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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rasyr" data-source="post: 1282686" data-attributes="member: 2855">ICE & OGL - no, we are not contemplating it, nor will we. We are, however creating a low cost license for those who would like to produce HARP or RM related material. Several reasons for this, but the most prevalent reason being quality control.While the OGL and d20 license have revitalized the gaming industry, it also perpetuated what is known as the "Frontlist Syndrome".  I am sure most folks have heard by now how "most" gaming products have a shelf life of about 3 months. This is part of the result of the Frontlist Syndrome. The whole concept is a bit too complicated and long for me to explain here (not sure I fully understand it all myself, but I will copy here something that my boss wrote that is related to this).***************************************************Reposted with permission from ICEBruce: ========================================= Posted - 12 Nov 2003 : 14:21:12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is going to be a long post so be warned. I have been debating for some time whether or not to explicitly state what I am about to post. Obviously I decided to or I would not be writing this. This has been such an awesome thread that I felt comfortable spilling this out there. Thinking differently is exactly what we are doing. However, the major difference in our thinking is not exactly on the product side. In a way it is, but the primary difference is in the way we intend to distribute our products. This gets a bit convoluted so please read carefully. Back when the first ICE started, the main way to sell your product was through distributors. A good product could be expected to sell a decent amount in the first month and keep selling steadily for years. Companies carefully chose their products and designed for lasting appeal and sales. Backlist was where the mfg's made money as did the distributors and retailers. Slowly, that changed. For many reasons, which would be a very long post in and of itself, the distribution system started to favor front list over backlist. By the early 90's the way to have lots of distribution sales was by producing a huge number of new products. The distributors and retailers made more money on frontlist then backlist so it slowly became the predominant mode as manufacturers followed the sales. Unfortunately, mfg's still made much more net profit on backlist. The interests of the distribution system and the mfg's started to diverge. Then came collectibles. The ultimate frontlist experience. A product type that is basically custom made for a frontlist distribution system. This completed the changeover to a frontlist bias on the part of the distribution system. There were many other effects as well, but I am trying to keep the length down. Everyone can observe the effects now. People lament that a product lifecycle is 90 days and they are sold like periodicals. The number of products flooding the system is immense and still growing. Prices are increasing steadily and overall quality is declining. The driving force behind this is that manufacturer's of non-collectible goods still make more money on backlist and the distrbution system makes their money on frontlist. Manufacturer's are trying to adjust by putting out endless numbers of higher MSRP products produced as cheaply and quickly as they can. Manufacturer's have accomplished marvels, but it is eventually a doomed cycle as it is not in the customer's best interest. Games are not periodicals. Good games are not played for 90 days and then tossed. Games are not capable of being endlessly expanded upon and still remain playable. Players can not digest and use endless backgrounds, systems, and licenses. But all of these things are what is being forced upon the industry's fan base due to the current realities in the industry. This is not an attack on distribution, manufacturers, or retailers. It is just a statement of fact. The old ICE participated in the whole problem and helped perpetuate it. The new ICE did not chose to operate with those current realities as they do not serve the manufacturer's best interest or the fan's best interests. We want backlist to matter and to be able to produce a sustainable flow of quality products that matter in the long term. The products done in the first 18 months of the new ICE's existence were largely the result of the old ICE's product paradigm. The real changes started with Powers of Light & Darkness, Construct Companion and HARP and will continue with Cyradon and other HARP and RM products next year. Shadow World was brought back as it is a fun world even if the distribution system was not going to support it heavily. When we started the new ICE we intended to have 50% of our sales to come from our website, 25% from international distribution and 25% from domestic distribution. That has not worked out. We have far more websales then planned and far lower domestic distribution then planned. This is not really upsetting us as $1 sale on the web is worth the same to us as a $5 sale to a distributor, but.... It is frustrating nonetheless as it means our exposure in the marketplace is lower then it should be and the retailers who do want to carry our products have a hard time getting them. We get constant complaints from stores due to the fact that Alliance does not carry our products. Further, stores constantly complain about the lousy fill rate on our products from those distributors who do carry our stuff. This is normal for the industry though. The distributors do not make money on the backlist and its a huge inventory cost to them if they try to do it right. So, what is a manufacturer to do if they want to avoid the frontlist treadmill? Basically that remains to be seen and explored. What we are doing is increasing our fan base and web community. We are also in the early stages of getting a retailer portal up on the website early next year to make it painless and easy for retailer's to order direct. Many still won't, but we intend to make it easy for any legitimate retailer or distributor to order from us. We are not barring anyone from buying and selling our product if they are a legitimate part of the three tier system. We just do not view it as the only way to sell our products. By all means support your LGS- they are a valued part of the gaming community, but if you can't get our products from them order direct. Slowly, as the demand grows we can rebuild the backlist through the distribution net. Make the LGS aware of this demand even if you order direct. A huge reason the frontlist bias was allowed to happen is a classic economic observation called the Tragedy of the Commons. Basically the common land in villages was always poorly cared for and overgrazed as it belonged to everyone and thus belonged to no one. I would view the total distribution and industry sales as the common lands and the mfgs were overgrazing by sending out an endless stream of product to try and maintain market share. The distribution system was just a facilitator of this as they reworked themselves to make more money on frontlist. In many ways, Games Workshop was the first company to really take note of this situation. They are heavily frontlist oriented, but they fenced off their own little bunch of pasture called "the Games Workshop hobby." That isolation did not survive contact with the reality of WizKids, but it has protected their sales and profits a lot over the years. Personally I think they still overgraze, but they only overgraze their own pastures. The new ICE is creating our own little pasture by establishing a close knit web-based fan community. We have a very strong and fanatic fan base and its growing again. This fanbase is why we kept the ICE name and the fanbase is our most important "asset.". This is why we try to maintain an excellent customer service and communications level with our fans. We are not perfect and we are occasionally too overworked to communicate fully, but we are trying. This is also an experiment for this industry. Many other industries have seen strategies like this succeed and fail. We are feeling our way and we have to do it as an underfunded startup so its slow and hard work. I do not expect to change the way the industry operates. Too many people have too much invested in the status quo to change. What I do expect to happen is for our little pasture to grow big enough to force the distribution system to take us seriously and give our products the attention they deserve. If people want to help the process they should bug their LGS and try to get them to order the goods. If they do we are both happy. If they don't then don't sweat it and order direct and make sure the LGS knows this. In the short term and long term this will make ICE healthier and grow the pasture for the company, the fanbase, and distribution. ========================================***************************************************In my personal opinion, I would have to say that the the OGL and d20 licenses have done more to perpetuate the Frontlist Syndrome than almost anything else.  For instance, there is one main-stream d20 that is releasing over $250 worth of product (retail) this month alone. They also have staff writers whose job it is to churn out a new 128 book each month!! My god! That is the Frontlist Syndrome at its worst! Imagine how badly those products are going to suck as all those authors get burnt out and their creativity dries up!It is also my opinion (personal), that WOTC is attempting to apply the collectible card game business model to its rpg business as well. What is this business model? You put out a main product, then put out a bunch of supplements, and in a few years, rerelease an updated version of the main product, and then redo the supplements again (adding a few new ones each time). We are already seeing this with D&D 3.5, and I am fully expecting that we will see another revision by 2006, if not sooner (Basic D&D may actually show us what is coming and how soon - it all depends on how WOTC does it). I also fully expect that the next version of D&D will not be OGL, especially since Mongoose put out the pocket players guide. I also would not be surprised to see some more changes in the d20 STL before Basic D&D comes out...I may be a pessimist at times, but another reason we do not want to mess with the OGL is that it is basically "playing with somebody else's toys". No product made using the OGL (and especially the d20 STL) is ever wholly owned by the company that made it. All the IP is basically tainted.  Niether the OGL nor the d20 STL have ever been tested in court, therefore there is no proof (in any direction) about its legality (keep watch on the SCO/IBM case, since SCO is claiming that the GPL is invalid, the direction that case goes will determine much about the OGL).Getting back to the Frontlist Syndrome, some d20 companies are already feeling the effects of this. Several are having hard times and at least one has laid employees off recently. And these are some of the more well known and better d20 companies. If anything, the OGL proves that there can be too much of a good thing....Ok, I think that I may have severely rambled here, but I am going to leave it, since it may provoke some interesting discussion........ <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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