It seems that some companies are so concerned with getting new customers or new fans that they completely dismiss their current ones. I was thinking about this the other day when a friend of mine was talking to me about DC Comics doing a reboot of all their series in an effort to draw in new fans, who wouldn't be confused by all the context that might otherwise be needed to fully understand the story. As someone who does not actively read western comics, I don't think DC starting all their comics over would change my opinion. I have a lot of respect for western comics as a medium, but I don't think I would ever do more than occasionally read something that was shoved under my nose. I'm guessing there are many other people with the same opinion. So all they would really be doing is annoying the people who are already giving them money, and potentially losing customers.
It kinda reminds me of the music centre where I used to take violin lessons. For a while the company offered a lot of discounts to its existing customers, such as money off lessons if you were doing more than one thing (very good for a family with four children all playing an instrument) so it was really helpful to those who wanted to do more than one thing with the music centre. Then there was a management change and they decided that it would be better to get rid of all these discounts and instead offer reduced rates to new customers. So they financially screw over their existing members to offer cheaper prices to new members who are likely to stop paying for lessons once the price goes up. For the record, I think things have improved since then, but I remember it really annoying me at the time.
It just seems like a really bad business practice to me, and you would think that companies would want to think these things through.
Hey, that was me. So it was my fault you posted this!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, apart from the distaste a reboot leaves in my mouth, it also destroys comics biggest selling point - back stories. There has been so much that has happened in a comic universe, more so than any other fiction, and it is mostly good to try and backtrack through them all, reading both their past and future. Except when the story is terribad *cough* Cassandra Cain going evil due to drugs or something *cough*.
The main thing this will do is a quick spike in sales, before dropping again, probably to a lower level than before, as few of the announced titles even sound that interesting.
More thoughts that I am too lazy to reiterate on this reboot are on my own blog.