So, commonly known among the digest grognards is another thing altogether, and fan writing is something a company must weigh the pros and cons on in both general, and in specific cases. If a company is smart, it motivates and uses its core fan base to expand the appeal of the game. To do this is must listen to the core group, but it must also lend some ear to basic marketing and business dictates which sometimes conflict with fan wishes.
I'm not aware of any of these issues being the case with Issaries specifically, but here are some pros and cons that must be considered (there are more) with fan published material.
Pro:
Wider selection of products and flavours for the customer (mmmm....good) Allows core fans to express their ideas more easily Allows publishing of material the publisher might not ever get around to Allows more experimentation (LARP sourcebooks, yay!)
Con:
Can contradict 'official' material (which despite some digester's loathing
of it, is still important to the majority of new gamers in the industry)
Can cause crediting and intellectual property problems if ideas are similar
to what the company publishes.
Can flood the market with lower quality products. (Causes both pricing and
quality issues)
Can cause more work (less profit) trying to gather existing parts than to
write something new.
Companies in the game industry go from the extremes of suing anyone mentioning their stuff to open-licensing. From my understanding Issaries will try to be more in the middle and try to get the best of both worlds. It will certainly require Issaries to pay more attention and devote more to the core customer base than it has in the past (I, for one, understand Greg's time constraints, but still wish he at least skimmed the digest). It also will mean that even if it does, then not everyone is going to be happy every time with every decision or change.
Cheers,
Eric Rowe
wizard_at_wizards-attic.com
www.wizards-attic.com
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #636
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