, thankyouverymuch. Heck; I remember being told very clearly by a game store owner that a return of Greyhawk was imminent in the late 3.5 days.

I also think it's odd that a store owner would complain about WotC's events promoting book sales while the consumer is in their store, where the books are available for purchase. Or, why they wouldn't welcome a (free!) event, advertised by and paid for by WotC, where they will also presumably get both more foot traffic and more sales as a result. Or, how an early release of books to hobby stores could be anything other than an attempt to maintain a vital environment of hobby stores. I just don't get it. The Chicken Little thing is no more convincing coming from an anonymous shop-owner than it is any other random gamer online.

-O

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

Gotta wonder about the guy being in Michigan, which has Detroit hanging around the state's neck. That can't help business.

I was in my local game store this weekend (Austin, TX) and it was packed. Can't say how much people were buying, but there was usually someone at the register.

 

[Insight]

When I was at D&D Encounters, the game store ran out of PHB3. They had 12 on a table at the front of the store (along with the new tiles and something else, forget what) when I got there and less than 2 hours later, all 12 had sold. The store let one player use their DDI subscription to make a character and he liked it so much, he said he'd purchase a subscription when he got home. They were doing Encounters for free, BTW.

 

[UniversalMonster]

Well, if the OSR can, so can the 800 pound gorilla.

Seriously, around 2007-2008 WotC put out huge budgets for people volunteering to found D&D-specific university clubs. I think they ought to look into a similar program, if at vastly less scale (i.e. less budget), for high schools.

The Takoma Park (which happens to be local to me) after school D&D program is the longest running program in the area. It's using AD&D1e because it has always used that set of rules and that's the books the library bought. The guys that run it aren't going to change it.

That said, it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the OSR, nor are any of the children involved "grognards" by any stretch of the imagination.

It's a great program and so far, ideology free.

 

[Cadfan]

I don't really know or care about the third post.

But the first two I can relate to. I'm a bit sympathetic to the first post's worry about the changing relation of gamers and game stores. I understand that WotC basically has no public relations choice but to point out the positives, and that there are in fact some positives, but I'm a little pessimistic about the general health of gaming stores as a whole if they remain straight retail.

Basically, this guy is completely right about the gaming store functioning more as an "order taker" than a retail store. That is precisely how I use my local gaming store. I know what I want far in advance of it being available, or alternately what I want is a product that I would have to order and pay shipping on, and I'd rather have someone else handle the hassle. The gaming store probably has no clue about the product I want. Often they don't even know it exists. Essentially they take the order from me and then turn around and try to find out if or when their distributor will have the product in question. They then obtain the product, and call me when its available.

This means that I care about the following things from my gaming store:

1. Breadth of selection from their distributors.
2. Response time between requesting something and receiving it.
3. Customer service and follow up in contacting me once the product is in the store. Most stores fail horribly at this.
4. A meeting place for other consumers of the same product, if in fact that is relevant for the particular item. For example, I care about being able to play Infinity at my gaming store. I don't care about being able to play D&D there because I already have a group. I don't care about finding other miniature painters because that's a hobby I do on my own. I don't care about finding other boardgamers because I already have a group for that.

I don't care about the following things:

1. Inventory actually on the shop floor when I walk into the store. I already know what I want. Browsing can be fun, but I can almost guarantee that I'm not going to make a purchased based on browsing. I probably already know about the miniatures, and I'm not going to buy a game book without reading up on it online.
2. Atmosphere, although I could have my mind changed on this if I found a game I needed to play at the store itself. There's a boardgame store in my area that's managed to make atmosphere a selling point, but I don't know if that would be possible with an rpg and miniature store. Not for me and my preferences, which tend towards buying the product, leaving, and painting alone or playing the RPG with my friends.
3. A knowledgeable staff. I only care whether they're knowledgeable about what I consider to be their job, ie, finding and obtaining things I want to buy in a timely manner.

Honestly, if I found a really good online retailer, I'd probably stop going to gaming stores completely. The problem for me is that its just annoying going to a half dozen different sites in order to get one miniature from this company, two from that company, two more from overseas, a new paintbrush from yet another company, and paints from one more.

Anyways, yeah. The idea that the gaming store has changed from a place to find information and purchase products from the shelves into a place to make orders is one that really struck home for me.

Oh, and yeah, the DDI makes books obsolete for me. Sorry, stores.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Interesting Post

My takes:

1) It isn't clear to me how important it is to the hobby that specialty retailers survive. It's ironic that they guys complains about hosting game day; hosting planned events is pretty much the only value that gaming stores provide me these days. My interface with the retailer is their website; my interface with the community is gaming boards and my network of friends.

2) What would it take to get Wizards of the Coast sold off? Now, that's a project I could get behind.

Ken

 

[DEFCON 1]

Gotta wonder about the guy being in Michigan, which has Detroit hanging around the state's neck. That can't help business.

I was in my local game store this weekend (Austin, TX) and it was packed. Can't say how much people were buying, but there was usually someone at the register.

Marcus King has a regular monthly column at RPG.net called "Behind The Counter"... where he talks about all types of his experiences in the retail gaming business. It really is fascinating to see all the stuff he has and continues to go through in order to maintain his stores. If you're really interested in how your Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store is trying to remain on its feet... check his columns out. Goodness knows every time I have the fleeting thought about how "cool" it'd be to own a gaming store... reading several of his posts snaps me out of that thought straight away. His is a sobering look at the realities of trying to make a store work in this day and age.

 

[Thanlis]

Marcus King has a regular monthly column at RPG.net called "Behind The Counter"... where he talks about all types of his experiences in the retail gaming business. It really is fascinating to see all the stuff he has and continues to go through in order to maintain his stores. If you're really interested in how your Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store is trying to remain on its feet... check his columns out. Goodness knows every time I have the fleeting thought about how "cool" it'd be to own a gaming store... reading several of his posts snaps me out of that thought straight away. His is a sobering look at the realities of trying to make a store work in this day and age.

And balance that sucker out with the Black Diamond Games blog.