Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6624178" data-attributes="member: 177">Have you ever heard the term &quot;scope creep&quot;?&nbsp; It is a term used in software development, to describe the slow addition of features.&nbsp; Microsoft products, for example, or Photoshop, are fine examples of scope creep - they have so many features as to tend to make the whole package unwieldy, especially to a newcomer.&nbsp; Whether or not they &quot;unbalance&quot; the game, the bulk of stuff starts getting in the way. How does this impact you, even if you don't purchase them?&nbsp; Let us look at that:For one thing, later publication will tend to be influenced by earlier publication.&nbsp; Not outright assuming you've bought all the previous work, but at least approaching with the idea that they have to &quot;outdo&quot; previous work to get you to buy more.&nbsp; You get a kind of inflation principle, rather like you can often see in movie series, where the last one must be bigger, louder, and more special-effectsey than the one before it.&nbsp; So, even if you are only buying a few things, their design and style will be influenced by the overall body of work.For another thing, folks will innocently come to your table wanting various bits from that body of work.&nbsp; Now, it is possible for a GM to be a hardcase, and be &quot;core only&quot;, but by and large GMs seem to like to be accommodating.&nbsp; And so, even if one doesn't plan to purchase, one will tend to do so, and extra bits will start leaking in.&nbsp; Even if this does not tilt &quot;game balance&quot;, it just makes the whole thing harder to manage.And, lastly, it ultimately creates this wall of content that new players will find rather daunting.&nbsp; Yes, you only actually *need* Basic to play, but human psychology doesn't approach it in that way.&nbsp; A slimmer release plan keeps the whole ting approachable for longer.In essence, it isn't easy-as-pie to play the game completely outside the context of its overall body of work, because people don't live in vacuums that have no exposure to the collection outside of what they use.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6624178, member: 177"] Have you ever heard the term "scope creep"? It is a term used in software development, to describe the slow addition of features. Microsoft products, for example, or Photoshop, are fine examples of scope creep - they have so many features as to tend to make the whole package unwieldy, especially to a newcomer. Whether or not they "unbalance" the game, the bulk of stuff starts getting in the way. How does this impact you, even if you don't purchase them? Let us look at that: For one thing, later publication will tend to be influenced by earlier publication. Not outright assuming you've bought all the previous work, but at least approaching with the idea that they have to "outdo" previous work to get you to buy more. You get a kind of inflation principle, rather like you can often see in movie series, where the last one must be bigger, louder, and more special-effectsey than the one before it. So, even if you are only buying a few things, their design and style will be influenced by the overall body of work. For another thing, folks will innocently come to your table wanting various bits from that body of work. Now, it is possible for a GM to be a hardcase, and be "core only", but by and large GMs seem to like to be accommodating. And so, even if one doesn't plan to purchase, one will tend to do so, and extra bits will start leaking in. Even if this does not tilt "game balance", it just makes the whole thing harder to manage. And, lastly, it ultimately creates this wall of content that new players will find rather daunting. Yes, you only actually *need* Basic to play, but human psychology doesn't approach it in that way. A slimmer release plan keeps the whole ting approachable for longer. In essence, it isn't easy-as-pie to play the game completely outside the context of its overall body of work, because people don't live in vacuums that have no exposure to the collection outside of what they use. [/QUOTE]

Verification