And now, piles of Secret of Zir'An - is it that unloved ?

Quote from: SeanAnd now, piles of Secret of Zir'An - is it that unloved ?

I saw the pre-release publicity on it....and then.... Then it never showed up at the store. As far as I know, no one in in southwestern Ohio ever saw a copy of it or started playing it.

We never had a copy of it at the store.
 Our nearest competitor, 5 minutes away driving time - I'm pretty sure he never ordered it either.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaI was a total dick to you in that thread.  You and James both.  Not that I think that was wrong on either count, but I'm uncomfortable with what a dick I was.  I'm genuinely sorry for behaving like that.

!i!

Why? We would expect less from a Sasquatch?

It's like Kyle says - yeah, I'm paraphrasing Kyle (cause to quote him would take three pages) - around here we give each other shit in one thread and then chat like friends in another.

IMHO it's one of the great things about this place.

Now if you end up acting like a hypocritical little fuckwad like walkerp, that's another story....

Like I said above, I'm uncomfortable being that much of a dick.

And, Ed, thanks.  I might be getting back to you on a pack or two of the Red Skulls.

!i!

*Le Sigh* I envy you mofos with bargain bins at your FLAGS.

-=Grim=-

Last time I was in the Local Local one, it had WW stuff - I think they were doing an overall 1/2 off throughout the little store.

I don't think Games Plus, the Far Local store, has a bargain bin, per se, does it (for any of you who might frequent the store)? I haven't been since the last game day, so I can't recall.  They have so much stuff in that place from such a diverse stock - they do have the auction (I think twice) every year.

I have two gaming stores to choose from in my neck of the woods outside of second-hand bookstores and the larger chain bookstores.

Store #1 has got jack shit in the BB.  Hell, they are wallowing in d20 books that haven't been touched for years as well as a multitude of other books which lie forlornly in their shelf-worn spots.  Why they don't just toss in the towel and go to strictly minis and comics is beyond me.

Store #2 has a plethora of amazing and beautiful things in their BB, and as soon as I feel comfortable with the ensuing checking account loss, I'm soooo snatchinating up that whole set of GURPS 4th Prime Directive books.

British FLGS tend not to have much by way of bargain bins, at best you get some old d20 stuff and some homebrew DnD knockoff that made it to unwise commercial release (and not one of them a patch on for example Runebearer, which I believe is free, if you can't match the free stuff some of which is very good why should I buy it?).

Compleat Strategist in New York though takes that to extremes, I've seen books covered in grime with torn covers dated years ago still at full list price.  Clueless.

The local used book store (McKay's) has always had about three shelves worth of used WW product, but recently (since the 4e announcement) I've been seeing a lot DnD3.5 and d20 product show up on the shelves. I'm thinking that this is a negative reaction to the announcement, which is further confirmed in my mind after hearing from FLGS owners that Paizo's Pathfinder series and dungeon modules aren't selling as well as expected around here.

Quote from: jeff37923The local used book store (McKay's) has always had about three shelves worth of used WW product, but recently (since the 4e announcement) I've been seeing a lot DnD3.5 and d20 product show up on the shelves. I'm thinking that this is a negative reaction to the announcement, which is further confirmed in my mind after hearing from FLGS owners that Paizo's Pathfinder series and dungeon modules aren't selling as well as expected around here.

It sounds pretty damn positive for me: people are presumably ditching their 3.5 products and not buying new 3.5 products because they're intending to switch over to 4E. It would be more damning if the second hand 3.5 market began to dry up as people held on to old 3.5 supplements rather than preparing for the shift to 4th edition.

indeed, a positive for 4E, but a negative for the 3.5 crowd.  poor paizo--first they lost the magazines, and now they have to rely on the (IIRC) typically low sales of adventures to keep the business going.  unless their other play-aids like the decks or whatever are their big sellers?

Quote from: BalbinusCompleat Strategist in New York though takes that to extremes, I've seen books covered in grime with torn covers dated years ago still at full list price.  Clueless.

Werd. And if you bring it up to them they get all pissy and defensive. It's why I stopped shopping there.

-=Grim=-

Quote from: WarthurIt sounds pretty damn positive for me: people are presumably ditching their 3.5 products and not buying new 3.5 products because they're intending to switch over to 4E. It would be more damning if the second hand 3.5 market began to dry up as people held on to old 3.5 supplements rather than preparing for the shift to 4th edition.

I agree its a positive thing for the 4E market (a game which isn't out yet), but there is going to be some serious loss in the 3.5E market which still has to make it through the next 6 months and a Christmas Season until the launch of 4E. Remember, in America, about 75% of all retail business happens during the October to January holiday season - that is when you make your money. So this will hurt the DnD market as whole over this season. Since WotC is the 800-pound gorilla in the room on gaming, it may well hurt the market as a whole.

Quote from: jeff37923I agree its a positive thing for the 4E market (a game which isn't out yet), but there is going to be some serious loss in the 3.5E market which still has to make it through the next 6 months and a Christmas Season until the launch of 4E. Remember, in America, about 75% of all retail business happens during the October to January holiday season - that is when you make your money. So this will hurt the DnD market as whole over this season. Since WotC is the 800-pound gorilla in the room on gaming, it may well hurt the market as a whole.

I am reasonably sure that Wizards of the Coast aren't going to go belly-up just because of the 3.5 market slowing down over Christmas. D&D isn't the only iron they have in the fire; I suspect even at its best it isn't even their most profitable one. It should be noted that they are slowing down their D&D release schedule - and making more of the products they put out system-independent, like the Grand History of the Realms - in order to account for this slowdown. It's not as if they haven't done this before with 3E.

If anything, this should be - in the short-term - good for the rest of the market. Remember, White Wolf managed to become as big as they did when AD&D was going through a very low patch indeed; historically speaking, whenever TSR/Wizards' sales have dropped, the sales of other RPGs have tended to rise as gamers spend their money on other games. In the long term, of course, D&D sales will spike again when 4E comes out; the question is how much, and how long the increased sales can be sustained.

I do think, though, that if I were in charge of launching a new edition of D&D, I'd time that release with the Holliday shopping season. I'm certain that there is a reason this wasn't done, but it is beyond me.