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Jon H:
This is fantastic to hear.
A bit of anecdotal. I have been, on and off, a Page 45 customer for years. I lived in Nottingham,UK for some time.
Upon moving to a different city, and getting a job as the comics specialist in another comics and games store, I straight away was keen to build on the Page 45 model. And it worked. Sales improved seriously.
To break down the version of the P45 model we used, and to relate it to RPGs:
Understanding the realities of the market: Die-hard fans are a dwindling market. Marvel comics preached to the choir for years through the 90s. By the end of that time they could have put out blank pages with a number on the front and the hardcore fans would have bought it. But that was a dead end market. A constant stream of new blood is vital.
How I personally think this relates to RPGs: Products that require a vast collection of supplements. The idea that supplements prove a game is alive. The urge to appeal to collectors. The urge to stick to the same old 'geek-genre' approach. Preaching to the choir.
Cleanliness/organisation: Very important to not put off new customers. It also goes hand in hand with clear, well ordered presentation of stock. To me, it was vital to present our store like any other. Comic stores are all too often dark, smelly places unlike any other kind of highstreet shop - other than games shops and sex shops...
Possible relation to RPGs: A raise in production values. Why do many games have such low production values? (I know there are good reasons for this to do with finance and expertise, but it's a nettle worth grasping IMHO)
Unashamedly targeting new customers: I always figured that exisiting comic fans could find what they were looking for. They know what 'DC' means, they know what issue number they want. They know comics come out every Thursday, and that it's tough to get back issues. New customers don't know any of this, and the whole industry is quite arcane. To combat this, we produced a number of large posters detailing what different publishers produced, showed connestions between products: "Like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics? Try Sock Monkey". I also made posters detailing when comics come out, and the publishing processes that mean if you miss an issue it's tough for the store to re-order it.
RPGs related?: Absolutely. How many games now rely on the fact that the consumer already roleplays? Already knows what a polyhedral dice is? How many new games rely on existing models of play? When I first picked up D&D 3E I was shocked that the first page told you in very technical terms how to make a character. Not "what is a roleplaying game", but an assumption that most people wouldn't need to know. Ok, so the explaination appears on the next page, but the occultism has already occured. Was this the best move for the product that represents RPGs in the public imagination? It's easy for us to forget after years of gaming, just what it's like for a new gamer, or worse for someone that doesn't know they want to be a gamer. How do our products encorage these people?
Promoting more obscure products/giving information: Comics like Superman and Xmen broadly speaking sell themselves. "It does what it says on the tin", effectively. Given shelf space they sell. Comics like Acme Novelty Library do not sell as well if just given shelf space. We produced information cards detailing what individual comicbooks were about. This easily overcame people's reticence to ask the staff. Comic shops can easily become a breeding ground for cliques of customers, and it's easy to see how a casual browser wouldn't want to ask questions, for fear of looking stupid in front of a fannish audience.
RPG connection: D&D is a by-word for rpgs in many people's heads. The format of D&D appears the easiest to explain to a new customer. But is it? Why do I think that? Is using Dungeons and Dragons as a model for explaining roleplaying games reinforcing a certain gamer stereotype?
Display: Something that Pg45 has always done in Nottingham was to have very impressive window displays. Not of product, but (this is hard to explain) large purpose built, colourful 'sculptures', standees and displays that were based on comics. So the window one month would feature a massive cardboard cut out of Jimmy Corrigan, or characters from Ranma 1/2. Very attractive, very artfully made, and arty. In a city with a large art college, and a huge population of students, this strategy was really impressive.
RPGs: Related to production values, but also about who the target audience is. Are we selling to gamers, or are we selling to everyone? How does the appearance of our games relate to the wider audience. Visually, do we fetishise a gamer aesthetic? Does that actually alienate the wider audience? How do our products reveal their content to the browser? Artwork appears in a lot of games, and can be the hook that gets the product off the shelf in the initial browsing stage. How do we use that to maximum effect?
I could go on, but I'm less skillfully repeating a lot of what Ron has outlined. My point is that I would love to see the P45 model adapted and used within the roleplay market. Sometimes I perceive a willfullness on the part of certain gamers to keep themselves seperate, to keep their hobby and obscure and arcane thing. And that's a shame, and not good for the indstry as a whole.
Another point I would like to stress, as Ron has inferred - Page 45 almost avoids competing with the more regular styled comic shops. It places itself firmly and unapologetically in a different league. The Page 45 model doesn't apologise for being different - it confidently creates a new market simply by its form and function.
I often wonder why as RPG producers we accept the 'niche market' and 'small slice of a small pie' viewpoint. Is that what we aspire to? Or what we have been taught to beleive by our contemporaries?
I realise re-reading this post, that i haven't offered much in the way of new material to the thread, and I haven't offered many answers, but I'm so keen on the page 45 model that I had to speak up!