Supplements and the Tragedy of the Commons

[xiombarg]

In this thread, we have the following statement from Raven:

Ryan, having tied his own dick around d20 and D&D with his stubbornly defended pre-3rd Edition predicitions, as usual can't afford to whore anything else and do anything but paint a picture of "the d20/OGL future" that looks less and less reasonable with each passing year, and in fact appears to be ruining the market.

Many people, here and elsewhere, talk about the "d20 glut" and the "supplement treadmill" -- what others have referred to as the "frontlist" problem, which was exascerbated by the CCG boom and didn't disappear despite the CCG glut.

I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a version of the tragedy of the commons. That is, in this situation, the "commons" is your FLGS. White Wolf and the d20 industry are engaged in pumping out supplement after supplement, diluting the market -- and making it impossible to make a profit unless you do the same, thereby making the situation worse. Direct sales, advocated by Ron and lots of other people here on the Forge, only fix the problem somewhat, because you lack the traditional FLGS ability to expose people to new stuff -- the only people who buy through direct sales are ones that already know they'll like the product, to the extent that indie marketing can inform those people that the game exists.

The problem is, the original solution proposed for the tragedy is to "abandon the commons" -- that is, regulate. But I'm not sure that's even possible in this situation, even if you agree that's how to stop the tragedy...

[contracycle]

I think the analogy is too stretched, myself.  Pwerhaps there is smoething that could be extracted from it bey referring to thr thesis as a whole, but a simple mapping won't do it.  Apart form that, this only reminds me what a fruitcake Friedman is.