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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyLord" data-source="post: 6217903" data-attributes="member: 4348">I disagree with Lisa, and as opposed to popular knowledge, Lisa and Mr. Dancey are NOT THE ONLY ONES that have seen the balance sheets.I haven't seen all the account and amounts, but I have seen some.  It wasn't the split of the Basic and AD&D line, and such a supposition is the idea of fantasy.  In fact, if you look (okay, you can't), or if you use logic, the Basic game for BECMI was at one point, THE set that brought people into the game.  It actually propped up sales of the other line (Which is what I also suppose Paizo itself was doing when it created the Beginner Box which also indicates they learned something and perhaps are using that knowledge for Paizo's benefit).That may go contrary to what she stated, but that's the facts.I think what she intended to say (and maybe not, but then she probably was lying through everything and anything) was that the line got split into many different fragments.  That is to say, instead of simply having Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms, they had Birthright, The Old World, Birthright, Spelljammer, Al Qadim, Maztica, Dragon Dice, The collectible card game, and more.  This splintered the support for the lines to the point of dilution (at least for some of those lines, others made money...it's the ones that DID NOT but were still supported that she's discussing) where the money put in did not equal the money that came out of the investment.  TSR continued on that line to such a degree that it really wouldn't make sense.Perhaps the later sets of the D&D introductory sets were meant to be loss leaders, but only were losses, but up until the early 90s...I would say she's wrong in her statements of the division of D&D and AD&D.Now LATER...I can see her point, but then it really isn't the D&D/AD&D split at all, it's more the dilution of the specific games they are supporting (dozens of campaign settings, several failing game settings they continued to support such as the SAGA, card game, and dragon dice), and other items that were so diluted that they not only did not generate profit, every product produced generated negative income.So, I could be wrong, but I think she was commenting more on the end of the TSR time, when just about all the dilution affected every product, rather then earlier, because, even without being able to provide profit sheets, I think ANYONE with any iota of common sense can see the parallels between the Basic game (and it was more the basic game as an intro than any of the later sets such as the Expert, Companion, or Masters set) and AD&D and how the D&D game actually contributed and supported the AD&D line. In fact, I'd even call Paizo in Poker and point out it is this example that specifically paved the way for the Beginner Box, because they KNEW that there was a direct parallel between the Basic Box and the AD&D game.IMO of course.It could be they just made the Basic Box because they thought it was a bad idea...and were catering to fans (though that in and of itself is sort of counter intuitive, catering to people who already are playing your game with a set meant to introduce them to your game isn't exactly perfect business sense...but hey, they ARE the current leaders according to some lists).Personally, I think a LOT of their rise recently has been doublesided, one from their increase in their sales for Pathfinder via creations of new lines such as campaign and companion books, with the second being the BB being utilized for exactly what it was meant to do...bring new blood into Pathfinder and make it an easy transition.I know that's exactly how they hooked, line, and sinkered me in.  It was with the beginner box and friends who played PF.</blockquote>

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