2009/3/31 Nick Eden <nick_at_PRsrhWDnHgGczdYxEGKasPf8bVxrdr5NXNrj9uGUXJ17u_1Tb42oDT9Cc7A0i6MG2S2JSrH40icvNr9ztvhutg.yahoo.invalid>:
> The big problem with all these models is that they seem to accept as gospel
> that local stores have no role in the industry. Don't know about you, but
> the FLGS had a lot to do with why I became a gamer and why I remain one
> today. Drive Thru, and Lulu, and 'we'll only print when every surviving fan
> has ordered their copy' don't leave a space for copies to appear on shelves
> in a shop and people who remember Glorantha from their youth coming back to
> it.
I don't have an FLGS; I have an ULGS-TDCAG (Unfriendly Local Game Store - That Doesn't Care About Glorantha). That being said, I have been reliably informed that this store has FINALLY started stocking Burning Wheel and Burning Empires - games that were promoted in exactly the way I mentioned (um I think...).
If the costing is done well there is a wafer thin fragment to compensate people for the thankless tasks of production and to finance some extra copies for giveaways, reviews, convention sales, and even distribution to stores.
Gloranthadom is a global fandom. I know Mr. Hughes and I are in Canberra and I know there are clans of RQ grognards lurking in the hills around here as well, in addition to people who found Glorantha through HQ either independently or through the evangelism of others. Relying upon a few bastions of commercial support is not going to give this global fandom what they want or need. At the same time however there is no need to totally undermine those places lucky enough to enjoy a FLGS.
Perhaps pre-orders could be arranged via cooperating stores? Printed copies in excess of the pre-orders could go to these stores too? I think we have to realise that Glorantha isn't able to compete with the big marketed games, to realise that we are a niche market inside a niche market, and to start using "asymmetric" methods to keep product coming and raise our game(s) profile.
> And if that's true, if we're a dying breed of old fogies without any
> prospect of new blood, then I'd be very sad.
Hey, speak for yourself. I'm (*cough* comparatively *cough*) a Gloranthan spring chicken! (John H. will back me up on this!) I'm also the old bastard of my current Glorantha group so it's not all embittered feuding grognards as far as I am concerned!
--
John Machin
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
- Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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