I think SJGames seriously underestimates the audience they built up with all those nifty sourcebooks.  I knew more people who bought GURPS sourcebooks than actual GURPS players.  They built a strong reputation for kickassery on that front, so much so that a lot of people would buy their books sight unseen, even if they didnt' care for GURPS, just because they knew that they'd do a good job covering whatever topic the book was about.

You two are just trying to annoy me  (or not ?) aren't you ?

  GURPS 4/e actually corrected a lot of the misakes that were in 3rd edition.

 Been using it for 3 plus years now - and you know what ? Most of my 3rd edition supplements are still pretty usable with it. They even put out a character conversion booklet as part of the GM Screen package.

 As To Gaming in general ?

 Its not Dying.


- Ed C.

Quote from: J ArcaneI think SJGames seriously underestimates the audience they built up with all those nifty sourcebooks.  I knew more people who bought GURPS sourcebooks than actual GURPS players.  They built a strong reputation for kickassery on that front, so much so that a lot of people would buy their books sight unseen, even if they didnt' care for GURPS, just because they knew that they'd do a good job covering whatever topic the book was about.

I think they wanted to do a good job on covering stuff in the new edition...but producing a full color 256 page hardback is a bitch.  Especially since very few of their topics haven't been covered adequately for gaming.  

Banestorm is an awesome, kick ass book with enough setting to play forever.  I'd love to see something that wasn't rules come out again.  Those giant rules books they're producing are...yucky boring.

My point, Koltar, is that 3rd edition was around for 15 years. Any "broken" rules were corrected by players looong ago. And by switching to more expensive books released at longer intervals, which are having to cover ground already covered by supplements out for 3rd edition, they're essentially having to re-build the line from the ground up. Slower, with less variety, and more expensively.

Its a bad idea, in MY opinion. 4e has been out for 3 years? In the 3e days, 3 years, SJG could have put out, conservatively, 5 or 6 supplements? At $25 a pop, in my group alone, that would have netted them at least $150, and possibly more if it was a book we wanted more than one copy of. Instead, in the last 3 years, SJG has gotten $0.00 from us. Worse, in the NEXT three or more years, they will get $0.00 from us. I suspect my group is not alone in this.

When I walked into a gamestore in the past and saw a new GURPS supplement, it was a must have. Hell, I bought Old West and I don't even RUN Old West campaigns. Even if it was a marginal interest book, I'd look at the back and see $22.95 and go "Well, why not?", and I'd do that multiple times per year. Now I see one of the one or two books a year they're putting out for 4e, look at the back, see $34.95 for a book that would get no use, and go "No, thanks." That's the difference.

Its just the way it is, in my own personal experience.

I really wonder if SJG is making a big mistake with the new, all color, expensive hardbacks. I'm fine with the idea of a new edition to clean up the rules a bit, but what I don't care for are the more expensive books, especially the supplements. Perhaps they have hardcover core books, and paperback supplements.

They hobby is doing fine. More and more publishers are getting into the business thanks to things like OGL, and the way the internet has brought direct publisher to customer sales into play.

What may be dying is the old way of doing business. The publisher, distributor, game store, customer multi-tiered model. That may still work for WotC and White Wolf, but smaller companies can't get by that way. Hero games actively encourages it's customers to buy all products directly through them (although you can get their stuff at your FLGS).

FLGS may be dying off as well. Discount online retailers like Amazon are tough to compete with. In general, I don't think anyone can get by as just an RPG store. Perhaps by branching out into other things like board games, wargames, CCGs, CMGs, miniatures, comics, collectibles and other stuff these stores can stay afloat, but the dying off of the old business model puts the pinch on brick and mortar stores.

Maybe people my age don't play games as much, but many of us still spend a decent amount of money on games, and will likely continue to do so for quite some time. The one thing I have no clue about is the younger generation. Do teenagers play RPGs? Do they play MMORPGs instead? Both, neither? I'm completely out of touch and so have no idea.

Well, as far as I can tell, and this is from many many MMO-playin' friends and kind of a lot of time spent on MMO's myself:

The MMO has (almost) replaced television, not gaming. If not for the TIVO, it would have totally replaced television in my house, at least for me. My kids still watch cartoons, but the only thing I watch is Who Wants to be a Superhero (Tivo'd Thursday nights), and Doctor Who (Tivo'd on late late Saturday nights- theyre near the tail end of the Lady Romana/Tom Baker run). And I also Tivo the new Doctor Who off fo Sci-Fi, which I have no idea when it is on, it just shows up on the 'recently recorded' list and my son and I watch it on the weekends.. while we are playing computer games and hanging out.

And to add to that mere 4 hours of television I record per week? The Doctor Who actually piles up, and sometimes I just spend a couple of hours catching up on it on the weekends. Maybe.






Other than that- I don't watch TV.

But I still game every week.