Rpgnow.com have just change their banner swipe line to "The leading source for indie games". Now why would they have done that? Is competition from IPR biting? Do they see indie games as the future?

It seems a little peculiar to me, as their best selling products are non-indie main stream products. As industry leading pdf reseller, I'm surprised at this - it's just them jumping on a smaller bandwagon.

I´d say:

DriveThrougRPG is for real game company stuff (pdfs of real game books),
RPGNow for everyone else = Indie.

Pretty much in line with reality.

PS: DT and RPGNow both belong to WW.

Quote from: PGivertyRpgnow.com have just change their banner swipe line to "The leading source for indie games". Now why would they have done that? Is competition from IPR biting? Do they see indie games as the future?

It seems a little peculiar to me, as their best selling products are non-indie main stream products. As industry leading pdf reseller, I'm surprised at this - it's just them jumping on a smaller bandwagon.

I would assume they are losing business on the indie side to IPR and want to challenge that.

If you go there for the latest Exalted book that line likely won't even mean anything to you, if you're shopping for indie stuff it makes it plain they want your business.

I'd say it's all about taking on the competition, even the smaller competition.

I´d like to reinforce my statement, that indie doesn´t have fuck to do with Forger-Thematic Games in RPGNow´s books.

Quote from: SettembriniI´d like to reinforce my statement, that indie doesn´t have fuck to do with Forger-Thematic Games in RPGNow´s books.

Ah, that makes even more sense actually.

Quote from: PGivertyRpgnow.com have just change their banner swipe line to "The leading source for indie games". Now why would they have done that? Is competition from IPR biting? Do they see indie games as the future?

No one knows why they did that. It's just more of the merger mess. As for IPR, I don't think they have much of an impact on OBS's bottomline. Someone mentions that the way RPGNow views indie games is different than the way others view indie games. True. "Indie", according to the OBS definition, is not that well defined and has more to do with sales figures than anything else.

As for White Wolf owning both sites . . . That's not the official line, but it's probably true. WW owned DT prior to the merger and I'm sure they bought out the Minion Development Corporation's interest in RPGNow after. But that's only speculation.

Quote from: SettembriniI´d like to reinforce my statement, that indie doesn´t have fuck to do with Forger-Thematic Games in RPGNow´s books.

True. When they say "indie" they mean micro-press, like Flying Mice, as well as Forge game publishers.

-clash

I'd like to take a moment to openly and brazenly pimp YourGamesNow.com as a better alternative to RPGNow.

Quote from: flyingmiceTrue. When they say "indie" they mean micro-press, like Flying Mice, as well as Forge game publishers.

-clash

Their top selling games are almost all mainstream, larger publishers. This has got to be some peculiar marketing idea. They tried this idea with The Edge, and look what happned.

Quote from: PGivertyTheir top selling games are almost all mainstream, larger publishers. This has got to be some peculiar marketing idea. They tried this idea with The Edge, and look what happned.

It's also probably true. Look at all the micro press games they sell. In aggregate, they probably sell more of them than anyone else. I know about 98% of my sales are through them, not YGN, unfortunately.

-clash

Quote from: PGivertyTheir top selling games are almost all mainstream, larger publishers.

For the most part, yes. But I don't think OBS would like to lose all of its non-mainstream, larger publisher. Why? Because they make a considerable amount of money from the small fries. All of those pennies add up. Which leads me to . . .

Quote from: PGivertyThis has got to be some peculiar marketing idea. They tried this idea with The Edge, and look what happned.

You're probably right, which is sad.

Well, I kinda laughed at this.  A while back they had a sale, (this was advertised at Enworld, which is how I saw it), and the press release said something like "World's largest retailer of indie games.." and then listed some of them: theyre all like 0One Games, and so on. It's all small press stuff, including mostly prominently featured D20 D&D publishers.

So basicly theyv'e taken the actual definition of Indie back. (And about time someone did).

That said, I don't really get stuff from them anymore, other than a brief flirtation with some nice maps and OSRIC Modules (which I didn't end up buying- but take a look at the 0One blueprint maps line. Theyre nice.).

I mean, my PDF purchasing is fairly limited. I bought that Universe set I am so fond of from that guy, and did my quarterly D&D purchase (Magic Item Compendium and Hordes of the Abyss" at Amazon as usual. That's been my purchases for the year.