Fast Forward Lays off Staff
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
trancejeremy
Adventurer
Sad, yes.
Surprising, no.
Not to beat on a dying horse, but they have a number of problems. Bad products. Bad editing. Bad art (most of the art they use is clip art). Poor grasp of d20, the OGL, and the d20 STL. Bad publicity - a lot of products of theirs come out with no fanfare or mention.
Granted, sometimes you can make too much out of the internet and ENWorld, but look at how many fairly large companies post press releases and such here. It can't hurt business to announce products here (or RPG.net, or anywhere), but AFAIK, Fast Forward has never done so.
Surprising, no.
Not to beat on a dying horse, but they have a number of problems. Bad products. Bad editing. Bad art (most of the art they use is clip art). Poor grasp of d20, the OGL, and the d20 STL. Bad publicity - a lot of products of theirs come out with no fanfare or mention.
Granted, sometimes you can make too much out of the internet and ENWorld, but look at how many fairly large companies post press releases and such here. It can't hurt business to announce products here (or RPG.net, or anywhere), but AFAIK, Fast Forward has never done so.
BrooklynKnight
First Post
Hope you dont mind the hijack, but I feel that not only does it "not hurt" for a company to post here, I feel it is absolutly esenesial that they post here. EN World is the single largest porthole between publisher and fan. From here it spreads by word of mouth all across the world.trancejeremy said:
If Enworld didnt exist/startup then I think the d20 market would have collapsed from lack of intrest/information.
Ranger REG
Explorer
I don't know about being essential to the company's survival, but it can't hurt to plug in EN World or any d20-supported news sites and messageboards.
Of course, not every small business is lucky enough to have (business) internet access.
As for FFE, exactly how did they go overboard on the expenses and not yet one of the projects have not yet made into a book? Is there some jackass writer telling them they need to go to Las Vegas to research gambling and casinos that can be used in a fantasy campaign? Or buy all the back issues of CrossGen comics for the RPG and card games.
(Yeah, it sucks when the owner of the IP won't help you out except to say "deny" or "approve." Put that one under Rich Redman's reasons not to publish licensed products.)
Of course, not every small business is lucky enough to have (business) internet access.
As for FFE, exactly how did they go overboard on the expenses and not yet one of the projects have not yet made into a book? Is there some jackass writer telling them they need to go to Las Vegas to research gambling and casinos that can be used in a fantasy campaign? Or buy all the back issues of CrossGen comics for the RPG and card games.
(Yeah, it sucks when the owner of the IP won't help you out except to say "deny" or "approve." Put that one under Rich Redman's reasons not to publish licensed products.)
trancejeremy
Adventurer
Well, the people at Fast Forward (the appropriate abreviation is apparently 'FAF', as FFE is for Far Future Enterprises) are online, and are fairly active on their own message boards.
And in fact, one of their early product was an internet collectible card game (DragonElves, which was the basis for their "Green Races" setting).
Anyway, as mentioned, they did have to pulp a number of their products for d20 STL/OGL violations. So that's some of it. And I don't think much of their other stuff sells very well, yet they've put out a surprisingly large number of products.
When I finally heard about "Sundered Reaches", which is basically d20 on a fantasy version of Mars, I was able to win a copy of it on ebay for $2. List price $25, and it came out this year. I don't think I've ever seen anything drop that much in value so quickly.
Like I said, a combination of poor quality and lack of marketing doesn't generally result in good sales. Which is a shame, as they have a lot of good ideas.
I think most of what they owe money on is free-lancers. Going by what I've read on RPG.net and their own message board
http://fastforwardgames.com/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=308
they're late in paying a lot of the free-lancers.
And in fact, one of their early product was an internet collectible card game (DragonElves, which was the basis for their "Green Races" setting).
Anyway, as mentioned, they did have to pulp a number of their products for d20 STL/OGL violations. So that's some of it. And I don't think much of their other stuff sells very well, yet they've put out a surprisingly large number of products.
When I finally heard about "Sundered Reaches", which is basically d20 on a fantasy version of Mars, I was able to win a copy of it on ebay for $2. List price $25, and it came out this year. I don't think I've ever seen anything drop that much in value so quickly.
Like I said, a combination of poor quality and lack of marketing doesn't generally result in good sales. Which is a shame, as they have a lot of good ideas.
I think most of what they owe money on is free-lancers. Going by what I've read on RPG.net and their own message board
http://fastforwardgames.com/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=308
they're late in paying a lot of the free-lancers.
Last edited:
Vigilance
Explorer
A sad problem among rpg companies. I am still owed money by a company I did freelance work for as well more than a year ago (not rpgobjects- who have the disctinction of always doing exactly what they say they will).
In the mindset of some companies, paying freelancers is not a prioority. I know for a fact that money goes to "big names" in the industry with alacrity, while lesser known freelancers get to wait and wonder.
Chuck
In the mindset of some companies, paying freelancers is not a prioority. I know for a fact that money goes to "big names" in the industry with alacrity, while lesser known freelancers get to wait and wonder.
Chuck
Apocalyptic Kitty
First Post
ArthurQ said:
Apparently you've never been to a gaming convention and asked how many people even know who or what ENWorld is. The vast majority of gamers know nothing about it. It may be the most popular spot for game related chat on the Internet, but awarenes is still barely blip in the gamer's collective consciousness.
And if you went to the ENNIES last year, I'd estimate that there were 250-300 people in the room. If you subtract out the publishers, that number dwindles to about 100-150. 100-150 out of a total attendance of 29,000 is a pretty small percentage. When I worked the booth at GenCon and PentaCon recently, the percentage of people familiar with ENworld was very small probably in the 2-4% range. What I will say is that many of the people that frequent these boards also purchase a lot more products than the average gamer but that is only a guess.
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