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<blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 2890347" data-attributes="member: 6533">I'd like to think that one direction the unscrewedness should take is an emphasis on support products.It's interesting to note that Robin's article really only focuses on a small part of the game industry, the pen and paper publishers and designers.&nbsp; What would be an interesting complement would be to know how the dice manufacturers are doing?Some of the respondents mentioned minis and I'm very strucked by what Rackham is doing by creating RPG supported mini armies and mini army supported RPGs.&nbsp; That combined with my own desire to own fewer books with more support products makes me wonder if there isn't a future in integrated products.&nbsp; Games that come with spell cards, tiles, and all the other accoutrements that should accompany any old game but are all too often absent from the beautiful book artifacts that we acquire.&nbsp; In some ways I would hope that RPGs stop feeling beaten down by magic and settlers and start becoming the next beautiful easy to hand products.All too often we use the idea of cottage industry as an excuse to look at ourselvs in a bubble, but as the complaints about CRPGs demonstrate this problem is one aspect of the larger picture: the infection of our print culture by new media.I do not believe that the book is dead, but I do think that it has to become a new adapted creature.In that light .pdfs are just part of the sickness, a not too visionary attempt to forge print media analogues within the emerging culture.&nbsp;&nbsp; I love 'em, mind you, but they don't yet represent a real engagement with the new reality.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dr. Strangemonkey, post: 2890347, member: 6533"] I'd like to think that one direction the unscrewedness should take is an emphasis on support products. It's interesting to note that Robin's article really only focuses on a small part of the game industry, the pen and paper publishers and designers. What would be an interesting complement would be to know how the dice manufacturers are doing? Some of the respondents mentioned minis and I'm very strucked by what Rackham is doing by creating RPG supported mini armies and mini army supported RPGs. That combined with my own desire to own fewer books with more support products makes me wonder if there isn't a future in integrated products. Games that come with spell cards, tiles, and all the other accoutrements that should accompany any old game but are all too often absent from the beautiful book artifacts that we acquire. In some ways I would hope that RPGs stop feeling beaten down by magic and settlers and start becoming the next beautiful easy to hand products. All too often we use the idea of cottage industry as an excuse to look at ourselvs in a bubble, but as the complaints about CRPGs demonstrate this problem is one aspect of the larger picture: the infection of our print culture by new media. I do not believe that the book is dead, but I do think that it has to become a new adapted creature. In that light .pdfs are just part of the sickness, a not too visionary attempt to forge print media analogues within the emerging culture. I love 'em, mind you, but they don't yet represent a real engagement with the new reality. [/QUOTE]

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