Do Personal Opinions Of Authors, Etc Dissuade You From Purchases?

[Voadam]

Now it's interesting how you've asked this. The answer for me is.. kind of. There is an element of me liking a company that makes me decide whether I buy a product.

I'm much more likely to buy from a company that I know, or believe, produces good quality stuff. The corporate brand name is important - I'm more likely to trust a WotC, AEG, Fantasy Flight (or many others) product than 'Joe's DnD book' because they're companies that I trust to produce quality.

Equally I don't get along with White Wolf games (I don't know why, just not my thing), so even if they were to branch into D20, I'm probably less likely to buy their products. Now that's not because of a personal opinion or because I've read something by one of their designers. It's just because I didn't click with the World of Darkness, and now a part of me thinks their products are just not for me.

Joe's Book of Enchantments is quite good. I recommend it. A PDF by Joe Munichello, company name Throwing Dice Games.

And White Wolf produced a metric ton of d20 stuff through their d20 imprint SSS. Scarred Lands, World of Warcraft, Gamma World, Ravenloft, Relics and Rituals, etc. they even printed Malhavok and Fiery Dragon d20 products. I forget if Necromancer goes through them as well.

 

[Voadam]

I have never passed on a product because of anything an author has said on a messageboard. Topic I'm interested in, quality of product, format I want, and price are my purchase determinants.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't buy Games Workshop because of their policy towards independent hobby shops in the UK.

I don't know what you're talking about, but we had a blowup with them here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

They opened a GW store in a mall and started undercutting the prices at which the game shops were selling their stuff. In retaliation, many game shops put GW products on 50%+ discount and sold them off completely.

The GW store is now closed...but a few stores still refuse to carry their stuff.

 

[philreed]

If you engage in plagarism or copyright violations, especially against other publishers in the industry, and if your asked to stop and you don't, well, I won't be buying from you ever again.

Thank you. I just wish that more people felt as you do.

 

[diaglo]

I forget if Necromancer goes through them as well.

yes, they do.

the warehouse is 2.8 miles from my house by car. 1.1miles as the crow flies.

it takes a week for them to ship to me.

 

[DaveMage]

Yes, the personal opinions have influenced me.

In a positive way, I've bought products I never would have bought because the authors represented themselves very well here. (I mean, how can you not want to buy from Joe & Suzi?)

On the negative side, there is one author I would never buy from because of the way that author has conducted himself on these boards.

However, I will say that an author's political and personal views do not impact my buying in any way - only their conduct.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

No... I've never not bought anything because of the beliefs or actions of an author... I don't care if he eats babies with worchestire sause or tobasco sauce, its none of my concern what kind of sauce he likes.

Yes... I have bought things that I would not have bought or would not have heard about because an author impressed me in some way, brought up something particularly cool, said nice words to someone (not just to me), or generally had a positive presence here or on other message boards.

Later
silver

 

[GQuail]

Wow. Almost 77% of responses say that personal opinions either have lost sales of are a contributing factor. I'm rather surprised at that as I don't think the pervious poll was quite so heavily weighted that way.

I too was surprised just how many people have voted that way. I expected it to be a factor for some, but this appears to imply most people are paying a lot more consideration to authors than I am. ;-) Specifically, almost 50% of us have apparently not bought something because of our personal opinions: which is way more than I expected.

I'm noticing that some people are tlaking about specific major political, religious or criminal issues (i.e. "I won't buy products from racists" or "I won't buy from a convicted drug dealer") whilst others are generally moved by smaller things like netiquette on boards or suchlike. (i.e. "They were a total jerk".) I guess a lot of people would consider the former a big deal, whereas the latter might be more what the previous poll was about, and thusly less people got fussed.

 

[Graf]

Only if they have opinions that are different from my own...

 

[Greylock]

Yes. I won't buy a book from someone who has a negative history on the boards, or in my personal relations with that person. In fact, I am going to exercise that discretion tomorrow.

However, as Pogre pointed out, there are some authors whose books I never would have bought, except that they made a great impression online. I will buy their books often sight unseen. In fact, I am going to exercise that discretion tommorow.

Goes both ways.