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

[Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric]

At 08:29 AM 22/11/01 -0500, "Leland Hulbert II"
<lhulbert at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric <jonric at vaultnetwork.com> wrote:

>> 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.
 
> However, second hand, traded, and stolen copies of a game don't
> make money.  True, an online game is often subscription based, and
> you can't effectively second-hand an account, since you pay the
> subsricption.  But I would guess that any gamers who were willing
> to get second-hand or pirated versions of what many called "the
> best game of the year" just because it saved them some money
> aren't likely to be paying for a subscription, either.
 
> An money is where it really counts.

Since the topic is the size of the CRPG player community relative to
the PnP player community, it seems to me that the appropriate
measure is the number of people who play them, not the number who
buy them.

I suspect it's fairly difficult to come up with credible numbers
that will allow a comparison that's reasonably close to apples to
apples.  It's impossible if you begin with an assumption (the number
of BG buyers equals the size of the CRPG community) that is not
credible to begin with, which is what I was trying to point out.

Cheers.

Richard Aihoshi  - "Jonric"
Editor in Chief, IGN Vault Network
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