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<blockquote data-quote="JohnNephew" data-source="post: 3145373" data-attributes="member: 2171"><p>Hey, Steve.</p><p></p><p>First off, congratulations on the merger. You have accomplished a monumental task by entering this space so aggressively, building DTRPG to such size and profitability, and then accomplishing this merger, which positions you to dominate this market.</p><p></p><p>Likewise, I have great respect for James, and I was proud to support his efforts to build this market by being one of the earliest print publishers to offer pay-downloads through RPGNow, and to offer with him the ground-breaking free download of our flagship core RPG (Ars Magica) to help promote his site, at a time when many of our peers were afraid of the medium or didn't think it would amount to anything financially meaningful. I also felt a personal loyalty to him and his project, which for a long time -- probably too long -- kept me from signing up to offer our downloads through other services, even if they offered terms as good or better than RPGNow's.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm sorry it sounds that way to you. "Evil" in particular would be an inappropriate word. Rather, OBS has economic interests that are not the same as the publishers and the consumers, and vice versa. A consolidation of market power and the ability to dictate terms at will to publishers is a great thing for OBS' business flexibility, growth, and profitability, but how much of that trickles down to publishers will be up to your discretion.</p><p></p><p>I think my record is pretty consistent in terms of concern about competition. Years ago, when our biggest customer, soon after their creation by merger, suggested to me that they should be given preferential treatment in payment terms, I put them on COD-only and left them there for several years. Even now, there is no one customer so important to Atlas Games that we could not survive and even remain profitable without them, and I think it is in my best interests to keep it that way. I value all of our customers, and I hope to continue doing profitable business for a long time to come with all of them -- but the fact that I can always say "no thank you" and walk a way gives me a clear head for evaluating things. And even when it ruffled some feathers, I have spoken out about consolidation that I thought would lead to bad things for the industry (as in my article in Pyramid about the proposed B/Z/A merger years ago -- a merger that thankfully did not go through).</p><p></p><p>I'd be happy to work with OBS if it could be done on a level playing field with other vendors (for example, a "wholesale price" arrangement, as I described earlier in this thread, letting vendors add whatever mark-up they think would work for their business plan; and the market would find the right level for prices to consumers). If that's something that could work, I'd be very interested, because I think it would result in competition that would benefit consumers and drive greater sales for all. Perhaps it's something that OBS might consider for the future -- I'm sure there's quite enough to deal with in bringing the two companies into one right now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JohnNephew, post: 3145373, member: 2171"] Hey, Steve. First off, congratulations on the merger. You have accomplished a monumental task by entering this space so aggressively, building DTRPG to such size and profitability, and then accomplishing this merger, which positions you to dominate this market. Likewise, I have great respect for James, and I was proud to support his efforts to build this market by being one of the earliest print publishers to offer pay-downloads through RPGNow, and to offer with him the ground-breaking free download of our flagship core RPG (Ars Magica) to help promote his site, at a time when many of our peers were afraid of the medium or didn't think it would amount to anything financially meaningful. I also felt a personal loyalty to him and his project, which for a long time -- probably too long -- kept me from signing up to offer our downloads through other services, even if they offered terms as good or better than RPGNow's. I'm sorry it sounds that way to you. "Evil" in particular would be an inappropriate word. Rather, OBS has economic interests that are not the same as the publishers and the consumers, and vice versa. A consolidation of market power and the ability to dictate terms at will to publishers is a great thing for OBS' business flexibility, growth, and profitability, but how much of that trickles down to publishers will be up to your discretion. I think my record is pretty consistent in terms of concern about competition. Years ago, when our biggest customer, soon after their creation by merger, suggested to me that they should be given preferential treatment in payment terms, I put them on COD-only and left them there for several years. Even now, there is no one customer so important to Atlas Games that we could not survive and even remain profitable without them, and I think it is in my best interests to keep it that way. I value all of our customers, and I hope to continue doing profitable business for a long time to come with all of them -- but the fact that I can always say "no thank you" and walk a way gives me a clear head for evaluating things. And even when it ruffled some feathers, I have spoken out about consolidation that I thought would lead to bad things for the industry (as in my article in Pyramid about the proposed B/Z/A merger years ago -- a merger that thankfully did not go through). I'd be happy to work with OBS if it could be done on a level playing field with other vendors (for example, a "wholesale price" arrangement, as I described earlier in this thread, letting vendors add whatever mark-up they think would work for their business plan; and the market would find the right level for prices to consumers). If that's something that could work, I'd be very interested, because I think it would result in competition that would benefit consumers and drive greater sales for all. Perhaps it's something that OBS might consider for the future -- I'm sure there's quite enough to deal with in bringing the two companies into one right now. [/QUOTE]
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