Monday, October 8, 2012

PDF Sales: Wizard as Valve

Honestly, one of the areas Paizo has Wizards beat is PDF sales, hands down. I love my books, but it is super handy to have them as PDFs and carry them around on a tablet or e-reader. Gaming goes portable, and my rules are always at my fingertips. Why wouldn't Wizards want access to rules, modules, and other D&D material to be easier? Kids should be able to pull up a copy of D&D at recess on their phone, on their laptop in the library, or any other electronic device anywhere.

Ideally, Wizards should be like Valve, game makers in their own right, and also as the premier distribution spot for any edition of D&D and TSR game, ever; and also start pulling in their competitor's games. Wizards should go beyond being a game that makes RPGs, and be a company that owns RPG distribution and the community around them. Paizo is close to being that now, and it hurts seeing an incredible back catalog of TSR gems sitting there and unavailable for people to enjoy. Competition is great, and I'd love to see Wizards mount a serious effort to 'own' the world community of roleplaying beyond just D&D.

On the subject, limited print runs of TSR games are incredible, and I hope Wizards branches out and reprints hardcovers of Boot Hill, Gamma World, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Gangbusters, and other great games. Sell them at a profit, doe a great job, and I will buy. Celebrate our history, support our players, and be a force which gives back to the larger community. Remember the network effect? The more people that play RPGs, the more people will play the new D&D - whichever version that is currently, 4th Ed, 5th Ed, and on and on.

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