It's the same thing that I have a problem with any company, just be honest about your intentions. Don't say "you'll never see a copy of No Quarter in a Barnes and Noble because we want to support LGS's" then start selling your product there. They used that line to rake in some customers and now they're going back on it. I like a company when they do what they do because they want to make something that they believe in, not to make as much money as possible. It's not like they don't already get a lot of sales through LGS's and online game stores. PP may have a different approach at distributing their products then GW, but they still have the same mindset in my opinion.

IT sounds more like feelings of when you are really into a band, or certain style of music. And it's like an intimate realtionship between you and the bands(in the genre) and some of your friends and fans whom dig them.
And then one day you wake up and your bands new albumn is being played on the radio, little Jimmy from down the block is wearing a T-shirt with the bands logo and a pair of "cool" ripped jeans. Tina, the cute redhead from school has got a little poster of the band members with xxoo beside the "cute" singer in her locker. When you ask the wanna-be's if they like their first album and they yeah they really liked "insert album name here" but it is really their 3rd release.
All of a sudden, your private, intimate, experience is the flavor of the month. And it spawns the next 100 wanna be's and also rans...

You feel tainted, betrayed, used...

But I digress...

~Floyd

ps. PP wants some of the marketshare of the big-boys. The only way to do that is to hit the mass-market channels. Well, as mass a market as Barnes and Nobles are. I'd say worry when it hits Walmart!

And besides, they have alot more stuff than just Coffee and Trashy novels. Typically they havea nice Art Book selection. And tons of magazines. Lots and lots of historical and period novels.

I happen to like B&N and have the frequent buyer discount card and buy most of my sci-fi there. I am particularly pleased that some small release publishers are now distributing to B&N and bringing some of my favorite authors to light of the general public. Any increase in sales of smaller works means the possibility of more works.

This does not strike me as a sellout or a bad thing. Besides profit being, of course, the goal of all evil empires, it also allows increases in production, staffing and development. Oh, and gee, isn't even WWG planning on hard product for FLGS and (GASP) maybe someday distribution to maybe even a B&N near you...

Who's Barnes and Noble? Is it some sort of supermarket? Sorry, I live in the UK and we don't have B&N.

If I was able to get mini's along with my shopping, i'd be all for it. Then I wouldn't have to drive 45 minutes to see what else my local FLGS has stopped selling to replace with GW stuff.

Pretty much the only place I can get none GW stuff is a three hour drive away or via the net.


Mr Blackhammer

Barnes & Noble is what they call an entertainment store. Books, music, movies. Massive corporately owned stores that generally don't help to keep small publishers in business.

B&N is a chain bookstore, with online site too, similar to Amazon.

Ah. Thanks. It's a bit like HMV or Virgin stores over here then.

Mr Blackhammer

Yea I have to agree with the general sentiment here, that selling PP product at B&N is NOT a bad thing. There are far too few people who play miniatures games. People I know and meet who find out what I do, I have to go into a lengthy description of what a "miniature" is, and the concept of painting it, and playing a game with them on a tabletop of scenery, and they are shocked to find that there are actually painting competitions. It mostly clicks in their head if you just tell them you play with 'toy soldiers'. The demographic that even is aware of the existence of gaming stores is painfully small. Whatever can be done to expand awareness of our hobby is a good thing. And its not like PP is starting to sell the models through their own webstore for full price, thereby directly competing with LGS. More power to them!

I have to agree that it's not a bad thing. Also we have to understand that PP sells to distributors. If Barnes and Noble wants to carry PP products in the limited capacity that they do (since they are not a game store) they have to buy it through a distributor. The only limitations that PP gives to distributors is that they don't sell to online only stores. So pretty much anyone that qualifies under each distributor to sell their games (and most of them only require that you have your state's resale certificate) can sell PP products. If a business feels it's a profitable product they will carry it, whethere it's your LGS or Sam Goody.

GB just out of curiosity where do you live at? It sounds an awful lot like where I live in Louisiana except it would be Books-A-Million (2 in 60 mile radius) and only 1 shelf each.

Richard

We have a couple of shelves of D&D, Warhammer RPG, Star Wars at our local Borders here in the tropics.

Have brought a few new players in to my knowledge.