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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DracoSuave" data-source="post: 5191678" data-attributes="member: 71571">Paizo's entire industry is based on selling 3rd edition to 3rd edition fans.They're not bringing in new gamers with PDFs.No pdf-selling company advertises or attracts new customers to -the rpg market.-  What they all do is try to advertise -to- the rpg market.  Paizo is no different.  What Paizo is NOT doing is -creating- new market opportunities.That's where your brick and mortar shops come in, as they can -demonstrate- the gaming products in a way a website simply cannot.PDFs are to sell to existing markets, but they do not open new markets, and the future of the industry -requires- the opening of new markets to replace the closing of old ones.But those books -are- for sale.  You go to the brick and mortar and you buy them.  This isn't really a true argument.I think it's hard to criticize their viewpoint by using fear words such as 'hemmorhaging' potential money.You -vastly- overestimate how much of a market there is for -games- in pdf form.  They know what the sales are, and they know the cost to produce them, and they know the cost to DDI, and they know the cost to physical books.  Wizards is one of the few gaming companies that has an active market research department.  These you do not, and cannot speak of.  We can speculate as to why, but we cannot properly criticize their business sense.This isn't a case where they're afraid to 'try the future'.  This is a case where they did, and it did not work.So if you want to make a persuasive argument as to why it might work, you have to look at the situation -now- and see how it is different from -then.-Things are not different now.  So why would they reinstate a policy that they deemed to have failed?  To think they should doesn't make sense from their standpoint.And you have no evidence that WoTC does not have business acumen in this industry; this isn't T$R, this is the company that resurrected Dungeons and Dragons from the grave, and reasserted its position as a market-definer -before- 3rd edition, d20, and all that.  You mention Paizo, a company which started its rpg presence publishing Dragon and Dungeon, and now publishes a knockoff of d20 and 3.5.  This is a company that COULD NOT EXIST without the doors Wizards endevours to open.I repeat to you, a PDF-only industry is a dead industry.  Companies that are PDF-only are not creating new markets, they are competing for the same market.  But they are -much- smaller and can afford to do so (when they aren't going under, which smaller companies do all the time).  An existing market, however, is a shrinking market for entertainment items, as eventually, they'll move on and stop trying new products.  That means you -need- new players, new buyers.  How does that happen with PDFs?</blockquote>

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