Slashdot Mirror

• His recent interview with RPG.net
• An insightful writeup at GameSpy
• A fairly thorough biography of the man
• And, of course, Gary's homepage

How about HoL - Human Occupied Landfill

"Monk" has a nice 'overhead view' of the people part of the equation. Other books in this genre that 'get it right' always focus on people,t oo.

"Burn Rate" was about people screwing over people. Guy Kawalski's startup books are about people self-dedicating themselves to motivating other people. "Monk"'s sort of in the middle, in a lot of ways. Of the set, I favor the pragmatics of Kawalski, but 'Monk' is more uplifting. "Burn Rate" is what you read when you get bitter.

At a certain point, you realize success is totally abut people. Not tech, not even business, just people.

(Though perhaps not as extreme as the sarcastic
Anyone Can Be an Internet Success-- Why Aren't You? article!)

Hi,

I read this article, but couldn't find any per-book printing costs. If you use a commercial printer these days, your per-unit print cost is high unless you do at least 1000 copies. If you use a print-on-demand service like Lightning Press, you get per-book costs higher than printing (savings is in waste and cash-flow).

For game and hobby books, here's the numbers. A general rule of thumb is your per-unit cost should be under 1/5th the purchase price. For print, you want maybe $1.50 to print a book, toss in a quarter/book for paying the talent and a little for shipping; that sets a $10 list price. The retailer often gets a 40% discount, distributors a 60% discount. So retailers get 40% and publishers get 40% (of which half is the per-unit cost).

If the per-unit cost goes up, what sort of margin will retailers get, and will publishers see? Do retailers get 40% and push the printing cost back to the publishers? If so, publishers will have their profit margins cut (since I'm pretty darn sure, whatever the cost, the per-book machine costs more than printing several thousand on a web press).

Which means books on demand still won't save the alternative book trade, because the lower profit margin means publishers still will have to be picky about things. It'll be easier and less risky in terms of printing a book, but since publishers still have to pay writers, cover artists, and marketing, there are still barriers.

Cheers,
Sandy
from RPGnet, The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hi,

We put up an interview with game designer Robin Laws, then I asked this question of our RPGnet readers:

"If a magical payment system existed which simply zapped pocket change from your desk, would you have been willing to pay 10 cents to read this piece?"

The most significant result was many people saying "Yes, but then I would have felt cheated".

So you have front-end micropayments-- where some readers pay but are disappointed, and leave. Or back end tip-jars, which have no enforcement so many don't pay. And teasers-- you read 1/3rd of the article then have to pay to go to the next page, which annoys people.

So tech aside, micropayments need a better social or marketing model for where to ask for the cash.

Cheers,
Sandy Antunes
http://www.rpg.net (the Inside Scoop on Gaming)

If you're also into roleplaying, the game Nobilis might also interest you. It's hard to describe it in one sentence (which is why I linked to a review, instead), but it cites Zelazny, and particularly Lord of Light, as one of its influences. It's out of print and hard to find just at the moment, but an expanded second edition is coming out soon. It's a very sweet-looking game.

And as always, Alexlit's collaborative filtering recommendation system can look at the books you like and love, and suggest more you might enjoy.

--

I think this is a link to what you are talking about...

The Pulling Report

Gygax and TSR put out such hack-and-slash dreck that "roll playing games" made a better label than "role playing" did.

Maybe that's just because he didn't have you around to point out all the flaws! No, I'm semi-serious -- where were all the modern RPG gods when TSR was pumping out this awful tripe? I'll tell you: they were either in the basement with their D&D books or they thought "D&D" stood for "Death and Dismemberment" and had something to do with insurance.

Whatever your feelings on the "hack and slash" style of play that Gary Gygax implemented in D&D (and promotes to this day despite it's obvious obsolescence) the fact is that early TSR products were pioneering a large number of concepts that are still in use today even in fully modern RPGs. Do you mock the simplistic and primitive Pong or Space War? I think not -- these games not only created the concept of the video arcade game but proved that it was commercially viable to create such a thing.

Despite your lack of respect for the primordial ooze that TSR's early products are to the RPG industry as a whole, I have to agree with you on one point -- TSR's utter lack of appropriate response to the religious zealots who targeted them. Rather than use some of the cash in their (at the time) overflowing coffers to buy some good lawyers and conjure up a defamation suit or four, TSR just rolled over and took it square in the jaw -- giving the religion industry a perfect villian for their sheep to hate.

"Religious fanatics assasinating our character? OH NO! QUICK, change the names of the demons in our monster manual! Issue press releases about how we don't promote satanism! Retreat! RETREAT!"

I firmly believe that it was this lack of any serious effort to defend their products when it mattered most that triggered the beginning of TSR's slide into bankruptcy. TO THIS DAY there are LARGE numbers of non-religious-extremist people who "know" NOTHING about the game other than that it "caused some kid to commit suicide"! They obviously heard or read about some distorted report of the Egbert case and never heard anything after that. What's wrong with this picture?? Can you imagine GM not saturating the media with ads full of James Earl Jones listing off car safety features after Nader's successful recall lawsuit? What was TSR doing while their game was being crucified by critics with pathetic credentials for crimes it never had anything to do with?? Certainly not enough, otherwise I wouldn't be meeting all these people who had their only opinion of D&D shaped by some shitty TV "news" magazine that's been off the air for years.

Yeah, that site sucks. It just so happens I've been sort of surveying the (non-corp) RPG pages around the web, and this one sucks less. Deals with both kinds of RPGs (electronic and tabletop), news/rumors from all over, pretty nice. It hosts the best site around for specific information on the new D&D3E books, Eric Noah's.

If you're into White Wolf's products (Mage, Vampire, Werewolf), their own site's pretty good, and Ex Libris Nocturnis isn't bad, either.

RPGnet is sort of the USA Today of the industry. You know, slick and dumb. They do have a rather nice habit of posting more than one review per book, though, so you get to see multiple perspectives, even if their writers are high schoolers.

-jpowers

Whilst I know that I'm going to find scant support amongst a demographic known for its irreverance and disdain for tried and tested knowledge,

and a plethora of trolls who wouldn't know tried and tested knowledge if it bit them on the butt.

(But hey, I'm bored...)

I have to say that I'd honestly thought that Dungeons & Dragons had gone the way of the dodo many years ago.

That's why there's not one but two computer games based on the game system, with more to come?

When was the last time that anyone heard anything about D&D or its equally dubious successor, Magic the Gathering?

Well, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the 3rd edition for Dungeons and Dragons in about 2 weeks, so expect to hear more about it. As for Magic the Gathering, well, they show the tournaments on EPSN2 of all places.

I had thought that roleplaying was an eighties fad whose time was thankfully past,

Not bloody likely.

Now the cycle of fantasy starts again, as this is sure to turn more youngsters from wholesome persuits to playing a game which teachings that violence and dark arts are tools for success, and that the acquisition of wealth makes you a better person.

God would I have loved to have been the first to post with the NFL crack, but there was a good point -- there are far more "socially acceptable" hobbies and interests which teach some rather poor morals.

In fact, Tracy (Dragonlance trilogy co-author) Hickamn wrote an excellent essay on morality and role-playing that I show to people whenever this topic comes up.

I'm with BADD on this one - these games teach dangerous morals to the people that are most vulnerable.

It's funny you should mention BADD -- Michael Stackpole (genre author and part of the Industry Watch segment of GAMA, the gaming industry's trade association) compiled The Pulling Report which investigates the claims of Pat Pulling (the founder of BADD) and rather expertly debunks her allegations and attacks her credibility as a "cult crime investigator".

For more on GAMA's point of view, check out their Q&A about role-playing games, with the rather interesting factoid:

"One of the more persistent claims is that role-playing games has caused teens to commit suicide. The Center for Disease Control conducted an extensive study of teen suicide and found no evidence to link role-playing games with suicide. Investigations by the Association of Gifted and Creative Children (Dublin, CA), the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (the Bronx, NY), and the American Association of Suicidology (Denver, CO) have likewise found no evidence that games encourage suicide.

Moreover, researchers point out that the most heavily weighted factor in determining a child's suicide potential is whether or not he is a loner. Participation in a group activity of any sort sharply reduces that potential. It also provides a circle of friends who can pick up on any unusual behavior and encourage their friend to get help when there is a crisis."

Jay (=

I find it humorous they pin down video games as the Defining Game. RPGnet main focus has been "Gaming Culture and a Culture of Games" for four years now. MUDs and MOOs are incredibly well documented and dissected in referred print publications. Gamasutra has some of the best essays looking at computer games from an social and even an anthropological viewpoint.

While I'm not decrying MyVideoGames, I am always a bit saddened when yet another Net Startup leaps into the fray... to reinvent the wheel. If your goal is to reach existing communities, why not contribute to those selfsame existing communities, instead of building a new one and fractioning the already crowded web?

Cheers,
Sandy

I find it humorous they pin down video games as the Defining Game. RPGnet main focus has been "Gaming Culture and a Culture of Games" for four years now. MUDs and MOOs are incredibly well documented and dissected in referred print publications. Gamasutra has some of the best essays looking at computer games from an social and even an anthropological viewpoint.

While I'm not decrying MyVideoGames, I am always a bit saddened when yet another Net Startup leaps into the fray... to reinvent the wheel. If your goal is to reach existing communities, why not contribute to those selfsame existing communities, instead of building a new one and fractioning the already crowded web?

Cheers,
Sandy

I think because PHP ships as a module, and Perl as an executable, that's the difference. You need mod_php to run PHP, you don't need mod_perl to do perl.

So, the use of the module doesn't really say much about the actual use of languages.

Cheers,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
http://www.rpg.net (The Inside Scoop on Gaming!)

Details over at Steve Jackson Games in the December 6th, 1996 entry of the Illuminator. Perhaps one of the funniest AD&D references I've seen (the funniest being a column about old-time RPGs vs. the newer ones).


-S. Louie

For me, taking stong opposition to the idea that these kids were motivated by violent games is not a knee-jerk reaction. This is nothing new. When I was in high school the "Great Evils" were Dungeons & Dragons and Heavy Metal. Instead of goths there were punks. Nothing's changed.

What galls me is that these things are scapegoats, pure and simple. I was into all this stuff when I was a kid. The key is parents being involved with their children's lives. My parents were there for me. They listened to me, got involved with my life and my interests, and knew what I was doing. They gave me a lot of freedom and when there was something they didn't want me to do, they didn't give the "Because I said so!" explanation, they gave me reasons, explained their concerns.

The reason I really fume over this is because this scapegoat just doesn't fly anymore. The Pulling Report, written by Mike Stackpole, pretty comprehensively proved that the Dungeons & Dragons excuse just didn't work. Actual psychological studies found that role-playing game players were more in touch with reality than "regular people". What's frightening is that if you read this document and switch role-playing with DOOM, it'd apply to the current issue.

When I was a teenager, I had teachers, ministers, and even classmates tell me I'd go to Hell because I wore a Metallica T-Shirt, without even knowing anything about me. If we spent more time talking to our kids insteaded giving them crap about the games they play or the music they listen too, we might see when there's a problem before it literally blows up in someone's face.