A little background for those who don't know the background... Mayfair Games, publishers of the English edition of Settlers of Catan and other board games, has instituted a policy such that - in a nutshell - retailers who sell their in-print products below 80% of MSRP won't be sold more product. Mayfair adopted this policy because they feel that the Internet shops are hurting the brick-and-mortar shops, and that this is bad for the industry. This has, naturally, increased prices of their games at Internet shops and has, just as naturally, incurred the ire of many people who are wont to spill their opinions for the masses. Below is a selection from the coherent posts. You can probably get the gist of the other hundreds of posts without my help.
As a teacher, I'm becoming increasingly more concerned about the percentage of my students who have known nothing but entitlement since they were born. Those of you who are threatening to boycott retailers and publishers because you actually have to pay an appropriate price for your toys are behaving like whining, spoiled children. Have you ever considered educating yourselves about economics? Better yet, have you ever been able to step outside of your own experience and think about someone else?
— Cher (she later apologized, but i don't see that that was necessary.)
At what point does personal spite have the effect of becoming nothing more than dramatized self-denial of something that might bring you great pleasure?
— DWTripp (i debated the additional airtime since he sometimes selectively argues.)
You neglect to mention Group C, who don't especially care either way, and no matter what happens will still carefully weigh their disposable entertainment dollar against the price (whatever it is) of the potential purchase, just like they did before the Mayfair announcement that 90% of the thread apparently thinks is the 9/11 moment of boardgaming.
— dysjunct
If PCgamers and video gamers are willing to spend $50-$60 on new games AT THE MSRP PRICE, and we as board gamers won't spend $40-$50 on ours, then which industry will have the most money poured into by those who manufacture the games? Seriously....just think about that. You don't see PC Games or Video Games discounted 35% when newly released, yet bad video games will out sell great boardgames hands down any day of the week.
— flabber23
As a game publisher, I love the idea of a widely available sales channel (the online discounters) who take a smaller share of the customer price and thus make my product more attractive. At the same time, I know how valuable it is for us every time a B&M store decides to carry and promote Battleground...and the existence of online discounters makes our product less attractive to B&M retailers.
— Chad_Ellis
Greed is the mechanism by which entropy will destroy us all.
— diehard4life (this doesn't even make sense, but you gotta admit that it has a nice ring to it.)
[sic] and all that
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