How many poor-quality books can a company produce . . .

[Garnfellow]

The ironic thing about that 25% (and, honestly, I think it's more like 10%...but they're really vocal about it), is that they'll keep buying, even if only to grouse about it.

Yeah, it's a deeply weird, perverse phenomenon. Comic Book Guy Syndrome would make an interesting psychology study: Let me loudly bitch and moan about the meal I'm eating while my fat mouth is crammed full of food!

10% probably /is/ more acurate, but they're so loud that sometimes it sounds like they're the majority . . .

 

[Andre]

Think about the psychology of gambling. It's not the losses that keeps the buyers coming back... it's the wins. Psychologically speaking, a behavior that is rewarded at random intervals resists extinction.

So I think a company can persist for a long time if they put out something really good now and then. It's human nature.

It seems to me that there's another factor at work here: risk. When I buy a new car, I spend weeks researching, looking, test driving, etc. because a mistake can cost me thousands of dollars (I know this from personal experience :\ ). If I buy a game book from WOTC - the 3.0 Psionics Handbook, for instance - the most I lose is $30 or so. And sometimes I end up with a real gem. So my willingness to continue giving a publisher another chance is far higher than my willingness to ever purchase a car from [manufacturer deleted].

 

[scourger]

I'll give a publisher a second chance, particularly if they've delivered something good in the past; but I get very selective and wary. It's very subjective to call a product or publisher bad, but there it is. One gamer's trash is another gamer's treasure. I find at least one kernel of goodness in even the worst products.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I voted for two, but my answer's more complicated than that.

I tend to read reviews and the like - but when my prior research still gets me a dodgy purchase, I tend to blame myself more.

For instance, even if I wanted a mass combat system for D&D I wouldn't buy Cry Havoc from Malhavoc Press because I haven't heard too many good things about it - but I don't blame Malhavoc for publishing it and boycott their products accordingly. I judge each book as it comes - if they want to print something crap, it's their money.

(I'm not stating Cry Havoc is crap, because I don't know. It's just an example.)

However, if I am disappointed by a company's products more than once, I'll move them down my mental priority list. I still judge individual products on their own merits but I'll probably get around to them later.

 

[francisca]

Well, I still buy WotC product. But they are a special case.

:rimshot:

Tip your waitress, or the brawny barbarian will "tip" you.

 

[philreed]

Your Ronin Arts stuff is clean and well edited, every product I have seen is well laid out and editied. I don't know why other companies can't do half as well.

Thank you. Remember, though, that I didn't go into PDF publishing cold. By the time I released my first PDF I'd already worked on over 100 products in the game industry. A lot of PDF publishers started in PDF.

 

[Mark]

How many poor-quality books can a company produce . . .?

Well, we'll just have to see...

. . . before you'll stop buying their products?

Oh. I thought you were issuing a challenge, like a contest for publishers. I really got to learn to read beyond the subject lines of these threads.

 

[philreed]

Oh. I thought you were issuing a challenge, like a contest for publishers.

It's so on!

If only I had the time.

 

[DaveMage]

I think it also depends on the publisher.

In the case of WotC for example, they have an even greater latitude when it comes to quality since they get to put the D&D logo on everything. Many D&D players who wouldn't touch a third-party product will still buy WotC products with the belief that such products are naturally better than anything a 3rd party could produce.

 

[Mark]

Top Ten Products No One Will Ever Buy!

10. 101 Obsolete Items of Questionable Use

9. Commoner: The Pamphlet

8. Maps of the Recently-Wildfired Grassland Plains

7. Skill Highlights: Whetstone Usage

6. PrC: Tailor (two levels)

5. The DM's Guide to Broken English and Brogues

4. Skill Highlights: Armor Polishing

3. Graph Paper (1" = 6')

2. Shoe Laces and Bootstraps

...and the number one Product No One Will Ever Buy...

1. The Big Bundle of Bookmarked and Cross-Referenced Phonebooks of Rural Antartica!​