I thought comics were dying because everyone was stealing them? Or is it because graphic novels are canniablizing the sales? Or is it the $3.99 price point? Or is it that they're just rehasing the same damn stories they told 30 years ago and so mired in their own contunity that manga comes along quite often and kicks them in the junk? Maybe a little of all of the above?
Yeah this one got off point, we are supposed to be talking about Rpgs.
I disagree with the Rpgs cost too much and your relation to comics, you read a story once and you know it you have gotten your use out of it, you might reread it but that's not the same as playability.
An Rpg that actually get played I has a campaign life, and even if its just a paizo adventure path that's is a life of 6 months.
Even Paizo puts more than just the AP in the story, so that even just one APs has campaign life, beyond being used once.
Video games are a better industry to look at and see what they are doing, WotC did and embraced the subscription model, and so did Paizo cutting out the middlemen who take near 60% of your revenue. I did that with patronage cutting out both OBS 35% and the 60% of the distribution chain.
But look further, Consoles are dying, there is the app game market taking the lead and The FREE TO PLAY model that is taking over online. Turbine has embraced this with their model for Dnd online and Lord of the Rings online, all of the facebook games use this.
So what if you produced a free RPG digital product (you can still sell the print copy), let everyone play it for free, and then charged for upgrades and extras....
Go look at your Pathfinder RPG Alpha and Beta, hell even the upgrade to the digital Omega is only $9.99 and that is only offered direct, they cut out the 35% OBS wanted to take.
Look at Eclipse Phase as a creative commons game, they still sell the pdf but you can legally download it from a torrent and its free. This is what I will be working towards with our first non licensed RPG system Codenamed: Neuroronin (for now its not a title its just how we refer to it till we are ready).
The idea that an industry, any industry, will continue to grow endlessly is absurd. It's the mental model that has gotten all of us into the economic mess we are currently experiencing. What we need is an economic 'ecology'. Self-sustaining and capable of weathering the ups and downs of the market. Not endless, blindly hopeful growth that sets us up for yet another round of failures, recessions and possible depressions. There are dozens of gaming publishers out there that will fill the void once WotC bows out of the RPG market. Something I think can't happen soon enough. Let the torch pass to those that love the hobby and want to make a profit rather than those that just want to make a profit.
I thought comics were dying because everyone was stealing them? Or is it because graphic novels are canniablizing the sales? Or is it the $3.99 price point? Or is it that they're just rehasing the same damn stories they told 30 years ago and so mired in their own contunity that manga comes along quite often and kicks them in the junk? Maybe a little of all of the above?
ReplyDeleteYeah this one got off point, we are supposed to be talking about Rpgs.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the Rpgs cost too much and your relation to comics, you read a story once and you know it you have gotten your use out of it, you might reread it but that's not the same as playability.
An Rpg that actually get played I has a campaign life, and even if its just a paizo adventure path that's is a life of 6 months.
Even Paizo puts more than just the AP in the story, so that even just one APs has campaign life, beyond being used once.
Video games are a better industry to look at and see what they are doing, WotC did and embraced the subscription model, and so did Paizo cutting out the middlemen who take near 60% of your revenue. I did that with patronage cutting out both OBS 35% and the 60% of the distribution chain.
But look further, Consoles are dying, there is the app game market taking the lead and The FREE TO PLAY model that is taking over online. Turbine has embraced this with their model for Dnd online and Lord of the Rings online, all of the facebook games use this.
So what if you produced a free RPG digital product (you can still sell the print copy), let everyone play it for free, and then charged for upgrades and extras....
Go look at your Pathfinder RPG Alpha and Beta, hell even the upgrade to the digital Omega is only $9.99 and that is only offered direct, they cut out the 35% OBS wanted to take.
Look at Eclipse Phase as a creative commons game, they still sell the pdf but you can legally download it from a torrent and its free. This is what I will be working towards with our first non licensed RPG system Codenamed: Neuroronin (for now its not a title its just how we refer to it till we are ready).
The idea that an industry, any industry, will continue to grow endlessly is absurd. It's the mental model that has gotten all of us into the economic mess we are currently experiencing. What we need is an economic 'ecology'. Self-sustaining and capable of weathering the ups and downs of the market. Not endless, blindly hopeful growth that sets us up for yet another round of failures, recessions and possible depressions. There are dozens of gaming publishers out there that will fill the void once WotC bows out of the RPG market. Something I think can't happen soon enough. Let the torch pass to those that love the hobby and want to make a profit rather than those that just want to make a profit.
ReplyDelete