Does a publisher/author's interaction here influence your purchases?

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

While I avoid some companies because of bad dealings with the owners/authors, there are some products I will buy no matter how much of a jerk the author/owner of the company may be. I have also checked out/bought PDFs specifically because I saw an interesting post here or elsewhere from the publisher (Ronin Arts and UKG are both examples).

 

[eyebeams]

eyebeams,

If Dark Quest published a product that was interesting to you, would you buy it?

No, because I can't trust them to do right by their content producers. I mean, on this very thread, Neal admitted to this:

Yes, I did indeed go ahead and release the product while the negotiation was still underway.

What would you call it when somebody takes your property and sells it without permission or compensation? If I hadn't chased Neal Levin, "theft," might be one way of describing it. I can only wonder what would have happened if I hadn't emailed him repeatedly, and whether any other DQ products are the result of such an alternate scenario.

Incidentally, one thing I do have to give the indie RPG scene, which I diss fairly regularly, is that this never comes up with them, AFAIK. That's one reason why I own a copy of Sorcerer despite my serious problems with Ron Edwards' design philosophies, and plan to buy a hardcopy of The Shadow of Yesterday despite the fact that creator Clinton R. Nixon probably hates me (the other? They're good games).

 

[ForceUser]

If James Wyatt had a hand in writing it, I will usually give it a look. He wrote my two favorite 3E books--Oriental Adventures and Book of Exalted Deeds.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Sean K Reynolds falls in this category for me from watching him maul a bunch of tweens on the WotC boards.

"SEAN K REYNOLDS HUNGRY! RAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!" *crunch*scream*sqelch*splat*

Hahahahahahaha!

On-topic, I'll say that it does, with a few caveats. Monte Cook has sold more to be because he's been a stellar bloke -- I bought things I usually wouldn't. Similarly, Grim Tales has sold one less copy because one of those involved kind of grated on me. However, I've heard a lot of positive buzz on GT, so I'd probably pick it up if I ever had to run a gritty, low-magic game anyway, 'cuz it does the job.

Community interaction influences these purchases. And I'd expect that people's purchases of my own material would be based, in part, on my own community interaction. To me, it only makes sense. I'm not buying from corporations, I'm buying from people, and people I'd chill with would be more likely to get my money that folks that torque me wrong. However, the most important factor is what is good for my game. For good or ill, my game doesn't NEED a whole lot. Thus, I can give money to those who rub me wrong just because it's good (I baught something from Mongoose even though Matt Sprange refused to continue contact with me, I'll still buy an ENG product or Bastion item even thuogh they stiffed me). But when I'm looking at something interesting vs. something semi-essential....interaction affects me.

I'd expect and want to be judged by the same standards. If you think, after reading my low opinion of some book or another, that I'm an egotistical jerkwad, that's fine. I'd hope that you'd judge my gaming products based first on how useful they are at your table. And if it's just an interesting thing and I lost a purchase because I acted like a jerk, well, I'd like that to happen, too. I'd like to try and make good on it, maybe, but whatever.

I don't need to be protected from the consequences of my own actions. I'm a community member, for good or ill. I'm in this for your amusement and my own. I'm not perfect, and sometimes I make a jerk out of myself, and may be we don't always see eye-to-eye, but we're all gamers, we're all board members, we're all in this thing together, yo. And if you make something cool, I want to hear about it so that I can give you some of my paltry income for it. Even if maybe we've had a spat. We're only human, after all.

 

[blargney the second]

I'm a stickler for good writing. When an author posts here, a significant portion of my assessment is based on how well they write. If the language is clever and well-used, my attitude is immediately improved by one category, (almost) regardless of the content of their message.

Off the top of my head, here are a few authors/publishers who have impressed me:
- RangerWickett for Savannah Knights
- WulfRatbane for his story hour and entertaining thick-skinnedness
- jgbrowning for brief and extremely cogent posts
- MarkCMG for good-natured helpfulness
- mearls for making everything he types great to read
- monte for sharp gaming observations

(I've bought products by at least four of those six.)

There are definitely notable others, but it's late, I'm tipsy, and things ain't what they used to be.
-blarg

 

[Ranger REG]

Here's a few questions I've been meaning to ask:

If you come across a disappointing product, would you go out of your way to question the author of said product why they make such it so disappointing? Do you go out of your way to relay your criticism to the author personally? Do you dare to question the author's competency in his skill?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Perhaps because En World and other places make it easier for a small community to actually get in touch with the authors as opposed to the larger venues of entertainment where such contact is minmized that people think they have a better idea of what type of people the authors are?

 

[sjmiller]

Generally, I would have to say that no, I am not influenced. However, there is one exception to this. That would be Kevin S. of Palladium. The one time I met him, the several times I have seen messages from him, and his general conduct towards fans and those who work in the RPG community have all made me firmly decide that I will never buy anything from his company.

Other than that, I really don't care if the author/publisher is a nice guy or a jerk, as long as the product that is produced is of high quality. I even have a certain amount of respect for a few people in the industry that others find particularly annoying, mainly because they make good stuff.

 

[francisca]

Sure has in the past. The knife cuts both ways, however.

I purchased RPGO's Excalibur based on the thread wherein Charles Rice discussed it.

I eventually picked up the TW pdfs from Green Ronin because of developer comments.

I have decided to never by products by a few authors and companies based on what they have said here, but I'm not naming names.

 

[hellbender]

What would you call it when somebody takes your property and sells it without permission or compensation? If I hadn't chased Neal Levin, "theft," might be one way of describing it. I can only wonder what would have happened if I hadn't emailed him repeatedly, and whether any other DQ products are the result of such an alternate scenario.

You know, I wouldn't really call it theft. If you were the last one to sign and holding the others up, what choice does the publisher have? Would you really hold up paying everyone else for a holdout if you were in the other person's shoes?

Doing art and illustration, waiting for payment is all part of the joy of freelancing and nothing new. Some big companies take a looooong time to pay. The product is out, the money is coming in, and you are sitting around waiting for a check.

If you didn't sign the contract, but didn't submit your final work (what would be the same as a preliminary sketch in illustration) then you are still technically in the negotiation stage. The product going to print is a necessity of the publisher to meet a deadline, satisfy customers and stay in business, and I seriously doubt it was done to wrong you in particular.

Part of being professional is knowing and accepting that no matter what, you are part of a team. Everyone depends on others and all work must be done with a clear plan that everyone sticks to. Don't get me wrong, I do understand the importance of a contract and it being signed, but I don't fault the publisher in this case if you also hadn't turned in your final work, but he had to go to print. I haven't worked with this publisher, but calling him a thief seems quite extreme and not a good way to get other publishers to look at your work. Don't burn bridges, shake hands, learn from the experience and move on. Don't point fingers, every time you do, four are pointing back at you.