TOPIC: 2009 Onyx Proof Tokens Are In!

Of course that is right, but Jeff needs to define how he wants to grow his revenue stream. Token sales is one component of the stream. Token sales will grow when (1) more people attend and run the dungeon and (2) as you say, more people desire to collect tokens for reasons other than optimizing their runs through the dungeon. Each of these means requires a different strategy and a different approach. It's really up to how Jeff chooses to pursue it. He may be satisfied to pursue neither actively and let nature take its course. That may still work, but it will take a much longer time. Also as we are seeing now, the entertainment sector, into which TD fits, was once thought to be recession proof. This is seeming to not be the case in this nasty downturn.

Lol - I'm not trying to knock you, but who on earth thought that "entertainment" was recession-proof?  I've never heard of that.  The FIRST thing to go is luxaries, such as dining out, going to movies, diamond necklaces, etc..  Yes; people still want to escape the grind (of daily living, not TG!) by having some entertainment, but that doesn't necessarily mean one has to spend money to be entertained.<br /><br />JKW

It's OK. I don't feel knocked and I'm not an economist by training. I do read alot and there is a professional expert school of thought that believes that entertainment is held tight because people need it. I'll see if I can locate that story for you.

I think a big thing to remember is that the people that Jeff is trying to draw into True Realm may not look at tokens as a draw in the same way that many of the people on the forums do.<br /><br />Kim

If they're smart, they're looking at it as something to flip to offset the cost of their trip. Considering the fact that there are a lot of stupid people out there, it's very well possible they might not make the connection. I'm just not sure you can paint a brighter line and not be viewed as being a, well, the first word that comes to mind ends in muck and starts with sch. We just have to hope they'll make the connection at some point if we stress how rare and valuable those draws might be.<br /><br />I think the buttons will be a more appealing draw in and of themselves. Again, stressing in the messaging that this woudl be the only chance to pick them up and you could thus complete your collection.

I suppose you are all right. I continue to underestimate the value of special tokens and buttons I guess because of my personal bias. I am into this really for the thrilling experience of the dungeon, which prior to this was only available to me through paper and pencil or CRPG. I guess I am in a minority on that.

I agree that buttons are one more way to draw people to True Realm - although I do think that tokens are a larger draw.  <br /><br />I could actually see some True Realm buttons having some post-event demand, since there will be a lot fewer of them out there than the GENCON buttons.  True Grind in particular, since it has fewer events.  There are a lot of people that collect the buttons, as we saw from the anger last year when people didn't get buttons in the run because the people in the other party didn't complete their portion of the final room.