A few people visiting The Gamers' booth at Origins mentioned our move to direct sales and made remarks like, "Hope it works out for you." A store owner asked Dean to reconsider for the sake of pulling "the next generation" into the hobby. I thought to myself, "I'm raising the next generation." Like John Walker (see ZOC 7), I have a seven-year-old who likes wargames. One industry veteran with first-hand knowledge of SPI's fall assured us that we're doing the right thing.

Two recent editorials address the question of what The Gamers' (and maybe other publishers') move away from distributors might mean for the future of the hobby. In Paper Wars 25, Rich Erwin calls for rank and file gamers to become "evangelists" of the hobby in an era when publishers seem not to be marketing to a broad audience. Rich wonders whether the hobby can survive "the loss of its companies as promoters of the hobby."

To be fair, Gene Billingsley's remarks, printed in the same issue of Paper Wars, say that direct sales have become "a necessity" to GMT but not that GMT is dropping distributors. John Kisner, in ZOC 7, looks at the recent trend in wargame retailing, including The Gamers' response to dwindling distributor orders, and wonders "Do we face extinction, or merely evolution?" Having witnessed previous death-of-the-hobby pronouncements, John is neither alarmed nor alarmist, and he advises against panic.

My two cents worth? I hesitated at first to get out of the stores, and concerns like those raised by Rich Erwin justify some worry. During the '90s I have bought wargames retail, direct from the publisher, from mail-order discounters, and even from purveyors of used "classics." In the same period I discovered The Gamers and GamesUSA on the store shelf and GMT, Rhino, DG, NES, and everybody else through ads or reviews in wargaming magazines.

I first heard of Avalanche and Alea magazine because of promotional direct mailings. If I were starting today, I would probably gather all my informaton from magazines, mailings, and the web. And World Wide Web coverage of wargames is about to explode; if you don't believe me, ask John Kranz.

Most wargamers in the US can't rely on local stores to provide, let alone promote, the full range and variety of games now available. And we wargamers need not ask retailers to lead the way if we keep our eyes open, talk to each other, and buy those games we want to play. There is something to the question of whether The Gamers' (and other publishers'?) exit from a drooping distributor/retailer system will put the remaining publishers, especially the small ones, in an untenable position. I don't know everyone's internal business workings nearly well enough to guess.

But I know that Dean's view of competition among wargame companies is that it should operate on the level of the games' inherent qualities, not in the realm of marketing gimmicks. The Gamers Inc. is already considering ways wargame companies can help each other shift to direct sales when and if marketing through traditional channels turns out to be a losing proposition for more companies than the one in Homer.

And are we really getting out of the stores? Not necessarily. Just like you and me, retailers can order the games direct at the pre-pub discount and sell them at list price. Dean calculates that by doing so, retailers would keep more money per title than The Gamers received through distributor sales. Does this skip-the-middleman option mean we're declaring war on distributors, as did a certain not-fondly-remembered game company? Not at all. The distributors, who appreciate supply and demand, understand that our decision is nothing personal, just business.

Here's my prediction for The Gamers' future. The company will stay in business and enjoy the measured growth that has always been part of Dean's business plan. People who already like our games, as well as anyone who appreciates our on-shcedule delivery, consistent product quality, great customer service, and fun games will remain or become repeat customers. Our customer list will continue to grow with the addition of newcomers, as it already does. And while you may not literally rattle the box very often before buying those new games, the hobby will survive.