Report To The Stakeholders

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by philreed

For us to make something like this profitable, I would estimate $75 or so retail for a box set like you're describing at a reasonable run.

Sounds about right for the market, especially if your quality is good.

Twilight Imperium has a MSRP of $79.95, it's a good game, good glossy box, good plastic bits, nice hard board, well worth the money, though only one person in a gaming group will generally buy one.

Same could apply to a GURPS in a box product.

[dravenloft]

Originally Posted by DocRailgun

1 - Readability. I don't want to have to scroll through a lot of pages to find what I want. I want to _know_ where to look for something... I could find anything in my 1st ed AD&D book in two page turns. I can't do that with a PDF.

I actually agree with this one in some PDFs especially some of the free ones WotC used to [still?] have on their site. GURPS ones seem to use PDF abilities to have the contents as a navigated menu on the side of the reader software allowing jumping virtually right to the part you want. Even the ones not so well done, I've not met PDF software that can't create bookmarks and keep them. Then there's printing them.

2 - Printability. 32 pages is too much to print.... I'm too cheap to pay for the ink and paper. I would rather pay for SJG's ink and paper and have a bound product already in my hands.

Depends on your printer. 32pg on my old HP Deskjet would have had me broken out in a cold sweat over the cost. My Canon Pixma though? I'd print Basic Set vol1 & vol2 and Martial Arts w/o a 2nd thought or flinching. I'd probably still have ink in the cartridges when I finished.

A standard rulebook would eat up my precious, precious ink. This is also why I don't want much art in a PDF, or a fancy title page... I'm not going to print it anyway, so it's a waste of everyone's time and money. I'm using a PDF in a game.... noone in my game will need to see the product's cover. Pretty color picture covers are for hardcover books.

That would be a logical fallacy. Just because you don't wish to use up your ink doesn't make it a waste of anyone else's anything.

3 - Price. Less than $10 is good got me, even for 32 pages. I'm not likely to spend more than that on something that can disappear from my laptop due to hardrive failure, or a button press by a curious 2 year old.

I'm with you on this one RE companies that don't track your download. e23 eliminates this. Any data you buy from SJGames you can always go back later and redownload. I know because I bought GCA from e23 when it came out -- this week I had to download it again because I couldn't get to the partition it was stored on. I've probably downloaded it a grand total of 2 dozen times for various reasons since I bought it.

BTW please SJGames don't ever abolish that policy! I'm good at deleting the wrong harddrive if I try to fix my computer with a higher fever than I know I have.

[Anders]

I wonder if "you strive to seamlessly administrate enterprise-wide content as well as to completely simplify high-payoff infrastructures to stay competitive in tomorrow's world."?

Or if you agree that "your challenge is to assertively pursue quality infrastructures and conveniently foster enterprise-wide opportunities while maintaining the highest standards."?

:)

[dravenloft]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I wonder if "you strive to seamlessly administrate enterprise-wide content as well as to completely simplify high-payoff infrastructures to stay competitive in tomorrow's world."?

Or if you agree that "your challenge is to assertively pursue quality infrastructures and conveniently foster enterprise-wide opportunities while maintaining the highest standards."?

:)

I just have to ask the following:
1) What language is that?
2) What would it be if it were in English?

[Anders]

Originally Posted by dravenloft

I just have to ask the following:
1) What language is that?
2) What would it be if it were in English?

You've obviously never seen a company Power Point presentation...

They have "a level of expertise founded on an interdisciplinary base and concentrate on qualitative strategies in order to optimise efficiency and the use of resources." Also, they "look to the future and offer high-quality solutions in order to reveal new and different ways of looking at things."

:)

[dravenloft]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

You've obviously never seen a company Power Point presentation...

They have "a level of expertise founded on an interdisciplinary base and concentrate on qualitative strategies in order to optimise efficiency and the use of resources." Also, they "look to the future and offer high-quality solutions in order to reveal new and different ways of looking at things."

:)

Oy... I thought I recognised the dialect. It's the language Jake Stonebender calls @bovine wasteproduct@. Got it. Thanks ;)

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Your account is not tied directly to your email.

Sure. But for any system with decent security the change your password function *is*, and realistically I certainly can't remember the logins and passwords of everything I have an account on, and I doubt anybody else can either, unless they foolishly use the same one for everything, so if the list disappears....

[GoodGame]

I second this, it is the main condition I put on buying digital downloads. If it ever becomes a matter that they can't afford to guarantee the website month to month, then a coupon for a discount on a POD printing of the same download would be appreciated.

Hard drives and files corrupt, so having an external back-up is a big consideration when buying digital.

Originally Posted by dravenloft

Any data you buy from SJGames you can always go back later and redownload. I know because I bought GCA from e23 when it came out -- this week I had to download it again because I couldn't get to the partition it was stored on. I've probably downloaded it a grand total of 2 dozen times for various reasons since I bought it.

BTW please SJGames don't ever abolish that policy! I'm good at deleting the wrong harddrive if I try to fix my computer with a higher fever than I know I have.

[David Johansen]

There are things that .pdf is perfect for and things that books are better at.

I think the boxed set = game problem is a big part of the industry slump but only as a factor in the larger "unapproachable and incomprehensible" problem.

If I were doing a GURPS boxed game I'd do a 1/18 scale modern build-your own-action-figures set instead of miniatures. There'd be thin cardstock scenery tiles and a fold up building. Modern vehicles are readily available at the toy store. The rule book would be little more than a bulked up 32 page GURPS Lite and there'd be a separate adventure booklet.

Hear me out here, TOY VALUE IS EVERYTHING. Games Workshop has known it for years. What has more TOY VALUE than a build-your-own-action-figure set with two male and female bodies, alternate heads, and a sprue of weapons? Especially when it's combined with a game where the position your figure is in actually provides modifiers.

Speaking of Twilight Imperium, an Integrated Ogre/Triplanetary game with plastic figures would make a great boxed set. :D

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Speaking of Twilight Imperium, an Integrated Ogre/Triplanetary game with plastic figures would make a great boxed set. :D

Seriously, if done well I'd buy that at the same price point.