thread: 2011-09-09 : Trad vs Indie: FIGHT! pt3
On 2011-09-09, Gerald C wrote:
I don't know what the actual profitability numbers are like, but as a customer, I don't see any difference between the success of WotC and White Wolf. When I walk in to a games shop, both of those companies have entire sections dedicated to them and them alone. There's a single shelf for Rifts, more recently one shelf for Pathfinder, then every other game has one copy and maybe one copy of each of it's supplements. This is true of every RPG retailer I can remember ever having been to.
I'm not trying to be nitpicky. As far as "trad vs. indie" goes, I see it as "preconceived D&D mentality vs. indie". But as far as your direct competition, or the next level of notoriety to attain, I think being one of those books that every retailer always keeps a copy in stock of is a good place to be.
As a sort-of-connected-to-this-topic aside, I've long held the opinion that no publication will ever attain the widespread status of D&D as long as WotC continues to publish new versions, simply for the fact that they are too established, that they were "the first". Other games may eventually overshadow it in popularity*, but no game will ever be as famous. Is that a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not. But, I do know several people who specifically don't play D&D because "It's all people know." and they're not interested in what people already know. They, and I, are interested in playing to find out.
*Yeah, right.
