Third Party Publishing Schedules

[Morrus]

Well, the calandar itself has been created:

http://www.enworld.org/calendar.php?c=3

1) Product releases in the next seven days appear at the bottom of the forum page.

2) They will also appear on a calendar on the main news page.

3) Users can set reminders for specific events (product releases). They'll receive the reminder by email when the date is reached.

 

[grodog]

Well, the question, I guess, is -- other than the calendar function (which I think I'll certainly implement) -- is there anything else that you feel EN World can offer publishers which it doesn't already do?

A comprehensive database of OGL content, broken down by publisher/OGL rights holder, class, feat, spell, magic item, skill, et al. This has been a gigantic need for the d20 publishing industry since the publication of the SRD. It's also a huge revenue-generating opportunity that no one has bothered to try to capitalize on (at least no one that I'm aware of). But that's water under the bridge

Secondly, assuming the calendar function was all there is, how much would you envisage paying for it on, for example, a year's basis?

How much does a Community Sponsor run?

 

[Morrus]

A comprehensive database of OGL content, broken down by publisher/OGL rights holder, class, feat, spell, magic item, skill, et al. This has been a gigantic need for the d20 publishing industry since the publication of the SRD. It's also a huge revenue-generating opportunity that no one has bothered to try to capitalize on (at least no one that I'm aware of). But that's water under the bridge

It's also a huge undertaking to put in place, with really tricky legal issues. Who would populate the database? Who would make sure that every entry was actually OGL? Who would be liable for mistaken entries where a company's non-OGL PI was entered?

How much does a Community Sponsor run?

$35 for a year.

 

[grodog]

It's also a huge undertaking to put in place, with really tricky legal issues. Who would populate the database? Who would make sure that every entry was actually OGL? Who would be liable for mistaken entries where a company's non-OGL PI was entered?

I never said it was an easy "do it in three weeks" project, just that it's something that the d20 industry really needs, from a professional development point of view (IMO)

In terms of database population, I imagine that this would require at least one knowledge engineer to manage the content (I do this in my day job, which is probably why I think it's such a "duh" project), and the database would probably be maintained by someone as a for-profit business (employing the KE, db admins, web developers, etc.) that charged publishers and/or users to access it (I'm in favor of just charging publishers, for what that's worth, although charging users would certainly help the profitability model); or, perhaps this could be done as a non-profit, or as part of GAMA (ha!), or part of the Open Gaming Foundation (double ha!), or something like that. In any event, the content would ideally come directly from the publishers via a self-administration interface, including their section 15 details, so if there were data entry issues, the responsibility would lie with the publisher vs. the database managers. Since the db is electronic, errors are quickly fixable without any real impact to the IP holder if someone accidentally uploaded "Mordenkainen" as part of their spell list (delete it and it's gone as soon as it's found; perhaps a system of credited "damages" based on time that the content was available could be instituted, whereby such damages are paid to the IP owner/publisher by the offending publisher, and are then credited against their account managment service fees).

I've thought about this concept ever since the SRD was made available, but I don't have the time to do this on the side---and to do it right, it is not a part-time endeavor (again, IMO).

$35 for a year.

That's not a bad price. How many CS accounts are there on ENWorld vs. the total number of registered users vs. the total number of active users (those who have logged in and/or posted in the past 2 months)?

Perhaps this could be a premium service for ENWorld, too: available to Community Supporters, or perhaps at a discounted rate for them....

 

[Morrus]

There's already a problem there that I can spot. What incentive is there for publishers to enter their OGC? We've tried similar things before, and there really is no interest on the publisher end in populating the database - for good reason. It's a lot of time and effort, and does not benefit them directly.

 

[philreed]

In any event, the content would ideally come directly from the publishers via a self-administration interface, including their section 15 details, so if there were data entry issues, the responsibility would lie with the publisher vs. the database managers.

I feel that your post perfectly illustrates that you're over-estimating the size of the various D20 publishing companies -- a common problem in this industry. I cannot think of a single third-party publisher with the resources to devote to such a project. Additionally, if opened to the public, this type of site would have the potential to destroy a number of smaller publishers that contribute large amounts of material as OGC.

 

[grodog]

Both good points that would have to be worked out: incenting the publishers to contribute content would have to be successful or a different business model would have to be found where the publishers aren't relied upon to be active content submitters.

Phil, In terms of your point that

Additionally, if opened to the public, this type of site would have the potential to destroy a number of smaller publishers that contribute large amounts of material as OGC.

how is this different from any other publisher reusing OGC that's been released and made available?

And, just to clarify: while I have thought about this project for several years, I haven't documented the requirements, created a business plan, sought funding for it, etc.: so it's entirely likely that there are additional challenges to implementing such a project that I have not thought about. Hence bringing it up for discussion

 

[philreed]

how is this different from any other publisher reusing OGC that's been released and made available?

Publishers sharing OGC is one thing. It's a good thing to see new material that expands on existing OGC. The OGL and SRD were created for publishers.

If a large portion of existing OGC was released to the public it would seriously harm sales of existing products. That would then limit the amount of new OGC the publishers that were harmed would release.