tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post1884992523925173788..comments2024-03-28T15:54:00.960-07:00Comments on B/X BLACKRAZOR: RPGaDAY 2017 #24JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-53351437510080922512017-08-24T23:45:21.848-07:002017-08-24T23:45:21.848-07:00When some egghead who isn't famous gives a spe...When some egghead who isn't famous gives a special talk at a museum or university, he charges a nominal fee. Not to get rich; but to signal to potential audience members that this talk has value. So I agree, authors are wise to charge some nominal amount - if their art is a business. <br /><br />Like Alexis, I don't charge for anything I do*. Everything I "publish" is free PDFs. But that's because the value to me is the fun I have creating things. The process is the reward. <br /><br />*I do charge a little for a Lulu POD game book but thats because it costs money to make one.Scott Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067161332003628237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-49875277893150137082017-08-24T23:32:18.860-07:002017-08-24T23:32:18.860-07:00@ Alexis:
I hear what you're saying, man, but...@ Alexis:<br /><br />I hear what you're saying, man, but it may be that we're comparing apples to oranges. I see your wiki as something very different from an RPG product of the type I'm discussing. <br /><br />But then again, maybe you DO consider it such, just a new evolution of the old paradigm. Mm.<br /><br />As for the Napster comparison...jeez, dude. Am I The Man? Keeping folks down? My post wasn't really about competition...was it? I'll have to go back and read what I wrote, I guess.<br /><br />But I don't have time to do that (or write a measured response) at the moment; I just got my family home from the airport and I need to leave in six hours to catch another flight (with them). However, I will take the time to mull it over!JBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-66703944989914626972017-08-24T22:13:17.179-07:002017-08-24T22:13:17.179-07:00I get what you're saying, JB, that YOU don'...I get what you're saying, JB, that YOU don't give up a thin dime. But many do, and consistently, because they'd rather "friend" out their money than be told they have to cough it up. The argument you make, that people should charge for their goods, is the same argument the music industry made when they tried to tell artists back at the start of Napster that they "deserved" to be paid for their music, in a desperate attempt to win a majority over to the side of music industry moguls who had been stealing money from artists for decades. The appeal to artists who don't make any money anyway, to support artists that do, has been tried over and over and it always falls on deaf ears. Because (and not referring to you specifically), where was this solidarity when we were trying to get published/printed/sold/backed in the old days? When the door was slammed in my face.<br /><br />You've correctly identified your competition: artists, game designers, what have you, who are prepared to work for free. It's the true spirit of competition. And it sure hurts when you're the one overcharging.<br /><br />I let my wiki be free, despite the work, because I don't want to be paid for my work. True, I do sell some books. And the free wiki helps sell those books. Which is nice. But my future won't be in book sales, it will be in people wanting to buy a piece of ME. People who are concerned about me, who want me to do well, who want to help. From friendship. Not because I arbitrarily forced them to fork over. But because I gave them a reason to care.<br /><br />You didn't fork over a thin dime to any of those PWYW sites because you didn't care about those people. And that was there fault. But the future isn't in the old 20th century model. The future is in good old 15th century Patronism. Where people want to pay so that they're sure there are still great things in the world.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-3931620955589754932017-08-24T22:05:06.009-07:002017-08-24T22:05:06.009-07:00So, you're saying that I undervalue my game wi...So, you're saying that I undervalue my <a href="http://tao-of-dnd.wikispaces.com/General+Index" rel="nofollow">game wiki</a> by charging nothing for it. 1,200 pages, easily more than 500 hours work committed on the project, all free. I've even encouraged others to steal from it. Am I undervaluing it?<br /><br />I feel that artists, on the whole, are in trouble. They've been taught to massively overvalue their time and the product of their time, because the 20th century fed that dragon and now that dragon has been slain by St. Internet. The music industry is collapsing. The television industry is collapsing. People in both insist that iTunes and Pay-sites are the future, but both are stumbling as more and more paysites go up in a pirate-driven economy. Let more of the oldest generation of users pass away and this "honesty" that says that its okay to hear music free in the park but not free on the net will crumble away. Not because its right or easy or the result of bad morality, but because the industries that created digital rendering shot themselves in the head forty years ago. They could have stayed with vinyl, but oh no, they needed a bigger overhead.<br /><br />Is it surprising that everyone is getting into the PWYW game? Online magazines are desperately looking around for a means of retaining the income they had in the 90s that's melting away and they're seeing kickstarter and Patreon and throwing their hat in. Not because they want to, but because they're slipping off the grid.<br /><br />And sites that talk about going behind a pay wall know what that's going to bring: systemic obscurity, through the same voting market that economists have been hanging their hat on as a justification for exploitation for two centuries.<br /><br />(cont...)Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.com