Publisher Opinions of FFE Events?

[Leopold]

It's a good thing. It shows that the spectre of WOTC is looking and watching and punishing people who step over the line with what is allowed and what isn't. Att least they are giving them a chance to rectify the problem and not suing them outright.


This means great scrutiny, which translates to better editing of files, which means a better product for us the consumers.

 

[Nine Dragons]

Melan: Thanks for pointing out that tread [specifically, the post about someone actually wanting to buy one of the FFE books off of someone else for $150...]. Rather funny, and yet sad at the same time.

Now if only *I* knew someone like that...

 

[Lady Dragon]

I think they got nailed simply because of the number of times they have done it. And the fact that it was not just a simple mess up of editing or not realizing that it was not open content.

I think the two newer books had to hurt the most finacially since they were probably almost sold out of the others. They could correct the errors and reprint them. I could see them doing this on Dungeonworld since this is their main campaign setting but they won't fix the others.

As for their quality they are slowly getting better but they are not their yet. They Have some wonderful ideas but they just don't execute very well, and this is surprising since some of there writers and editors have worked for TSR/WoTC for many years,and should know what they are doing.

What I think the problem is, personally is that these writers are used to turning in manuscripts in rough form and then letting the large staff of typesetters and editors spend several months cleaning it up for publication and now a fraction of the staff has a fraction of the time to put out tons of hardcover books as many as WoTC does in a year without all the resources and throew the product out there at deadline wheather it is ready or not, and move on to the next product.

I don,t think they were hit that hard finacially though since most books are sold in the first month and all these books were at least that old.

 

[Abulia]

I feel obligated to point out that this (realistically) probably only affected FFE in terms of PR/reputation -- hardly at all against the bottom line.

The nature of the hobby and games industry is that most products sell the bulk (read: lifetime) of their sales within the first 30 to 90 days. After that, reorders trickle in for pretty much nothing unless you've got a blockbuster on your hands. (Anecdotal evidence suggests that FFE doesn't move too much product, at least with any retailers I've spoken with.) Also, the hobby industry is not like the book trade: there are no returns. That means that FFE probably only had to destroy *their* stock on-hand; maybe a couple hundred units or so depending on what the initial print run was. Distributors and retailers are under no obligation to pulp the product on their shelves. Meaning, unless some of those products are brand new the pulping of product might have actually saved FFE money in reducing warehouse storage costs.

I have no inside knowledge of FFE or their operations and clearly the above is speculation on my part.

Regards,
Don Mappin
Freelancer for Hire

 

[JohnNephew]

The interesting thing about this is it is, to my knowledge, the first time that destruction of infringing books was demanded.

To date, even with the most egregious violations (not including the OGL, using OGC "designations" that leave it to the reader to deduce what is or is not open content, using other parties' content without updating the Section 15 of the OGL, using non-Open content from WotC, etc.), publishers were essentially slapped on the wrist and told to put a note on their website and fix it on the reprint. (Note that VERY few d20 books are ever reprinted, so this is not much of a penalty.) In the very competitive d20 space, then, it has become a liability to spend any time at all on license compliance -- a cost (of staff time) without any clear benefit (since the "penalty," if anyone brought non-compliance to your attention, was less costly than doing it right in the first place).

This event suddenly means that publishers will have to re-evaluate the cost/benefit equation with respect to license compliance. (They may still calculate that the odds of getting a nastygram before substantially all of a book's print run is gone out into channels and paid for, making the question of destroying remaining inventory moot, mean it's still not worth worrying much about the licenses.)

I think Fast Forward does deserve credit for being open about this, explaining what was done wrong and what were the consequences. One of the problems with license compliance issues to date has also been that they have happened in the back rooms, for the most part. The lack of transparency has led to misunderstandings: some people have had the mistaken impression that doing something was OK because someone who did it was not punished (as far as anyone knew). Other people believe persistent rumors that nastygrams were sent in cases where they were not. FFE's openness is a service to the whole OGL publisher community.

 

[SkeletonKey Ed]

Getting a slap on the wrist for using the name "Gruumsh" would be one thing, but using names and stats of 30+ monsters from the MM2 is way over the line of acceptability.

- Ed

 

[rpghost]

I think Fast Forward does deserve credit for being open about this, explaining what was done wrong and what were the consequences.[/B]

I don't give them credit as I'm sure it was part of WOTC's requirements in making good.

I do agree with earlier comments that this probably hurts more from the PR damage and future business then it did from having to burn the books.

Just my thoughts.
James

P.S. The ePublisher book we're writing should be out later this week - hopefully people will take the time to read it to avoid some of these lame errors.

 

[Dextra]

-slinging simians

Maybe Ed Stark should hunt down Jim Ward and break his legs, to teach him a lesson

A friend and I are considering starting up a company that delivers a horde of enraged monkeys who fling their feces at the target. Still trying to work out the logistics, but I'm pretty certain there's a market for it.

 

[Mynex]

Re: -slinging simians

A friend and I are considering starting up a company that delivers a horde of enraged monkeys who fling their feces at the target. Still trying to work out the logistics, but I'm pretty certain there's a market for it.

HEY NOW!!! No stealing our ideas! ;p

Poo flinging from Monkeys is an art form! And Ninja Monkeys Flinging poo is a dangerous thing.

Beware the 'Barrel o' Monkeys'! For they Fling poo with Dextrous ability.

 

[Kerrick]

A friend and I are considering starting up a company that delivers a horde of enraged monkeys who fling their feces at the target. Still trying to work out the logistics, but I'm pretty certain there's a market for it.

rofl!! For god sakes, don't tell Ralts about this!