[MUD-Dev] Role-Playing Games Are Not Dead

[Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric]

At 01:17 AM 21/11/01 -0800, "Ryan S. Dancey"
<ryand at organizedplay.com> wrote:
>> From: Dave Rickey [mailto:daver at mythicentertainment.com]

>>>   * He estimates that Baldur's Gate sold to 1 million
>>>   individuals.

>> And ignores that Diablo II sold to 2.7 million.

> I don't consider Diablo an RPG.

Just for the sake of interest, we ran a poll about this on RPG Vault
a few months ago.  The methodology is questionable, as is the case
for any similar Internet poll, but here's how the results tallied
among a respondent base that is presumably completely or almost
completely comprised of CRGP and/or MMORPG fans since that's all we
cover:

To what extent do you consider the Diablo titles to be CRPGs?

                 -Slightly - 34.6%
                 -Not at all - 25.4%
                 -Moderately - 24.2%
                 -Quite a bit - 9.1%
                 -Completely - 6.4%
                 Total Votes 1044

Somewhat more to the point, as someone with a decade of marketing
management experience in a previous career, I'd say the assumption
that the total universe of CRPG gamers equals the number who
purchased a top-selling title is questionable in the extreme.  It
ignores those who bought it second-hand, traded for it, borrowed it,
pirated it, and probably some others as well.

Although I don't recall the full details, the game industry's lobby
group, the IDSA, stated that estimated game sales for 2000 were $6
billion while the cost of piracy was $3 billion.  Granted it's a
wild extrapolation, using this same ratio raises the 1 million
Baldur's Gate buyers to 1.5 million players while still not
accounting for secondary market sales, trades, borrowing or anything
else.

<returns to lurking>

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