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Historically, academics - true scholars and scientists - judge a work on its own merits, or as a part of a body of work, and in context. The creator stands apart from that. The problem is that there's a non-scholar political sort that has already created their own political narrative, and...

Lovecraft in his personal letters and in various writings would be considered extremely racist today; how racist he'd be considered in his time, is really debatable. Don't rely solely on depictions in the media, movies, etc that take creative license to tell a story. Also, and this also goes to...

Please do not reduce people of a race/gender/sexual orientation into a stereotype, even for a frame of reference. In itself, I agree that it need not push anyone down, so long as the language used doesn't create a new frame of reference that places other games or players of other games in a...

I thought with the XXX it was clear the quotes were there for paraphrasing or emphasis rather than an actual, direct quote but Ill know better next time ;-) Injecting a moral high ground into the message is one way to do just that. And to reiterate, while I don't see that moral high ground in...

I have the original game, and because of it, I got the True20 system. The introduction of the game gives a pretty good description of the genre its trying to emulate. Hey, why not? Those books had their fans, and certainly we saw plenty of games around works of specific writers and sub-genres...

Coming from a tech background, Product Manager is what I would call this position.

I think you are oversimplifying. There are a number of extremely successful (for what they are) OGL based products that come to mind, such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Adventurer, Conqueror, King, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. These are "core" products of a system, but they are still...

I lke the toonier one better - it pretty much is what it is (but get rid of the faux Final Fantasy sword). The first one would be more interesting if light sources were fixed and the giant's tusks socketed into his skull.

What you can make as a translator also depends on the language, field and experience of the translator. Also, depending on what the type of editing is, you can charge more for that. Every translator should have their work eyeballed for accuracy; its rare that a direct translation is suitable for...

You are right, at least for free things that have no effect on someone's bottom line. What I have always found interesting is how some people think if they got something for free, they can automatically redistribute it however they want.

That was a nice little bait on a hook there by mentioning minimum wage and living wage together. But I positively agree... that is your philosophy ;-) Not all niche markets pay poorly, but for the most part this one does, and seemingly for very good reasons. If you have a very vertical...

Differences of opinion aside, I also want to thank Morrus and the vendors / publishers who provided data and feedback. Even if we disagree on some things, knowing is far better than not knowing - even for folks who are just end users and have no idea what costs are to produce even a modest project.

I think you are clearly identifying a philosophical difference in society that goes beyond this tiny market - between these perspectives of value of product and value of labor. The value of a product is determined by what people are willing to pay (yes, its more complicated than that when you...

I knew that when I quoted you ;-) If products are really selling at the rates I have seen quoted, then the work (meaning the great majority of work from small vendors, and not the ones that can pay anything like a real wage) just isn't worth doing for most people. It isn't what the work is...

Its only exploitative if there's no other viable choice. There are plenty of other choices. There are the very, very few well paying writing jobs in the RPG market, and there are many more writing jobs outside of the RPG market that pay much, much better.

Intellectual property doesn't work the same way unfortunately; even with real world goods, once it crosses state lines it gets more complicated.

It might be worth checking out where he is actually located. WHOIS shows a site registration via an Australian registrar but a US based registrant: Registrant Name: Julia Shipman Registrant Organization: Julia Shipman Registrant Street: 2105 Maple Street Registrant City: Lawrenceville...

The design looks very nice but it actually reminds me of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook....

I think there are some examples of publishers who don't know what they are doing offering "exposure", not out of any ill will, but out of thinking good intentions are enough. Also, you have some who may offer exposure but could be paying, too. The exposure angle is the least cost for custom...

I agree - it is important to be competitive. One thing regarding those new to the market is to make sure you have a good demo reel or portfolio. Even if you do not have a lot of paying gigs yet, if your portfolio is packed full of "just good enough" assignments from art school, you don't get...