johnsemlak
First Post
http://www.enworld.org/modules.php?...=article&sid=2417&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Let the discussion begin...
Let the discussion begin...
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Ryan Dancey on Phase II
- Thread starter johnsemlak
- Start date
Drawmack
First Post
Very well spoken and giving voice to some things that I've felt for quite some time:
My thoughts on phase II:
I feel that the PDF market already fills this void, at least partially. The sales are generally low and the producers are many. I see a polorization going on within the pdf market though. You will see the high quality and the low quality and not much in the middle. Those who begin by producing one or two products of mid quality and stick it out will quickly move into the high quality area, while those producing poor quality will fall. Also you will always have the dual publishers who publish print and pdf. Though I think that these are the success stories he's talking about.
My thoughts on phase II:
Yes I think that we will see this. Oathbound is a good example. It has a small but loyal following willing to shell out the $$ for the products.
I agree on this note as well. Take a look at SSZ from Green Ronin. It's won numerous awards and some very honorable mentions, but what else did they put out last year that even came close to this?
We've already seen some of this. A great example of this is The Hunt: Rise of Evil from Mystic Eye Games. I must admit I was a bit miffed when I first bought the book and it said hey we use Freeport, Bluffside and Seas of Blood. Then I realized that doing this gave me two fully detailed cities for the setting and let them put more content into the core book by not creating naval rules, besides that I already owned two of the books.
I'm not sure I understand what Mr. Dancey is saying here. My thought always was that distributors, distribute. Why would they set up barriers, wouldn't they want to move as much product as possibly. I think I need some explaination of this. Though I do agree with what he said about side channels. Though he forgot the online market.
Note: I am not saying anything negative here, please don't read it that way.
I feel that the PDF market already fills this void, at least partially. The sales are generally low and the producers are many. I see a polorization going on within the pdf market though. You will see the high quality and the low quality and not much in the middle. Those who begin by producing one or two products of mid quality and stick it out will quickly move into the high quality area, while those producing poor quality will fall. Also you will always have the dual publishers who publish print and pdf. Though I think that these are the success stories he's talking about.
Dr_Rictus
First Post
Drawmack said:
A wholesaler who pushes crap to retailers is killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Any distributor has an interest in the product he sells doing well at retail, because it keeps his customers healthy enough to be good customers. Doing otherwise may be fine in a market where you can keep scaring up new customers, or where quality doesn't count for anything, but the hobby games market is neither of those.
Moreover, as long as distributors are in competition with one another for the same retailer dollars (or euros, or whatever), providing expertise and high quality products is a competetive advantage vs. other distributors.
There may be other factors. Certainly in the computer games business, any product that doesn't sell can be returned to the publisher. Given the way low-quality product goes to closeout bins in the hobby market, that doesn't seem to be the case, but the book market seems to be at least somewhat similar ("if you purchase this book without a cover, it has been reported as unsold and destroyed" and all that).
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BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
I worship Ryan Dancy as a pagan god.
BiggusGeekus@Work
Community Supporter
heirodule said:
Nah. It's more of an homage thing.
I have an alter set up in my living room, made of up OGL books. I also have a couple of incense burners, but I have to be careful with them on account that I don't want all that paper catching fire. After carefully bathing myself in Mountian Dew and wearing the sacred vestments of Monte's "Orc & Pie" t-shirt,
I start out by breaking CDs in half that contain PDFs of Fudge, RISUS, and GURPS Lite to symbolize the superiority of the SRD. Next I shred copies of Vampire, Werewolf, Wraith, Mage, Changling, Demon, and Hunter just so those uppity alternate-system users don't get any ideas. Then I take a handful of Shadowrun d6s to represent an awkward combat roll and crush them in my bare hands (I can't do this normally, but the ritual grants me an almost supernatural strength). To consencreate the acts I incant the sacred words:
Three games for free over internet wide
Seven books for outcasts with hearts of stone
Nine dice for rules lawyers doomed to lie
One for Ryan Dancy to totally own
Finally I take a slingshot and a bag of d20s and I shoot them at LARPers while yelling "LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!" But that's not really part of the ritual, that's just something I do to unwind.
BiggusGeekus@Work
Community Supporter
Drawmack said:
Que? Check out the sales of Marlin Mason CDs, clove cigarettes, and the Crow franchise. You gotta look at the bigger picture, man! Don't mock the ritual!
Am I crazy? HA! Crazy like a fox!
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