RPGNow Expanding...

[Vascant]

I'd suggest talking to James and sending an example of your product. Considering you sit outside the common publishing role, it's possible he'll put you on RPGnow. He did indeed consider more than just sales with the initial split, so it's likely he'll continue doing so.

Thanks but thats not what I am really going after, I kind of like the Edge name anyways. Your statement though is what does have me concerned and is the driving force behind my questions. If it serves better to be on one site then the other, I can easily establish that it is expected each site will target a different type of person. I am pretty sure every software developer will state the samething, I want to be on both.

Thanks for the reply, I emailed a few days ago and still waiting for a reply.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Disclaimer: I'm on the main site. I am under the assumption it's a "quality" thing. It doesn't really matter to me as I think most of my customers find my (half dozen or so) PDF offerings through word of mouth. That said...

I really don't understand how folks can view this as anything other than James running his business as he sees fit. Like any other business owner, it's his decision what products he chooses to carry and where and when to offer them.

I honestly think that James has done so much to lower the barrier to entry into this market that now folks somehow think that being carried on RPGnow is some kind of inalienable right.

RPGnow is not a public forum, not some kind of clearinghouse for aspiring authors and designers. James has been very lax about the amount and quality of products on his site for a long time. That he is only now doing what he needs to do to keep the high volume, high quality products of bigger companies from being buried and forgotten under piles of lesser offerings, honestly, amazing.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I really don't understand how folks can view this as anything other than James running his business as he sees fit. Like any other business owner, it's his decision what products he chooses to carry and where and when to offer them.

I honestly think that James has done so much to lower the barrier to entry into this market that now folks somehow think that being carried on RPGnow is some kind of inalienable right.

Yes, it's James' site so nobody can refute that the ultimate decision remains his to make. However, that doesn't mean that nobody should voice concerns or shouldn't have concerns to begin with. The PDF industry is still so new that the decisions made by its primary storefront can have either great or catastrophic results--no other storefront even comes close to the name recognition, options, and exposure that RPGnow offers.

I don't have a problem with new publishers coming in having to show in some manner that they are going to make a serious go at a business and have the plan to do so rather than just being some guy or gal who wants to print his house rules with stick figure illos. Like any other industry, a business has to approach a retailer's buyers and sell their product and their company to get that product into the stores. And while it's great that James has left open movement from the Edge to RPGnow, my concern is that the branding seperation that accompanies the two sites will stall overall industry growth by leaving most of RPGnow's customer exposure to the people who already have the lion's share of it: the copmanies that are also selling in the FLGS. If this happens, it could easily result in a drop of PDF sales across the board because, frankly, sites that cater primarily to print publishers (such as DrivethruRPG does) aren't doing much to grow the industry. Such sites are simply feeding upon an existing market and sell to pepole who are already aware of the product through its print version--just look at the fact that Drivethru offers no purchasable marketing options (such as a banner ad) but rather assumes that if you're there you already know what you want.

For the industry to grow, there has to be a clear message to the customer that the PDF industry is about more than offering electronic versions of the same books you can buy in the store--the message has to be that products developed to be PDFs rather than print are themselves viable products and gaming tools. I'm worried that this dividing at the #1 PDF storefront will send the opposite message even the seperation does have some other, more immediate advantages.

 

[Vascant]

I really don't understand how folks can view this as anything other than James running his business as he sees fit. Like any other business owner, it's his decision what products he chooses to carry and where and when to offer them.

He can, it is his business.. That said...

It is my business to figure out if what he is doing works for me and helps me achieve my own goals. Otherwise I would not be serving my own interests. If the attitude is just, deal with it, fine. Have a nice day.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

If the attitude is just, deal with it, fine. Have a nice day.

James has been very accomodating and open to people's opinions in the matter. As I said, your product fits into a very specific niche so it would be worth your time talking to him about it.

 

[madelf]

Please note that the following is merely my opinion, based on my own observations, but...

I've seen nothing to lead me to believe that quality is a significant factor in deciding who goes on the main site and who goes on the Edge. It's all about sales (even the apparent exceptions). As far as I can see, those publishers remaining on the main site are of two types. There are those whose sales currently meet an arbitrary minimum sales level, and those who have shown a strong and steady increase in sales during their time with RPGnow and exhibit the growth potential to meet that minimum level in a relatively short time. The minimum sales target may well vary from category to category (niche products perhaps not held to the same numbers as mainstream products), but it's still all about sales.

The only place quality comes into the equation is in the general tendency for better quality products to get better sales than crappy ones (which is unreliable at best, given that factors like marketing, size of the publisher's catalog, and niche vs mainsteam products, will have far more impact on sales). But the split is not being based (so far as I can tell) directly on quality at all. There will be some products on the Edge that are better quality than some products on the main site, and the reverse will also be true. Any claim that a publisher's presense on the main site is somehow a guarantee of top quality, or that Edge publishers are necessarily of lower quality, is simply false. And any perception of such is flawed.

That said, there's nothing wrong with using sales as the criteria. It's actually much better than trying to use subjective "quality," since everyone has their own ideas about what constitutes "quality." Whether or not a particular publisher is "quality" cannot be measured objectively. How well their products sell can be.

So, that's my 2 cents.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

But the split is not being based (so far as I can tell) directly on quality at all. There will be some products on the Edge that are better quality than some products on the main site, and the reverse will also be true. Any claim that a publisher's presense on the main site is somehow a guarantee of top quality, or that Edge publishers are necessarily of lower quality, is simply false. And any perception of such is flawed.

Good points.

There are print publishers that put out absolute crap that looks like it was laid out using scissors and glue sticks while there are small press PDFs that have blown me away. I don't think any sort of quality control will be introduced into the two site's functionality until new companies begin coming in after the split, and even then only if more than sales is taken into account between who will later move over to the primary site. There was some discussion of how this may be done, but it's in the private publishers' forum so I won't mention any here, but I still haven't seen any that cuts it. That leaves the incentive of moving on to RPGnow, which, as you mentioned, needs more than sales to be taken into account for it to be effective in this regard.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

My concern is that the branding seperation that accompanies the two sites will stall overall industry growth.

Nothing encourages growth like pruning and weeding.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Nothing encourages growth like pruning and weeding.

What's true for the garden isn't necessarily true for an industry. I've seen the truth of this way too many times at the day job to think otherwise. Cultivation should be considered before pulling anything up as a weed.

 

[Yair]

I really don't understand how folks can view this as anything other than James running his business as he sees fit. Like any other business owner, it's his decision what products he chooses to carry and where and when to offer them.

As a consumer, and only a consumer, I don't see a problem with complaining about a change that will remove functionality that I want and currently have. I want to keep seeing all new products as easily as I can; the seperation for two sites does not serve my wants. Of course he can do it, and I can tell him as a consumer I don't like it. That's all.

I definitely do like the other "preview" changes. The lack of advertisements on the left opening up to the larger Newer Releases section, the info-at-a-glance while hovering over the thumbnails, and the new review shticks (STAFF, and was there always an average?). All good.