Andreas wrote
> I for one think it feels a little bit strange having to pay to be
able
> to "play with the big boys", whatever the GTA material is about.
The GTA is about becoming a patron of Glorantha. The real payback is that Glorantha thrives. I have heard that Greg earns less from Glorantha/Issaries than many students earn in summer jobs or in part time jobs. And, I also understand that, without the money from the GTA, Issaries would have folded before HeroWars was published and even then it was a close call.
The online material that GTA members get is just a bonus, not the meat that they actually paid for. But many people seem to believe that the online material is exactly what they are paying for. For those that are after the additional material, it is much more fair that there is a publicly known "transparent" mechanism to gain access to this stuff rather than the alternative of secret handshakes and old-boys networks. I have paid for a hero-level membership so I may have an axe to grind here ;-)
BTW, see http://www.issaries.com/gta/gta_material.html for a mostly complete and publicly accessible list of what is available to the various levels of GTA membership.
Greg seems to share a lot of relevant sources with anyone that has demonstrable interest in actually writing stuff.
> There are gaming companies ou there that share very freely and
thereby
> create a very warm community feeling.
Glorantha generates a lot of warmth - or is it lots of heat but little light?
> If you make the fans pay to belong to a special group, you
necessarily
> divide the fans in a "has got" and a "hasn't got" group. I hate that
> kind of business practices. But if Greg and Issaries is doing it
that
> way, and want to thank people for contributing to the company, sure
> think. Let him do it.
> I for one think the quality of glorantha material have deterioated
> since Issaries started publishing. The fanzine material was far
better,
> and even though it's beginning to change I don't feel like betting
one
> cent on the GTA, since I'd rather pu those money (if I had them) on
a
> subscription to tradetalk.
The best of the fanzine stuff is fantastic. Tradetalk is being buplished ever more frequently. Unspoken Word started well and is getting better with each publication. But there was dross too. In my opinion, the Issaries publications have been pretty good through to marvellous, though there have been recurring problems with copy-editing and layout.
> Information wants to be free, it's just not sure about how and with
> whom.
This is another can of worms. One person that has defined much of the
"Information wants to be free" philosophy is Richard Stallman - see
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html . And, it appears to me
anyway, he sees a huge difference between information and literature.
Glorantha is literature, not information.
regards,
Charles
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