Re: Convention fundraisers

From: Brian Curley <bkcurley_at_fe-z10-lcD5oHj65zD_19lkoT4xXrvln8f756VgU7eyBKd9Ho0g5kfG52BPuP_puFUp>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:46:44 -0500

I confess, I was originally greatly upset at the fact that the price for a copy of "Our Glorious Empire" was over $400 (US) by the time I even knew this thing existed. I've always had a problem with the fact that much Gloranthan esoterica was scattered to the four winds, as it were, and impossible for all but the hardest of the hardcore to get. Then, I got over it.

I don't mean I disagree with those who feel slighted. I mean that I can't be upset about it because it's always been this way.

I think the decision to publish this in such limited quantities was catastrophically bad whatever the reasons for it were. The parties involved should have anticipated that it would cause hard feelings, as it clearly has. Now they may not have cared, but I prefer not to think that of people I regard as friends (if only distant friends), but I'm a person who believes in not causing such negative reactions if there's any way to avoid it.

And, please, no comparisons to the Mona Lisa. The painting was produced in circumstances that made it, essentially, impossible for there to be more than one. This isn't the case with anything published today. I trust that the folks who are upset by getting shut out of a copy of OGE wouldn't have been upset if their copy had been a reprint (second printing, etc) even at of lesser quality and production values. I didn't even buy a hardcover HQ until my softcover started wearing out and the chance came to pick one up on Ebay.

But imagine if you were buying a set of encyclopedias, and then come to find out that volume "X" was only available to 15 people. Is the information in volume "X" essential? Probably not. Can you, in one way or another, get the information from somewhere else? Sure. I still think you'd have every right to be annoyed at the publisher for such a decision.

Will I ever get a copy of OGE? Nope. Will I ever get a copy of the 2nd age Heortland book created for Convulsion? Nope. Will I eventually get the same material in another volume(s)? Probably. Does that make up for the fact that I'm being treated like a second class citizen because I'm not an "insider" or wealthy enough to travel to Germany or England and pay whatever the auction price for either book was/will be? Nope.

What's done is done. I can only hope that this episode helps those involved see that this was a mistake, if only for the hard feelings it's caused.

Brian Curley