Gaming Frontier's Next Rant Should Be

[JoeGKushner]

So what should it be? I vote for Game Companies having some of the worst designed and poorly planned and updated web sites.

 

[EricNoah]

I voted for that one too. And it's kind of related to my other pet peeve -- companies that are great at hype and crappy at anything else. If you say you're gonna do something, do it! And quickly! Don't say how you're going to put out some great product and then a frickin' year later there's still no frickin product! Arg!

 

[GamingFrontiersRob]

GF rant

I'm not much of forum guy so I just discovered this thread. I'm very flattered that you feel a column in opur book is worthy of a discussion. Now that Volume 2 is out you can see that the rant topic is about the prices of product in the rpg industry. A valid topic. I would like to address the other three you offered:

Regular updates to websites: This would be a tough one for us to rant about considering we're guilty of the same. Since this is still a part time thing for me, I have a hard time finding time to update the website. When I do find time, any amount of time, there is a million other things I would rather do. I'll try to do better but don't hold your breath.

What's that? Get somebody else to do it? I'm open to suggestions. As I'm sure you are aware, Mr. Noah, free help isn't always the best. You get what you pay for. If you know anyone who is talented AND dedicated AND free send him over.

Poor layout: This topic is similar to the art topic from volume 1. I do see the major differences and feel it deserves a rant but you can just replace the references to art in the volume 1 rant with referencs to layout and ou have your rant. Not much more to say on the subject. Pay somebody who's in that kind of business to lay out your book, don't do it yourself.

Lack of OGL support between companies: Now here's a good one! I'll pass this one on to Jeff. We have something in the pipeline personally that I'm not ready to discuss, but it's along these lines, utilizing more of the existing OGC. Volume 3 of Gaming Frontiers will have an adventure written by freelancers that uses OGC from Green Ronin's Legions of Hell. There's a start.

Thanks again, guys.

Robert J. Williams, President
United Playtest, Inc.

 

[GF Jeff]

I voted for the website one...oh wait a sec...

Jeffrey S. Carter
Head Writer / Assistant Editor
Gaming Frontiers
www.gamingfrontiers.com

 

[Lady Dragon]

I really agree with Eric that the thing that irritates me the most is companies that are severly late with a promised product.And at first I said it was inexperience on the part of the publishers but the problem continues.I would say to them If you don't know when it will be out go ahead and annonce it but don't give a specific date,or just stay quiet intil you have a better idea.

There are a number of publisher sites that give long lists of promised future products but most of them just barely manage to get a product out every six to eight weeks so at that rate it will take three years to get all there promised stuff out and by then they'll have a new list.Some take even longer than 8weeks between publications and strangely enough these are the companies with the longest lists.

well enough of this rant.

 

[Vacuum Elemental]

We announced our planned products even though most of them probably won't be available until 2003. The reason we put them out there is to let other developers know what we're working on. Sure, there's a big risk that they might try to beat us to the punch, but we feel it's the right thing to do. If every publisher did this perhaps we'd avoid reinventing the wheel (remember the April Fool's Elementalism topic?) and help promote creativity and diversity in the market.

And as a customer, I'd rather know what developers are working on instead of hearing rumors about "secret projects".

Just my 2 cents...

 

[Lady Dragon]

I agree announcing a product is not a bad thing.But telling us it will be out in june 2002 when you really mean apr 2003 is bad.