Re: [HoE] Fw: [fsuns-l] Fw: "Price as a Weapon"

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

<buncha business stuff from TSR>

Sounds like piss and vinegar to me. I *love* hearing very important
business-types try to second-guess and understand the RPG hobby market,
which is pretty much built on a huge pile of old, dead games that went
belly up.

I'm not sure I understood all that marketing crap anyway. Too many
buzz-words... "added value" and such, but it seems to me the post said
that "the real money in the RPG industry is writing material to support
some other successful company's system", which to me sounds like "we
want the other RPG companies to support our badly thought-out RPG
systems".

The real problem for all non-TSR/WotC companies right now is the
three-tiered distribution system. This and printing/paper costs have the
most profound effect on the ultimate price of a RPG book. WotC is big
enough it can bypass this problem altogether, but for the rest of the
smaller companies its a huge unknown right now, but there are some
glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. E-business and online sales
have sort of come to the rescue of the smaller companies. This gives
them more control over distribution and getting products to their fans
quicker and easier... the biggest drawback is this cuts local hobby
stores out of the loop, and they can only hang on for so long selling
Pokemon cards before the "hottest card game" goes the way of Wyvern,
Wing Commander, and Spellfire.

It *looks* like SJGames, Atlas, and some of the other smaller companies
are throwing their resources into online ordering websites like
Warehouse23. I think this might be related to PEG's "big announcement"
they've been hinting about on their web site. This may be the future of
RPG sales... I have no idea if the hobby stores are going to be able to
survive, though. They'll have to refocus on impulse-buys like CCGs and
more traditional boardgames, a market which is utterly stagnant in the
US with a horde of Monopoly clones. The only innovation and new products
in the board game market are coming out of Europe (Germany being the
leader). Cheapass Games is the only breath of fresh air in the US
market, and they've been growing at a phenomenal rate but my personal
fear is they'll over-diversify their products to the point where they
wind up with a bunch of Teddy Ruxpins.

Anyway, back to TSR... "Price as a weapon" my ass. TSR may be the
industry leader, but their past product lines have been crappy rehashes
of really arcane and obtuse rules, recycled artwork, and very shoddy
proofing. They've got a long way to go before the quality of their
product actually drives their sales. The biggest reason D&D sells is
because of the shear volume of its market share. They may be big enough
to sell cheaper books, but this "added value" sounds like BS, sounds to
me like they're going to generate sales with the whole "Complete
Handbook" trick. That's not "added value" to me. And sure, it generates
sales, but it's an old trick, not a new one. If they want to drop the
price, fine, they can count their losses, but my bookshelf is going to
be...

SOLID ORANGE AND GREEN, BABY!