Too Exensive, blah blah.

[Mark Taylor]

I am sick of role-players whining about how expensive role-playing products are, and I don't even work in the industry. I know some people who do though, well enough to know that many of them could easily make ten times the salary if they worked in a different industry. Face it people, you have one of the best value-for-money hobbies around. Quit whining. RPGs are cheap.

[OddHat]

I am sick to death of people complaining about the price of good duck fitness dance squads. Have any of you ever tried to train a duck to perform a fitness routine? The endless deep knee bends, the teeny-tiny sequin covered g-strings, the endless terrible quacking. And don't even talk about the damn Were-Chickens, sneaking into training areas, getting hot sauce all over the power cages. It's a nightmare. Still, when you see all of those happy ducks in their little leotards and leg warmers, bouncing and quacking to hot industrial dance tunes, I tell you, it's all worth it.

[Mark Taylor]

Hear, hear.

[Magmarock]

I'm tired of people complaining about the cost of 5th Ed Revised. If they don't want to pay for it, they don't have to. It's still 5th Ed and they can continue using FReD.


Mags

[bblackmoor]

This seems more like an NGD thread, really.

[zornwil]

Not really, IMHO, as Mark posted it he's discussing RPG material costs in general, I think that's on topic for this forum.

And I agree with Mark in general, particularly when you consider that all you really need to get a game going is a single book that someone loans you, even. I know, that's how I started.

[Thrakazog]

"Expensive" is a relative term.

[bblackmoor]

"Expensive" is a relative term.

This is so. For example, I can't bear to pay more than $25 for a computer game (and I usually pay about half that), but lots and lots of people pay that much and more. So I guess the question is "what's it worth to you?" If it's not worth that much to you, don't buy it. If the cost is why you didn't buy it, but you think it's a worthwhile product otherwise, I see no harm in letting the publisher know. Feedback from consumers is important. What the business does with that information is up to them.

[Blue]

If I were a kid in high school, even adjusting for inflation, yes I'd never be able to afford a book like 5ER. That also goes for most new video games for that matter. But I could easily see myself giving up the CD buying habit I had in high school for a about a month and begging another $10 off my mom to make up the difference.

I'm not going to say the hobby is cheap, but it's definitely worth it.

[keithcurtis]

In 1979 my Player's Handbook cost $9.95, Likewise the Monster Manual. I couldn't find the price on my DMG, but let's assume the same, even though it was likely a bit more expensive. Let's round it up and say $30 for the three books necessary to play the game. According to an inflation calculator, $30 in 1980 comes out to about $72.52 today.
At $50 5ER is a steal.
When you compare the quality of writing and art, it's a criminal steal.

Keith "Just saying" Curtis

[Mark Taylor]

"Expensive" is a relative term.

Yeah, it is. But as I've stated before, over the last 12 years I've gone through every state of financial health ranging from student / unemployed with no savings to reasonably well paid jobs and at no point have I ever found RPGs to be beyond my reach. Sure, there have been times when I haven't been able to buy quite as many supplements as I would have liked... but does that make RPGs "too expensive"? I still had more than enough material to run and play the games I wanted to play, regardless of other supplements I might have thought would be cool to have.

To my mind the only reasonable way to define "too expensive" is where the game designers are hiking the prices so they can afford gold watches, another mercedes in the driveway and a weekly massage for their poodle. That just ain't anywhere close to happening. Of course if RPGs sold in 100s of times the quantities they actually do game designers could do all of the above without selling at unreasonable prices... but I wouldn't advise anybody to hold their breath waiting for that to happen.

[John T]

I don't complain about RPGs being expensive... I complain about not making enough money to support the hobby!

John T

[AlHazred]

There was a thread on RPG.net about this last month. It was determined through some examination of the numbers, that RPGs are a hugely better deal than just about any other form of entertainment out there. Try being a theater-goer, for instance...

[Killer Shrike]

It's just the nature of the target audience. Ive often said that gamers are their own worst enemies as a group.

On average gamers have a negative public profile, under-earning issues (aside from people in computer related industries, how many gamers make decent money?), prioritization issues, maturity issues, a certain degree of detachment from reality, and demonstrate a high degree of segmentation in opinions and sub-interests. Further, for every group of gamers it is typical for one of their number to be the primary purchaser of material, and further has the power to allow or not allow any material they like within the confines of that group.

Individual gamers and groups vary of course, but thats still a very difficult demographic to cater to.

Considering the expensible income, interest level, and opinionated purchasing of the demographic, it's practically a miracle from a marketting perspective that the industry sees any profit at all.

[Lord Mhoram]

Gloat mode on:
I work at a game store, so I get my books at half off.
I still spend as much on the hobby as I ever would, I just get more stuff.
Gloat mode off:

Seriously, but anecdotally, I have seen the price tags for high end books be a bit of a put off for some people, but then again we sold a Worlds Largest Dungeon at SRP ($99.95). A lot of what I think is happening (especially in d20) is that the lower priced game books are being done PDF, so the only paper books you see are the middle/high end ones - the stuff that would be cheap is just being produced another way.