With the line drawn in the sand between PRPG & 4e, is there room left for smaller, independent gaming commpanies to survive? I think that there a lot of opportunities for smaller companies to give faster feedback to a smaller portion of the gaming community. While Paizo messageboards are shaping the design of its newest RPG incarnation, WotC seems apathetic to gamers' concerns. Marketing is the key, here, and WotC admits their products are aimed at a younger generation to the exclusion of the veterans. Outside of Paizo, does anyone know of other gaming companies or games that provide great interaction to their customers/players?
While it is a small company, Teddy Bear Press' "Mythweaver: the Splintered Realm" seems to be active with its newest on-line magazine supoort for its newest game edition. Anything else?
With the line drawn in the sand between PRPG & 4e, is there room left for smaller, independent gaming commpanies to survive? I think that there a lot of opportunities for smaller companies to give faster feedback to a smaller portion of the gaming community. While Paizo messageboards are shaping the design of its newest RPG incarnation, WotC seems apathetic to gamers' concerns. Marketing is the key, here, and WotC admits their products are aimed at a younger generation to the exclusion of the veterans. Outside of Paizo, does anyone know of other gaming companies or games that provide great interaction to their customers/players?
While it is a small company, Teddy Bear Press' "Mythweaver: the Splintered Realm" seems to be active with its newest on-line magazine supoort for its newest game edition. Anything else?
Two coments...
1) Paizo is a smaller, independent gaming company
2) WotC is not apathetic to gamers' concerns. Many of the changes they've made in 4E, including the changes to the Realms, are being made specifically to address gamers' concerns. Of course, what is a concern for one gamer may be the thing another gamer loves most. They can't please everyone, and I don't envy the position they're in.
Also, can you please point me to where WotC has stated that its products are aimed at a younger generation to the exclusion of the veterans? I'm not saying they didn't; they may very well have. However, I also wouldn't be surprised if that is a gross misinterpretation colored by personal preference (not necessarily yours).
With the line drawn in the sand between PRPG & 4e, is there room left for smaller, independent gaming commpanies to survive? I think that there a lot of opportunities for smaller companies to give faster feedback to a smaller portion of the gaming community. While Paizo messageboards are shaping the design of its newest RPG incarnation, WotC seems apathetic to gamers' concerns. Marketing is the key, here, and WotC admits their products are aimed at a younger generation to the exclusion of the veterans. Outside of Paizo, does anyone know of other gaming companies or games that provide great interaction to their customers/players?
While it is a small company, Teddy Bear Press' "Mythweaver: the Splintered Realm" seems to be active with its newest on-line magazine supoort for its newest game edition. Anything else?
Two coments...
1) Paizo is a smaller, independent gaming company
2) WotC is not apathetic to gamers' concerns. Many of the changes they've made in 4E, including the changes to the Realms, are being made specifically to address gamers' concerns. Of course, what is a concern for one gamer may be the thing another gamer loves most. They can't please everyone, and I don't envy the position they're in.
Also, can you please point me to where WotC has stated that its products are aimed at a younger generation to the exclusion of the veterans? I'm not saying they didn't; they may very well have. However, I also wouldn't be surprised if that is a gross misinterpretation colored by personal preference (not necessarily yours).
Paizo seems bigger than a small game company might be...Paizo even references the "Indy" community, and I cannot see it counting itself among that group. The fact that Paizo is essentially challenging 4e with its newest re-clarification product seems to show its swagger in that arena.
I agree that there seems to be a large feeling of abandonment throughout these boards by veterans. While I don't think that WotC is purposefully disbanning the older generation of player, it does seem to court the next generation a lot. I believe there was a poster posted here from the WotC site that eluded to the next generation of D&D. My personal experience from the WotC messageboards was less than thrilling, so maybe I'm slightly jaded and more likely to fall into the crowd that dislikes (not neccessarily won't try) 4e because of how I felt I was treated during what I like to call, the 3.5 coup.
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WotC's apathy and ignorance in regards to fan feedback is hurting it's target market too. As a member of the "next generation of D&D" I can't name anyone in my groups who's looking forward to 4E. Most of them hate it. So they've managed to alienate that market too, because new editions every 3-5 years are hard to swallow when you have too limited an income to afford to re-purchases.
WotC's apathy and ignorance in regards to fan feedback is hurting it's target market too. As a member of the "next generation of D&D" I can't name anyone in my groups who's looking forward to 4E. Most of them hate it. So they've managed to alienate that market too, because new editions every 3-5 years are hard to swallow when you have too limited an income to afford to re-purchases.
No offense, but alienating you and your group doesn't necessarily mean they've alienated the market. There are a lot of D&D players out there, and neither you nor I represent all of them.
The way that WotC has set up the schedule for its 4E releases, it won't be any more expensive than continuing to buy 3.5 products would have been. We'll see a few books every year, and you can pick and choose from any of them with the exception of the three core books. Right now you can easily pre-order the core books for around $20 a book if you check around.
To the point of the OP, there is definitely room in the RPG market for such smaller companies and I've actually had several good expereinces of late with a small company, Talisman Studios, interacting with and responding to its fan base. Every employee of the company is on their forums on a weekly basis, they take criticism of their products well (and have actually incorporated fan-inspired material), and I even had the cool experience of recommending a product and having them actually produce it within a month (a set of playing cards for their Savage Worlds campaign setting Shaintar: Immortal Legends). Two of the Talisman employees even came to our last local D&D meet-up to talk about their products and run some games. Their a top-notch group of folks, putting out some interesting (and gorgeously illustrated) material.
I am happy to see how an interesting game can evolve before our eyes. Early this summer, I saw Pathfinder go through Alpha revisions while an online community made zillions of comments. I also have enjoyed playing Mythweaver, and have seen it go through a recent transformation into a 2nd Edition. Like Paizo, Mike Desings game has heard a lot of comments from a smaller, yet equally dedicated group of fans through a Yahoo! group and an online journal. I am very excited to be in the gaming hobby now!
Oh I think there is a lot a room for other publishers. The fall out of the Edition wars has been to an extent the fleeing of DnD fantasy to other alternatives, both people disliking 3.x and people wanting all the problems 4e will have to be ironed out.
I know I'm a bit off on the time line here, but remember during the 1e to 2e wars we got a little company called white wolf come out with Vampire and the OWoD. I think people forget that during the golden age of RPG's (the mid 90's) White Wolf was right on the verge of taking down TSR (this had more to do then the game itself, but there was a collective feeling at the time that there must be something other then heroic fantasy) both Rifts and Shadowrun, while not as popular, both had what is largely regarded a hey day at the time, and both games are still here during this shift.
The 2e to 3e wars was a little differnt because at the time White wolf was at the top of there game, and the industry collectively needed a push, 2e didn't so much lose the fight, as a whole new gen. of players came on board to d20 as opposed to 3e, the two being diff. animals. Now the feild suffers form d20 glut, and maybe withdraws, and gsl fiasico has left collective bad taste. While I like 3e, and like pathfinder and conan for ogl games I never abandoned Rifts, and well White Wolf sorta abandoned me, but in any case I see a lot more diversity now then eight years ago, and perhaps in a year or two more then what we saw twenty years ago, hopefuly new companies can take down the gorilla, though I'm not holding my breath on that one.
In any case its a good time for other publishers. I think Shadowrun will do very well, oddly I thing the new world of darkness core games will fail but there other games will do extermly well (like chageling) Rifts we'll grown stronger from their near death, but I suspect the games to keep an eye on will be a. Pathfider and b. Savage Worlds
Two coppers of mine.
TTFN Dre