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Rich Redman: Why licensed properties suck
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
Psion
Adventurer
I disagree with Rich.
Starship Troopers 90210 wasn't a good movie.
Other than that, he's right on the money.
Personally, I pick up licensed properties now and then, but to be honest, I never play them. I find most licensed universe worth doing a game around too well-defined for me to want to run. I want latitude, ability to do my own thing. Doing a license universe game, I feel like I have the author... not to mention a legion of obsessive fans... peering over my shoulder.
Starship Troopers 90210 wasn't a good movie.
Other than that, he's right on the money.
Personally, I pick up licensed properties now and then, but to be honest, I never play them. I find most licensed universe worth doing a game around too well-defined for me to want to run. I want latitude, ability to do my own thing. Doing a license universe game, I feel like I have the author... not to mention a legion of obsessive fans... peering over my shoulder.
Brother Shatterstone
Dark Moderator of PbP
PC just consider it a good practice exercise for toning her out…Piratecat said:
Eventually she’s going to ask you to take the trash out.
Joshua Randall
Legend
It would be interesting to hear what Mongoose Publishing has to say on this topic, given their large number of in-print and upcoming licensed titles.
VorpalBunny
Explorer
I'll buy that, since Rich is saying liscensed properties suck for the company liscensing the property, and not the end product or the experience gamers have using the product. Some liscensed games are quite good (Bab5, Star Wars, LotR...)
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WayneLigon
Adventurer
I've heard some pretty amazing horror stories about the second Star Trek RPG (never did get a clear answer on why they were required to suspend production on that one T:tNG product), regarding Paramount. I wonder if STJ has had problems in this area; they certainly have produced a lot of licensed products (Discworld, Witch World, Horseclans, etc).
Cthulhu's Librarian
First Post
Oh boy, do I have some licensed property horror stories to tell. I worked for HarperCollins publishers as an Assistant Editor for several years in both the HarperPrism (sf/fantasy) and HarperEntertainment divisions. I've worked on properties all over the spectrum: movies, tv, sports, games, and many, many more. Magic the Gathering (novels), World of Darkness (novels), NASCAR, NBA, The X-Files, Alien: Resurrection, Aliens vs. Predator (ccg), Peanuts/Charlie Brown, Lost In Space, The Crow, Independance Day, Godzilla, Ally McBeal, Major League Baseball, Xena/Hercules, and the list could go on.
Are licenses good? Well, if they work, you can make alot of money. If they don't work, you can lose a lot of money. Usually, you hope to break even so you can go out and get teh next big license that hopefully will make a lot of $, but you have to do the smaller ones to keep up the contacts and keep the licensed properties coming so you have something to show to the licensors. I'd never want to deal with licensed properties again.
I don't want to name any names, but one big license we had (an sf show, dealt with aliens and conspiracies...
) made lots of money,and was very well received. We had several New York Times bestselling novels, very well received episode guides, and so on. Biggest problem we had? Approvals. Everything had to go through approvals from hell. We jumped through hoops, did major revisions, faxed, overnighted, sent multiple copies, whatever was wanted. We would be told over and over "Yes, it will be approved, we just need to see this little change, just take this one word out." Change made, send it all again, and be told "Oh, sorry. Mr. X has a lunch meeting today with People Magazine, we'll get it to you next week." And people wonder why we missed publication dates.
Best line ever on an approvals issue for a novel? "It's too wordy. Take out all the adjectives and resubmit it again." Seriously. We cut EVERY SINGLE adjective from the novel. Thats a lot of words, bringing a 170,000 word novel down to about 130,000. Let me tell you, it was pretty bland novel after that, but they approved it.
Are licenses good? Well, if they work, you can make alot of money. If they don't work, you can lose a lot of money. Usually, you hope to break even so you can go out and get teh next big license that hopefully will make a lot of $, but you have to do the smaller ones to keep up the contacts and keep the licensed properties coming so you have something to show to the licensors. I'd never want to deal with licensed properties again.
I don't want to name any names, but one big license we had (an sf show, dealt with aliens and conspiracies...
) made lots of money,and was very well received. We had several New York Times bestselling novels, very well received episode guides, and so on. Biggest problem we had? Approvals. Everything had to go through approvals from hell. We jumped through hoops, did major revisions, faxed, overnighted, sent multiple copies, whatever was wanted. We would be told over and over "Yes, it will be approved, we just need to see this little change, just take this one word out." Change made, send it all again, and be told "Oh, sorry. Mr. X has a lunch meeting today with People Magazine, we'll get it to you next week." And people wonder why we missed publication dates. Best line ever on an approvals issue for a novel? "It's too wordy. Take out all the adjectives and resubmit it again." Seriously. We cut EVERY SINGLE adjective from the novel. Thats a lot of words, bringing a 170,000 word novel down to about 130,000. Let me tell you, it was pretty bland novel after that, but they approved it.
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