Yes, you can hardly blame people for saving what can amount to a substantial chunk of money over the course of a year by buying online rather than in a shop. This isn't unique to rpgs either of course.
The web has been, and is, in many ways a good thing for rpgs. A lot of rpgs would be dead or have never been commercially viable without the web. There's a huge amount of material more readily accessble than ever. They're just two of the more obvious benefits.
The downside is that because online shops are low on overheads, 'real' shops cannot sensibly compete in such a diverse yet niche market.
Although I do kind of miss the old 4 hour fortnightly round trip to my games shop in one way, realistically I'm not prepared to devote that amount of spare time to something that can be accomplished in seconds online. Especially now I have to pretend to be grown up. When I was a teenager I had considerably more time to waste...
But then I think... well suppose there was a rpg store in town... say fifteen minutes walk away. How much would I really buy there. That's tough to say. The reality is I doubt they'd stock much I'd actually want to buy. I'd probably still resort to the net for many purchases...
Independent bookshops are damn thin on the ground these days. Only the chains really have presence in most British towns now, though the odd second-hand shop still survives. RPGs aren't big enough business for chains... except Warhammer I suppose. If GW were prepared to stock other companies' product things might be different in the UK. But there is a very good reason why they're not...
I don't think this can be blamed on the current financial problems either. Really it happened in the 90s in the UK I think. So can't really blame the web either. It resurrected RPGS in many ways, it just didn't resurrect the shops.
The web has been, and is, in many ways a good thing for rpgs. A lot of rpgs would be dead or have never been commercially viable without the web. There's a huge amount of material more readily accessble than ever. They're just two of the more obvious benefits.
The downside is that because online shops are low on overheads, 'real' shops cannot sensibly compete in such a diverse yet niche market.
Although I do kind of miss the old 4 hour fortnightly round trip to my games shop in one way, realistically I'm not prepared to devote that amount of spare time to something that can be accomplished in seconds online. Especially now I have to pretend to be grown up. When I was a teenager I had considerably more time to waste...
But then I think... well suppose there was a rpg store in town... say fifteen minutes walk away. How much would I really buy there. That's tough to say. The reality is I doubt they'd stock much I'd actually want to buy. I'd probably still resort to the net for many purchases...
Independent bookshops are damn thin on the ground these days. Only the chains really have presence in most British towns now, though the odd second-hand shop still survives. RPGs aren't big enough business for chains... except Warhammer I suppose. If GW were prepared to stock other companies' product things might be different in the UK. But there is a very good reason why they're not...
I don't think this can be blamed on the current financial problems either. Really it happened in the 90s in the UK I think. So can't really blame the web either. It resurrected RPGS in many ways, it just didn't resurrect the shops.
