gobi honors the recent Enron convictions:
Enron D&D House Rules
1. Assume critical hits based on projected future dice rolls.
2. Never actually roll any dice.
Add your own!!
gobi honors the recent Enron convictions:
Enron D&D House Rules
1. Assume critical hits based on projected future dice rolls.
2. Never actually roll any dice.
Add your own!!
From RPGNet: Greg Stolze on How much money should Industry types make?. His vision is a bit negative on the traditional gaming / distribution model, but he’s upbeat on how gaming as a hobby will endure and remake itself. He outlines a 5-step process, and here’s step 2:
2) Mass FLGS extinction. Some of them get hit by the asteroid of “we have terrible customer service and a desperately fragmented consumer base” while some evolve into birds by ditching RPGs and concentrating on TCGs, minis, DVDs and computer games.
I will take any and all reports of industry-death with several grains of salt! But Greg has shown to be firmly interested in trying alternate distribution methods, as his frequent use of the Ransom Model.
From ENWorld: A publisher looks for freelancers willing to work for 1c/word. Malcolm Sheppard (eyebeams) calls bullshit. Thank you, Malcolm!
My own hunch is that if a freelance deal is already paying this bad, why not just go DIY or pure amateur, at least until you can find someone willing to pay a fair wage? But I’ll admit I’ve got no experience freelancing myself, and merely don’t like seeing people screwed.
Evolution and niches. Psychochild looks it over. Is super-nichifacation of games a symptom or a reaction to a stagnant mainstream? Do niches mean further focus on the hardcore rather than causal players? (Ex: several first-person shooters.) Or are they a means of reaching out to them? (Counter-ex: Puzzle Pirates?)
Those of us playing/making pen and paper games are lucky, because the cost barrier is much lower, whereas that is becoming the limiting factor in video games. (On the flipside, the profit margin is also much lower.)
Kotaku asks: are these new video game systems the next generation? Seeming answer: no. “Tthe direction that the games’ market has gone (the rising costs of development) it makes risk-taking in game design far too financially taxing and forces developers who want to, and have the creative desire to do more, to work on sequels.” It seems like the video game industry is continuing to fulfill Costikyan’s “Death to the Game Industry” Manifesto (I & II).
“Get the word out that T&J - as well as a host of other games previously undistributed through the distro-retailer system - are becoming available.” – Chad U. on Truth & Justice being distro’d to local gaming outlets via RPGNow’s retail store.
More means of distro x the Right Stores = More love. Yay for small-press love!