James Heard said:Personally I find the idea of actively campaigning against the product on three (or more?) forums as some sort of crusade to be more offensive than the web enhancement. I mean, it's not my cup of tea but it's fiction. I don't read a lot of things, but I find the idea of championing an attempt to mobilize a community into censorship repugnant in the extreme. If someone wants to write and publish The Slayers Guide To Jews or some nonsense then I won't buy it - but neither will I enjoy watching people froth and titter over calls to boycott the publisher.
Your not buying a product you find to be nonsense IS a boycott. You have a belief - such a product is nonsense. To express your belief you don't purchase the product. No one would try to stop you. Someone might disagree with you, but they would hardly find it to be an outrage.
I don't frequent any other forums where this is being discussed, but the original post in this thread is hardly an active campaign or a crusade of any sort. It just informed the community of the fact, gave them the information they would need to address it if they DID find it offensive, and let it go. If you're referring to my post, I stated my beliefs about the product and that I would not be purchasing it or any of the publisher's other products. I suggested that others who felt the same way might boycott the publisher as well, because if anyone does share my beliefs and wants to express themselves, in a market system, you express yourself by voting with your dollars.
What products we buy, and letters of criticism (or praise) are the way that we as gamers communicate with the publishers. It's how we participate in the creation of gaming products by encouraging what we like and discouraging what we don't like. Poor binding and bad editing, for example. Have you ever written to companies with problematic products? Are there publishers whose products you avoid because of them? Or is the content more important to you than the editing or quality of the binding, so you have no reason to complain? That's fine! Express your concerns if you feel the need, don't if you don't. But don't tell other people that expressing their concerns isn't important. Nobody is trying to destroy ANY publisher, I'm just expressing my opinions the way a consumer does: with his wallet. I would much rather Mongoose and other publishers continue to produce products that don't discourage or hurt people. In fact, now that I'm more informed about their products, I'm MORE likely to buy from them than ever, assuming they apologize. I hope we can understand each other a little better now.
jakebone
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