[PRESS] Free Anime RPG and Thank You

[Guardians Of Order]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Guelph, Ontario
15 June 2004

Contact: Mark C. MacKinnon, President

GUARDIANS OF ORDER OFFERS ANIME RPG FOR FREE ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM

Guardians Of Order, Inc. announced today that its smash-hit Japanese anime RPG, Big Eyes, Small Mouth, is available as an e-Book download absolutely free at DriveThruRPG.com until June 20, 2004. Additionally, Guardians Of Order’s entire gaming library, excluding some licensed products, can be downloaded within minutes at DriveThruRPG.com — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“The positive response to our new e-book offerings on DriveThruRPG.com has been very encouraging,” said Guardians Of Order President, Mark C. MacKinnon, “and our sales during the first week alone are significantly higher than we expected. Clearly, there is very strong demand for digital copies of our role-playing books and we greatly appreciate the support of our customers. Our free BESM promotion is our way of saying thanks to everyone who has helped make this new venture a true success!”

About Guardians Of Order

Founded in 1997, Guardians Of Order, Inc. is a Canadian publishing company specialising in Japanese anime and superheroic role-playing games, as well as licensed resource and reference books. In addition to their Origins Award-nominated Big Eyes, Small Mouth anime RPG and Silver Age Sentinels superhero RPG, they publish licensed fan guides and RPGs based on: popular anime series (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trigun, Hellsing, Fushigi Yugi, The Slayers, and others); George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire (fall 2004); and DC Comics’/WildStorm’s acclaimed superhero series, The Authority and StormWatch (summer 2004). Guardians Of Order is headquartered in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, contact Guardians Of Order at info@guardiansorder.com, or visit the company's website at http://www.guardiansorder.com.

About DriveThruRPG.com

DriveThruRPG.com is the first gaming e-Book site for professionals, offering secure downloads using Adobe’s secure server technology. This allows publishers to offer their full line of products as e-Books on the site. DriveThruRPG.com does for role-playing games what iTunes does for music — it’s a virtual gaming superstore with products from top RPG publishers, with both current releases and classic games that brings us back to our own “good old days.”

 

[Funksaw]

About DriveThruRPG.com

DriveThruRPG.com is the first gaming e-Book site for professionals,

So, you changed the press release, but still kept the implied insult...

Amazing.

Completely amazing.

 

[DanMcS]

So, you changed the press release, but still kept the implied insult...

It's actually a new and improved insult- not only are they going after RPGnow, but ALL publishers that aren't on drivethru. Nice.

 

[Axegrrl]

“The positive response to our new e-book offerings on DriveThruRPG.com has been very encouraging,”

Looks like someone hasn't been paying attention to the anti-DRM threads.

 

[Funksaw]

Looks like someone hasn't been paying attention to the anti-DRM threads.

I'm afraid that they might be right though - there's little evidence (beyond the "so far we haven't sold anything priced at more than $15 from Eden) that DriveThru isn't making a profit and selling higher than expected.

Which is WHY if we want to take the fight to the DRM advocates, we HAVE to avoid purchasing print products.

 

[Crothian]

Actually, the only way to make a dent is to get more people involved. But really that should be kept to other threads.

It's good to see Gaurdians of the Order doing this. I like that you have Big Eyes, Small Mouth as a free download. I've been interested in it for a while, but its one of those products I was unable to really get a good idea of if I would like it. Now I get the pdf and can read through the whole thing. Thanks.

 

[s/LaSH]

Looks like someone hasn't been paying attention to the anti-DRM threads.

Or maybe the audiences of 'message-board posters with a (perhaps legitimate) grievance' and 'people who use DTRPG services' don't cross over as much as you'd think. The press release seems happy, after all. I'm not saying they're telling the whole truth, though it is entirely possible that there are many, many customers blissfully purchasing and not noticing/ignoring the recent firestorms.

Something that might be valuable to investigation is a survey to see just how much of the population of customers and messageboarders is the same. Demographics are always interesting, and in this case, maybe quite relevant.

Anyway, for free, the price is right... now all I have to do is make time to give it a test run.

 

[Funksaw]

Evil, evil, evil, evil.

That's all I have to say about this, really.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Thanks GoO for allowing me to download BESM. I've heard alot abotu the game, but since Anime isn't really my thing, I haven't bought the book. Having a copy available for me to download and read through, to see how the system works and why so many people are raving about it is great. Plus, I get to try out DTRPG and see what the fuss is all about, and make my own decision on the service.

 

[JoeGKushner]

This is a good idea. Let's everyone see what the fuss is about with a great book to boot.

It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out. To be honest, while I enjoy PDF files, I'm mainly a print buyer and if I know something is coming to print, will almost always buy the print product. Heck, almost every PDF I've bought I wind up printing anyway which increases my cost of ownership quite a bit.

Hopefully this is a viable model and we'll continue to see more material and more options for the buyers.