This PDF cover has to be seen...

[Elton Robb]

Steel_Wind, I have to commending you for trying to be cool and actually empathizing with the artist as a fellow human being. I do have a certain degree of disagreement with you, however. I must also point out the futility of shielding people who engage in creative work from criticism.

When I write, I want proofreaders who are, well... Critical. I want them to point out every tiny flaw that I may or may not have considered, rake the work over the coals, and make me realize where the work has come up short. There is a big difference between saying that a given piece of work is horrible and making a personal attack. "That which would give off light must endure burning," after all. I have no problem with the criticism, as long as it's of the artwork and not a high-school style personal attack.

On that topic, incidentally, I feel that it's a legitimate criticism of his work to lambaste him for trying to sell this stuff. People who want to sell a product should certainly be held accountable for the quality of that product. I won't presume to speak to the artist's motivations or personality since I don't know him personally, but I can damn sure recognize something that's worth paying for and something that is not.

One final issue... Artists in all media and across all spectra of talent level deal with criticism. Constantly. One of the marks of a true professional is to recognize legitimate criticism and when it's so much noise. That's not even to mention all the absolute crap that gets put out in the entertainment industry because of contractual obligations. People who would endeavor to make a living in a creative field know how to deal with criticism... Or they go get a day job somewhere and give up on the whole thing.

Just my two cents, for what it's worth.

I think it would be much more cruel if Copyright were abolished. Then the Audience votes with their dollars on a product. If the product is bad, it's value never increases. But if its a great product, then its value often shoots through the roof over the years.

Which is one of the bad things about copyright being abolished. One of the best things about it being abolished is the competition that Wizards of the Coast would automatically get. Think about the derivative works that would be published. And what sorts of Awesome we would get out of such derivative works. The audience would be the final judge on a piece of work. If it's good, we support the goodness. If it's bad, its value would never rise a peep.

That's why I'm setting up the audience, the gamer community, to be my distributor. I call it a trial by fire, everyone.

 

[doctorhook]

I gotta say, this guy should illustrate FATAL. I mean it.

 

[renau1g]

To be fair the quality of the art-work about matches the quality of the sample work. I read through just the first two paragraphs and there's already a few mistakes "roll-playing" & "Psci-Blades" are two that jumped out at me. Oh..and "allot" + the capitalizing of "Cool Stuff" bothered me. It's not necessarily the artist that is the problem. I don't enjoy it myself, nor would I spend any real world cash on it, but that's the way I feel with a lot of art out there. As a published product I would've certainly hoped it to have gone through even one review by someone before publishing. I mean I'm not even an editor, I'm just a guy who reads a fair amount of books, and I cringed after reading the first 2 paragraphs.

 

[JediSoth]

I gotta say, this guy should illustrate FATAL. I mean it.

FIE! FIE on you for suggesting such a vile thing. There are things in FATAL that should NEVER be illustrated.

DOOM. DOOOOOOOOM!

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Elton Rob,
Actrually Poser work can be EXTREMELY good, don't knock it, depends on the artist's skill
Nor is it "cheap, easy" as some folk seem to think.
The differnce between the greats with poser and others, is same as greats and others with ANY medium.
Some outstanding art ha sbeen made with Poser

I'm "good" but not great, one of mine...
(I use Vue, and import Poser characters, and do postwork in Photoshop)

the creator of the pdf should have checked on DAZ3D, Renderosity or such for artists!
but each to his own

 

[Elton Robb]

Exactly, Silverblade!

I was defending Poser, Vue, and other 3D art apps. Thanks for clarifying my point for me!

Isn't debate wonderful?

 

[the Jester]

Guys,

What began as a smile and lampoon of a cover on RPGNow has taken on an almost sadistic schoolyard bent.

You've tracked the other works of the man down, identified him by name and described who he is.

There is now enough information in this thread that, given that ENWorld forums is thoroughly spidered by Google, it is an absolute certainty that at some point, he's going to google his own name or book or art - and see this thread.

And he's going to be pretty hurt by it.

Yes, some skin toughening is expected as you grow older -- and yes -- some further flinty heartedness is required when you put your own products for sale on the Interwebs.

I get all that. Sure, I agree.

But he's still a human being, still a gamer, and if he reads this thread? Well...

How would you feel if it were you?

Sorry, dude, but anyone that puts out products for sale should expect reviews. If they're crap products, they should expect crap reviews. If they are horribly-illustrated, horribly-edited and someone (or a bunch of someones) calls it out as such, the best thing the author can do is listen and learn so that he does it better next time.

Have you ever been part of a performance that got a bad review? A friend of mine was Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and a review in the local paper called him "as ferocious as a kitten".

AFAIK, he still hasn't cried about it, and it's been many years now.

If you publish a product, you really need someone to edit it and give you the hard "This sucks" first, or some shmucks on a website will do it for you later.

Now, I'm not eagerly trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but if someone publishes stuff like this, they either need a wakeup call or they ignore feedback anyhow.

 

[Mark]

Some fruit hangs too low. I suspect there is some as yet unknown reason why these have been published as is, perhaps due to age or capacity, that would make any barrelfish-shooting feel shameful in retrospect. Under standard circumstances, I doubt we'd see such things.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Sorry, dude, but anyone that puts out products for sale should expect reviews.

Perhaps so. But I think there that where posters start otherwise tracking down the guy, his myspace and artwanted postings -- and otherwise go beyond the product described or "reviewed", all of which is done in an effort to hold the guy's work up as an example for ridicule by the group...

That's where it passes from fair comment to piling on. That's where I see somone getting collectively kicked when he's down.

That's when that nagging part of me, doubtless the product of a happy childhood reared by a compassionate mother, says "this is now going way too far" and we are now having FUN at someone else's emotional expense.

You're right. Simple human decency and compassion isn't required on the Internet. It's completely optional.

Want to be a dick? Go ahead. Feel perfectly entitled.

But that doesn't mean you can be just willfully blind and pretend that the names you read on this screen don't have real people attached to them somewhere -- with real feelings.

 

[Piratecat]

Relax, guys. Trying to make someone feel guilty because you have a different benchmark than they do isn't a great tactic.

No personal attacks on the artist or author when discussing this product, please. That hasn't changed! But reviewing published work is entirely reasonable, appropriate and expected. If someone publishes some work that is below industry standards while being more expensive than normal, they should expect that to be called out.