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Message: <blockquote data-quote="johnsemlak" data-source="post: 1175130" data-attributes="member: 7233">First of all, I would like to salut Green Ronin's high standard of quality.  Hammer and Helm has been easily my most used sourcebook (I just finished a campaign playing a dwarf character) and I have found that book to be excellent.  Also, GR's quality is evidenced by a solid track record in their reviews and thir success at the ENnies.However, I may have to agree with Pogre's remark that the 'quantity over quality' strategy may make business sense, so I'm not sure how valid it is to criticize it.Also, I find trancejeremy's list of factors in what makes one buy a product very similar to my own.  Most importantly, the company that makes a product is, perhaps unfortunately, low on the list.The fact is the author, product focus/topic, and other factors are very important for me in deciding what book to purchase.  Sometimes, this will lead me or someone else to pruchase ap book that is perhaps of lower 'quality'.For example, GR's Skull and Bones is getting a lot of raves in reviews right now.  I haven't seen it yet, but it appears to be a very high-quality product.  However, if I buy a pirate-based sourcebook, one thing may make me stop buying it--It's focus on real-world piracy as opposed something more in line with D&D fantasy (something I could drop easily, into Greyhawk for example).  Because of that, I may look elsewhere.  It's not that Skull and Bone's poor quality, it's just perhaps not for me. (though I may pick up S&B eventually though <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)Author is very important to me.  I noted on another post in anohter thread that many of the well known authors get published by numerous companies.  Mike Mearls is published by countless companies.  Gary Gygax has been published (for d20) by Troll Lord, Necromancer, & Mongoose.  Sean Reynolds has been published by Malhavoc Press and has a work he co-authored coming out from Troll Lord right now.  Ed Greenwood put out a book for Kenzer and will have a new campaign setting published by Fast Forward Games.  I, and other fans I believe, will give these authors a look whoever publishes them.Fast Forward, often criticized for the low quality game mechanics in their products, still continue to get big names associated iwth their products, e.g. Ed Greenwood and also Robert Salvatore.  I'm not aware of sales figures but I can only imagine that this will translate into sales.Also, one factor on buying a product that hasn't been mentioned here is availability.  Consumers have to have access to a product to buy it.  In very VERY LIMITED experience looking stores during my visits home, I have got the impresstion that the publishers that are most available are (besides WotC of course) Malhavoc, Sword and Sorcery, and Kenzer.  That is, I walk into a shop and a wide variety of their products are on the shelf, and there are multiple copies of their premier titles.  I haven't noticed that Green Ronin's titles stand out more than those of many other publishers, such as Bastion, Mongoose, FFE, FFG, etc.IMHO the only d20 company that truely stands out is Malhavoc Press.  They have consistant and well known authors (either by Monte or by others who have authored numerous works for WotC), their quality (of game machanics, flavor, writing) is respected, and their products are widely available.Speaking of quality, what is quality in a d20 product anyway?  Solid and balanced game mechanics?  Flavor?  Quality writing?  Good appearence, art, and production values (binding that lasts for more than a day for example)?  Editing?  The best companies try to combine all of them, obviously, but there nevertheless seems to be some disagreement on which of the above (if any) are most important.Finally, one thing I find a bit negative in a thread like this is the idea that consumers (i.e. fans) are at fault for choosing shoddy products over quality ones.  Isn't it the job of the publisher to win over it's customers?</blockquote>

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