Ed West, an editor in the book publishing field, from Garden City, Michigan read Dan Yarrington's recent column on the role of game distributors (see "Get In The Game--Should Distribution Die?") and had this to say.

Dramatic title, but like most things, death takes a long time.  It's become somewhat fashionable to announce the death of this and that but drama is not analysis.  Hobby game distributors will be around for a long time.  They already have been.  Their job is to watch trends and keep track of who's doing what.

So some companies want to sell direct to stores.  Why not?  However, I won't buy something I don't want no matter how it arrives at the store.  Some say stores are going away as well.  The financial meltdown hurt everybody and globally.  Look at the book trade.  They have been operating on a return basis for decades.  So if you ship 10,000 copies, expect 50% back.  At least that was the formula before 2008.

The game distributors order from publishers and you never see those books again.  No returns.  Perhaps the "real" book trade might get a clue.

Digital delivery.  Personally, I don't want to spend my day at a screen, only to go home and stare at another screen.  I don't want to pay whatever they're asking for some reader either.  Sure, some people are paying that, but consider that most people who read newspapers are over 50.  They'll be around for a while.  And digital does not create anything.  It's just a delivery method.

Humans are social.  The game and hobby stores are a lot more than vending machines and some are places to play as well.  You may have two thousand "friends" on Facebook but have you actually met any of them?

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.