On Tue, 16 May 2000, Ryan S. Dancey wrote:
> MERP probably isn't even in the top 10 non TSR RPG games. ICE vastly
> misestimated their releative size vs. Palladium and White Wolf.
There is a difference between how many copies are sold and how many people
play the game now. That was certainly the case with ICE's MECCG where
Tolkien collectors were a significant proportion of the purchasers.
> > A new RPG for Middle-Earth would have to be better than ICE's rules at
> > simulating Tolkien's legacy, and would have to be targeted at the non-ICE
> > and casual audiences.
>
> You assume, incorrectly I think, that there is no existing population of
> gamers who just never saw ICE's Middle Earth offerings. Distribution for
> most RPG product outside the hobby trade is very limited and most monthly
> RPG players have probably never even been inside a hobby game store.
In the UK, those monthly RPG players *will* have been inside a hobby game
store, if they own the books. The number of RPG products sold in
bookstores and the like is few and far between. (GURPS Discworld and The
Babylon Project being the most recent products to sneak into bookshops in
small quantities.)
Regards,
Nicholas HM Caldwell
freelance writer, and editor for:
http://www.guildcompanion.com/
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