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<blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 4115901" data-attributes="member: 94">The problem for WotC is that they have to compete against World of Warcraft (and the video game industry in general, which captures the most &quot;gamer time&quot; and the most &quot;gamer dollars.&quot;) WotC has to reach, entice, and educate brand new players to 4e to grow their business. They're looking for mainstream gamers. They're not looking to just &quot;retain&quot; or &quot;recycle&quot; their current D&amp;D customer base. In fact, they're willing to alienate some portion of that existing base (creating grognards!) in order to move the ruleset forward and make it more accessible and more acceptable.Paizo can probably do all right just by capturing that portion of the existing D&amp;D fanbase that 4e is leaving behind in pursuit of those &quot;mainstream&quot; gamers. They already have all the name recognition they need with this group of gamers-- folks already engaged in the hobby. They don't have to re-educate anyone. Their business model is predominately through their own storefront, though I am sure they'll get into hobby distribution if they want it. (I doubt they need it-- not sure why they'd settle for 10 cents on the dollar.)And they're not really competing with anyone. WotC is the 800 lb. gorilla of 4e Dungeons and Dragons, but Paizo is now the 800 lb. gorilla of 3.5e. Nobody is positioned as well as Paizo to own that market. I believe that piece of the market is big enough to have its own &quot;long tail.&quot;I'm not sure exactly how long the tail is, or how long it needs to be to support a company the size of Paizo, with full time employees.EDIT: But I am sure Paizo knows.Yep.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wulf Ratbane, post: 4115901, member: 94"] The problem for WotC is that they have to compete against World of Warcraft (and the video game industry in general, which captures the most "gamer time" and the most "gamer dollars.") WotC has to reach, entice, and educate [i]brand new[/i] players to 4e to grow their business. They're looking for mainstream gamers. They're not looking to just "retain" or "recycle" their current D&D customer base. In fact, they're willing to alienate some portion of that existing base (creating grognards!) in order to move the ruleset forward and make it more accessible and more acceptable. Paizo can probably do all right just by capturing that portion of the existing D&D fanbase that 4e is leaving behind in pursuit of those "mainstream" gamers. They already have all the name recognition they need with this group of gamers-- folks [i]already engaged[/i] in the hobby. They don't have to re-educate anyone. Their business model is predominately through their own storefront, though I am sure they'll get into hobby distribution if they want it. (I doubt they need it-- not sure why they'd settle for 10 cents on the dollar.) And they're not really competing with anyone. WotC is the 800 lb. gorilla of 4e Dungeons and Dragons, but Paizo is now the 800 lb. gorilla of 3.5e. Nobody is positioned as well as Paizo to own that market. I believe that piece of the market is big enough to have its own "long tail." I'm not sure exactly how long the tail is, or how long it needs to be to support a company the size of Paizo, with full time employees. EDIT: But I am sure Paizo knows. Yep. [/QUOTE]

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