[RANT] If one more person tells me you can’t make money making RPGs, I am going to punch them in the [BLEEP]ing mouth!!!

How many times have you heard this one: You can’t make money in the RPG industry. 
Basically ALL THE TIME!!! And who do you hear it most from? People who have failed to make money in the RPG industry.  But here is the question you should ask yourself, Why the [BLEEP] should you listen to any [BLEEP]ing thing they have to say?  All they have [BLEEP]ing proven is that THEY CAN’T MAKE MONEY IN THE [BLEEP]ING RPG BUSINESS.  Not you. 

The RPG Industry is full of failed RPG companies, right? So is the [BLEEP]ing real business world!!! One out of ten businesses fails their first year; one out of ten businesses fails in the next 5 years.  This fact is well known to everyone, so why do we think it would be any different for RPG companies? It isn’t dumb [BLEEP]! The RPG industry and companies are no different than any other industry or business, no matter what some people think or feel.  The reson it looks so severe in the RPG industry is because the RPG industry is so [BLEEP]ing small!!!  Anything you do looks a hundred times more extreme to us. 

If you look at RPGNow.com, there are over 500 publishers listed there right now.  I am willing to bet you 85% of them are out of business or have not released a product in over three years.  Those are people who tried to get a RPG company off the ground and as they found out the hard way, 90% of those FAILED in the first year. Out of those remaining 10% of them, 90% of them FAILED in the next five years.   So at RPGNow you can “guess-timate” that there are only 75 to 100 publishers who are actually active RPG companies.  You can even add Monte Cook and Malhavoc Press to that list also.  The last thing he released at RPGNow.com was Dark Tidings on January 27, 2009. 

There are a several companies that are not just making money, but actually making a profit and expanding their business. Take a quick look: Green Ronin just celebrated their ten anniversary and now has the DC Comics license; Paizo is now tied for 1^st place for top selling RPG; Fantasy Flight Games and Privateer Press started off as RPG companies and expanded into new gaming markets; Mongoose Publishing started off as a D20 RPG company and now has a decent sized staff and various game lines; White Wolf has had ups and downs but still remains in business with it various business arms including PSI and RPGNow.com.  Plus many, many more… Don’t ever let someone else tell you that you can’t be successful in something. Especially if they failed at doing it.

The real funny part to all this is that video games got this same story told to them in the beginning.  Now there are dozens of Hollywood studios fighting over video game properties that want to make movies about.  Why have so many RPG companies just accepted that they will never make money? Because deep down a lot of them are losers and they know it they just don’t want to admit it out loud.  Not me. Not LPJ Design! We are valuable. Not just because I say it. Because I do something to prove it by putting out products people want AND do buy. 

What is the Conan line that is so often quoted to you by gamers all the time: Conan, what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. Do bad many of us don’t act like that when dealing in people who are trying to drag us down and tell us we are going to fail. Everything you get in life good or bad is because you worked for it consciously or unconsciously. Back to work for me, I have to make LPJ Design more profitable. I hope you are doing the same.  Talk to you later…