Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Owen K.C. Stephens" data-source="post: 3390758" data-attributes="member: 3190">There's a lot of interesting information here, for industry folks and fans alike.The Extra Web Material for this book costs more money. I haven't bought the book yet, so that's a nice thing for me to know. I probably still will, since I like the rpg it's a suppliment for, but I doubt I'll buy the extra web material. Others mileage may vary.There's a strong sense from some fans that they were not proberly informed the extra material cost extra money. As someone who sells things to consumers sometimes, I find this a useful datapoint. It also sounds like if the product has said "Plus, you can buy fully integrated additional material from the following website!" no one would have been upset. Also a useful datapoint.There's a strong sense that different imprints within White Wolf may be considered differently by fans. I had always wondered if it was really worth it to have White Wolf, Sword & Sorcery and Arthaus have different labels. Now, I'm completely convinced it is.I also see a lot of people actively dislike white Wolf. That doesn't surprise me, because every publisher I've ever worked with has had its fans and its detractors.  Same of every game, and every author. That's totally cool -- fans should develop opinions about what they like and who they trust. It doesn't have any impact on me in this case, because nothing strikes me as universal. Right or wrong people disagree on these points, so it doesn't look that different from people complainign about WotC, or Mike Mearls, or SJGs.If I had no experience with WW, I suppose I'd take it more seriously as a datapoint. I'd investigate some claims, in any case. But since my professional experience with WW was overwhelmingly positive, I'd work with them again in a heartbeat, current concerns from people notwithstanding.Of course that doesn't matter much, since I haven't gotten even a hint that WW is interested in having me write for them currently. That's cool too. I am much better known for d20 than anything else, and WW isn't doing a whole lot of in-house d20 right now. I may even have a negative reputation with them -- my last few contacts were all about things reasonable people could disagree on, and somewhat strained.But my opinion about the people actually making the decisions at WW, which is no better than anyone else's, is that they don't mean to take advantage of, or mislead, anyone. They seem to be honest people, who sometimes make calls they later regret. Again, just like everyone else I've dealt with. Companies in particular can have problems when differen people in different departments make decisions about a product without realizing they don't have the whole story. As a freelancer I've run into that more than once, at more than one company. I've been guilty of it myself. Without compelling evidence, I'd just assume a miscommunication was made at some point, and the people who wrote the book didn't know, at the time, that the additional material wouldn't be free, and the people who decided to charge for it didn't realize there would be a perception from consumers that it ought to be free.Other people, coming from other places in their relationship with the company, could easily see it differently. Either way, I'm forewarned, so the community here has done me some good in any case.Thanks!</blockquote>

Verification