Comic sales down in May

According to ICv2 comic book sales were down about 18%. This was attributed to the fact no number 1's were put out and Dark Avengengers was missing. I attribute it to the fact that comics are getting too damn expensive and I'm broke. My pull list use to be 30-50 books per month, including one-shots, annuals and mini-series. Now my total is 15-20. Granted I do have mail subscriptions to 10 or so titles, which saves me quite a bit per year, but that kind of drop in sales can't be isolated to just me. Surely others are feeling the economic pinch, which is not being helped by a comic book price increase.

When I was a teenager comics were 75 cents, gas was around $1 and I think cigarettes were less than $1(don't smoke kids... it really does stunt your growth, you smell bad and it makes your teeth yellow). That was roughly 20 years ago. Now comics average $2.99-3.99, gas has gotten as high as $5/gallon... though it is roughly $3 at the moment and cigarettes are hitting the $5 mark. This doesn't even take into account the fact that many of us have families, mortgages/rent, and other bills to deal with that we didn't have back then. Everything is 3 to 5 times more expensive and most of us haven't seen a pay increase of 3 to 5 times more $$$. Then everyone is surprised to see comic sales decrease? I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't get much much worse. I'm still dropping books or skipping ones that I want to get because of the price.

Maybe when I am a multimillionaire I can support the industry buy buying everything that is published, but for now it is every person for him/herself.

BTW I highly recommend you get at least a few mail order subscriptions if you are strapped for cash. I want everyone to support the brick and mortar stores, but in hard times it helps if you can find a way to save some cash. Besides if you have a set monthly comic budget and you subscribe to a few books once per year, you aren't buying that book each month and can spend that cash at the shop on something else.

ICv2 article

The Doctor is coming

Cubicle 7 is said to be releasing the long anticipated Doctor Who rpg this October. Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, according to ICv2, the game will run about $59.95 and will come in a box set. The set will contain a Gamemaster's guide, Player's guide, an adventure, character sheets, quick start rules, pre-generated characters as well as tokens and dice.

Doctor Who has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, so I am looking forward to this game. The game is supposedly designed to be fun and easy for both beginners and experienced gamers. Defintely worth checking out for any gamer who is a Doctor Who fan.

On a side note there have been some rumblings over at the Eden boards about a possible return of the the Buffy the Vampire Slayer rpg to Eden Studios. Other than a few posts from this past winter from the company most of it is just conjecture from fans. However, since the original post did come from Eden it has given fans of the game some hope. I'll keep my ear to the ground and let you know if I hear anything else.

Links:

ICv2 article

Cubicle 7

Buffy boards @ Eden

Links to other Doctor Who rpg material:

Timelord

Older Doctor Who game

Update to 3e, 4e post...

jreyst over at Cavernia left a comment on my previous post to inform me that there is a Pathfinder SRD and a google group. While on the SRD site I also found a link to the Patfinder wikia which was pretty interesting. This got me to wondering how many Pathfinder sites had popped up recently and suprisingly there weren't that many. However, after a quick search I did find a couple that are worth mentioning, Pathfinder Portal and Pathfinder Open Game Content.

Now that my curiosity is piqued I will do a more thorough search and see what other Pathfinder related sites I can come up with for a future post.

*I am including my list of links at the end of my post because they are apparently causing issues with the RPGBN. So from now on you will likely find all of my links listed at the end of my posts.*

Cavernia
PfSRD
Pathfinder wikia
Pathfinder Portal
Pathfinder google group
Pathfinder Open Game Content

4e, 3e does it really matter any more?

As Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game nears final release, the edition war seems, to me at least, to be picking up steam.
There are multiple posts on the RPG Bloggers Network as well as countless message boards discussing this very topic. Whether players are in the 4e, 3e, or retroclone camp doesn't seem to be as big an issues to me as the fact that so many people are talking about Dugeons & Dragons with a passion that has been missing for some time. While some claim that the anti 4e sentiment is reminiscent of what occurred when both 2e and 3e were released, I don't agree.
Granted the internet is much more prominent than at the time the other editions were released, but even in my local gaming community I am finding a great deal of discention in the ranks of gamers. In the shops that I get to visit on extremely rare occassions, gamers of all ages are picking sides in this discussion and surprisingly many of the younger gamers I've spoken with are either sticking with 3e/Pathfinder or going with retroclones. I don't know how it is in other areas, but some of the most vehement supporters of 4e seem to be the older gamers. Chalk it up to older gamers having experienced edition changes in the past and understanding, even looking forward to the experience of learning a new system, and younger gamers being protective of the first edition that they learned to play, but I find that kind of interesting.
For a while I was in the anti-4e camp myself, but I came around and have openly admitted that I was wrong, 4e is a good system. However, I find that I still prefer 3e and am axiously awaitining the arrival of Pathfinder. I've liked what I've seen in the beta and have gotten all my old 3e books out of the closet to start preparing 3e games once again. I've even discussed it with some of my group and so far it looks like 3e is back and here to stay with us. I'm not going to abandon 4e and will likely buy the occassional book, but 4e isn't my game of choice anymore. It had a short lived stay at the top, and it may once again, someday, but for now 3e is back. In case you haven't noticed the 3.5 resurgent logo on the sidebar, I'm sticking with 3e and happy about it. BTW, thanks 6d6 fireball for coming up with that.
This gets me back to my point. Having support for multiple editions, thank you Paizo, is great for the industry as far as I'm concerned. This can only help both the industry and retailers in the long run.
Those of us that are sticking with 3e will have continued support for our preferred edition, old schoolers have seen an incredible resurgence of retroclones to feed their gaming need and 4e players have new books coming out all the time. How could this be bad?
The only part of all of this that kind of bothers me is that gamers are tending to get at each other's throats in declaring their edition "the best" or "real" edition of D&D. As far as I'm concerned it simply doesn't matter. What ever edition you prefer playing is completely legit and you should enjoy it without feeling you need to defend that decision or attack a fellow gamer's preference. If you feel like Paizo's Pathfinder (3.75 or 3.52... whatever you want to call it) is the only true D&D then so be it. Granted it technically isn't, but I'm on board as that is the edition/rules I plan to play with as well.
While I hold no ill will against 4e, I can't help but feeling the the anti- WotC feelings, which I share and believe is well deserved in many regards, will help to keep the 3e movement alive. Then again I hope 4e has a long life, I just doubt that it is doing as well as some say it is doing. (If you want to read the great response to the post in that link check out Wonderous Imaginings... ) Then again I am not an industry insider and have nothing more invested in the success in one edition over the other than my personal preferences. So like I said before, play the edition of the game you prefer and have fun. After all that's what gaming is all about, but that's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.