Tuesday, June 7, 2011

How d20 saved the gaming industry... and other fallacies

I need to stay off of rpg.net, just like I need to stop reading comments at the end of yahoo articles, and I don't need the extra cookie.

Although, while I'm in stream of consciousness mode:

Lesson from Maja: Horses eat pie and applesauce, but not apple pie.

I'm certainly amazed by the idea that 3rd Edition/d20 brought back the rpg industry/hobby from the dead. Let's look back, shall we...

The second half of the 1990's. TSR had reached the same glut with 2nd Edition AD&D, if not more, than it had with 1st. Magic had permeated all corners of gamerdom. Spellfire and Blood Wars fizzled and then the great chain store book return fiasco happened. TSR was in bad shape.

Let's change perspective. Imagine a small town gaming store. It's profit is derived from products the in-store gaming promotes. AD&D, both generic and RPGA are offered. Battletech leagues are played. Games Workshop is avoided, if only because the profit margins are so slim. AD&D is a solid, but not the majority of sales.

Add in the fiasco at TSR and the first question from the Store Manager? The only important one: "Can we get PHBs through distribution channels." That's it. For as much as new TSR product did drive in weekly/monthly customer visits, PHBs outsold everything, and I'm pretty certain this works the same in most other stores.

So, PHB delivery is sporadic at best. What's a store to do? How about diversify or die. Mordheim and Necromunda Leagues are the games of choice. Other rpgs are promoted, which increased sales, but not the entire amount lost by TSR. Accessories are invested heavily: dice, bags, bumper stickers. "Candy display" items that will eat away at the spending cash of the customer. And of course, an increased interest in Magic, so booster packs and singles are looked through again.

All-in-all, the store would have survived, so long as the staff was willing to experiment, promote, and listen to their customer base.

Then WotC bought TSR and the great 3rd Edition/d20 was released. Not that it wasn't a financial windfall, as 2nd Edition was as well. Three new core books and an ability for 3rd party publishers to release compatible product? Fantastic, until you notice the order book. Guys whose friend's cousin once did the dry cleaning for Gary Gygax's 7th grade English teacher jumped in to make a buck. Other rpg companies shelved production of their own books to make d20 material. Historical boardgame companies produced stuff. WHITE WOLF was making fantasy material for geeky D&D. I'm all for capitalism. I'm all for more choices for the consumer, but a store having to pick and choose which items to stock was difficult. There were just too many items to stock everything, and if you did, was everything worth restocking. Was a second copy actually going to fly off the shelves.

I will not comment on the core book price increases (which were expected) or the release of 3.5, as these disgruntled D&D fans only. I won't completely color d20 evil, as plenty of quality games came out. But stores had a problem bigger than the Magic glut a few years earlier. When everybody and their brother released a CCG, the smart stores stocked the licensed items that most people "should" be interested in and when a questionable game came out, they wisely invested in a box of boosters and starers. The Magic gravy train allowed for experimentation. Players always bought more booster packs.

With role-playing, the average player is a casual player, and they only purchase the PHB. So, when the initial fanfare wore off, you don't have nearly as rabid a base, and an increasing supply of new product becoming available. Pretty soon, most stores faced extremes: Either they had shelves chock full of product, or were two scared/too stupid to listen to customers and stocked nothing. For the stores with product, that turned from shelves to discount boxes...LOTS of boxes.

Where does that lead us now, a few years after 4th edition hits the street? After having two oppounities in the last twenty years to focus on diversification (Magic glut of profit, and TSR's failure forcing them to), stores continue to ride the cash cows till they die of exhaustion, and unfortunately, some of these cash cows have died, tipped over, and fell on top of the stores. The stores in the area focus on three categories (1) closed due to finacial incompetence (2) divested from role-playing, and (3) stil trying to ride the Magic/D&D/GW cash cosh with no sign of future plans.

It's sad. The number one item on my want list currently is the latest Call of Cthulhu Keeper's screen. I've never owned one and it's inexpensive enough to feed my need for new gaming without breaking the bank. Do you know that I can't find one in stock at any brick-and-mortar store without driving past State College or nearing Harrisburg or Philly. That's two hours of driving both ways for a $15 screen!

The reasons are simple. The closest place, in downtown Wilkes-Barre (Golden Unicorn), has moved into the Scranton area, and has disappeared off the map. No phone number, a vague address at best. My old comic book store (Essential Comics) twice the distance, got sold to a crew in Bethlehem, and they effectively canibalized the place. The Unknown in downtown Scranton? Closed up shop and merged with the store another 15 minutes north (Adventure Games). They unfortunately have horrible hours, focus on computer games, and stock largely D&D, Magic, and old Star Wars minis. With all the effort I made to get to the store, only to find it closed when it was supposed to be open, plus a general indifference in customer service, I refuse to even make a laughing try to place a special order.

I could try the Encounter in Stroudsburg, no wait, they closed up due to the worst managerial decisions and general incompetence I have ever seen. And these guys were racking in the dough from Magic, Pogs, Beanie Babies, and every other collectible trend known to man. Plus, even if they were still open, they screwed up special orders for me multiple times in the past. There was 20% chance they would stock the item normally, so it would have been worth it to drive down while visiting friends.

That leaves me witha 90-minute drive to White Knight Game Room in Williamsport, no sorry, they closed their doors to. Tons of stock with no sales makes the decision to close easy when money's tight.

Maybe drive down to my old stomping grounds in the Lehigh Valley? Phantom of the Attic focuses on collectible items, and I remember Tony's special ordering habits from his days as ACME Collectibles. Portal, the guys who gutted my comics stomping ground? Possibly my weakest argument. I could imagine placing the special order that would work, but by the time it would come in, I would be back at work and money would be tight, particularly with Historicon coming up. Plus, I still have sour grapes.

Dreamscape? Nick would order it if asked, but the track record of him using Previews/Star System for gaming order has been sketchy? He's great for comics only, and now avoids the headaches of gaming.

Maybe Cap's? I know, it's been dead for years. Finally, the Allentown Encounter would be a nice place to buy my Crystal Meth, not comics and games. They focus on Magic (and drugs), and give me even fewer reasons to visit Allentown.

I finally went onto rpgshop.com. I know, it's probably cheaper on Amazon, but I despise them for poltical and employee relations reasons. With shipping I ended up paying four dollars more than retail, but given the travel expenses I would need to pay to buy it "locally" (haha heehee), it was a steal.

Now if my guys could actually get together and play the damn game.

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