10-18-2021, 06:52 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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But it's true that SJG doesn't have the resources to devote to this. Anyone looking to SJG to make this happen is looking in the wrong place. Whatever it is should be brought to the Fantasy Grounds GURPS community instead—with patience.
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The Art of D. Raymond Lunceford, The Daniverse: Core Group Annex The Daniverse Game Blog |
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10-18-2021, 11:40 PM | #42 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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Trouble is GURPS only has one full time staffer, everyone else works on other lines - some of which are much more profitable such as Munchkin, and perhaps the board games. This is much like the VDS requests, that book is already written but the editorial time involved in getting it to published status would pretty much mean no new GURPS material for a year. That would certainly hurt the line, regardless of kickstarter funding.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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10-19-2021, 03:47 AM | #43 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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10-19-2021, 06:47 AM | #44 | |
Join Date: Dec 2020
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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The best we can hope for is that SJG is further ignoring the VTTs and game aids. Yes the company may let lay a big pile of money on the table, but in the end it´s Steves company and his money. |
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10-19-2021, 08:22 AM | #45 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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There are reasons why we've gone back to face-to-face for the bulk of our gaming. This is why I say the revolution isn't quite here yet. Even if it's only a professional ".json" editor rather than a complete developer. It defintitely takes a professional pdf editor to produce professional grade pdfs for commercial sale.
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Fred Brackin |
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10-19-2021, 09:37 AM | #46 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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Even if a Kickstarter did provide enough money to hire two people there's no guarantee that this would improve revenue enough to provide salaries for those people the next year much less profits. The whole "industry" might be like that. Fantasy Grounds needs work it's not gotten yet and even D&D Beyond which is a product for the biggest market share game from the people with the biggest corporate parent might be mostly professional but is still not at all a complete experience.
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Fred Brackin |
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10-19-2021, 01:29 PM | #47 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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10-19-2021, 01:54 PM | #48 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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I feel there are several considerations your sweeping aside as trivial and easy, mostly related to project management and staffing. These change things considerably from a small indy operation to a corp environment where you have long term budget, contracting, and marketing commitments.
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Adding another publishing format would likely require doubling the staff and still take the line editor away from editing new content as he is the one trusted to doublecheck specific rule interpretations. And the head of and thus responsible for the entire GURPS line. So your going to cut down on new products for existing customers and raise overhead costs for a new platform. Oh and I doubt FGU Unity, Foundry VTT, and Roll20 all would take the exact same files with no further editing. So who gets it first or do you go all in and increase expenses even more by catering to multiple platforms? Who will be satisfied and how many complaints will you have to field from those not at the front of the line? Or even the specific books they most want. Sounds like a marketing nightmare to me. Quote:
And if it does succeed you still have to generate revenue from new sales to justify the ongoing expense to convert additional material. You seem to be trivializing the costs and risks and quite possibly overstating the potential gains. Would each platform generate an extra $100k in annual revenue? After the overhead and factoring in lost profits from existing channels, I would estimate that to be a minimum acceptable target for break even. Admittedly I don't have access to the numbers to make more than an educated guess based on my prior work for other corporations. In my experience its very easy to underestimate costs and over estimate profits, this is why so many companies fail and SJG is a rare exception in its field. The GURPS line is relatively flat but the company health overall is remarkable and outlasted almost all the competition. Only Flying Buffalo stands with them, TSR, Grenadier, Metagaming, Chaoisim, White Wolf, WoTC, and many many others have come and gone, or had to be sold during Steve Jackson Games history of 30+ years. Please understand, most of us would like to see GURPS expand its presence and grow in any way possible. That includes VTT, we just don't want to lose what we have chasing rainbows and are relying on SJG proven track record of mostly good business decisions rather than telling them how to run their business. You want VTT "official" support? write up a formal business plan and send it to them, only they have access to the numbers to make the best call and in the end they are the ones taking all the financial risks.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries Last edited by Refplace; 10-19-2021 at 02:02 PM. |
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10-19-2021, 01:57 PM | #49 | |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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It's not simple, but it's not too hard. It takes some time, but it's very playable. It's not perfect, but it is great. I have no association other than I'm using it. Foundry costs $50- and you can use something like The Forge to host it for not a lot per month and it brings in simple access to additional modules (not D&D modules, although those also exist) which can add to the experience and functionality, mostly for free. I don't have experience with FG, only Roll20 and Foundry. This is not to suggest FG isn't good - it's been around for ages so it's obviously got a lot going for it that it's still a top choice, but different systems will appeal to different folks is all.
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Farmer Mortal Wombat "But if the while I think on thee, dear friend All losses are restored and sorrows end." |
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10-19-2021, 07:26 PM | #50 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Fantasy Grounds Unity GURPS?
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Also some of us have worked professionally in these kind of situations and have some experience. I personally have had to deal with people who asked and demanded for things without understanding the underlying costs and time involved and it was very frustrating. One time it cost my company over a million dollars and at least one person was fired over it. Quote:
And the example we have is VDS which seems a decent fit. That is mostly number crunching and rules understanding. Lets say Kromm devotes 25% of his time to checking the code, that is 1 less supplement every 4 months that the current customer base cant make any purchases on. And at that rate I doubt he would get the checking done in a fast fashion. So adding salary and lost revenue during the project phase, however long that would take. Its great that other companies like Pinnacle can do this, but every company has different considerations. For SJG GURPS unfortunately has a small dedicated base but is a very small part of the companies revenue. Quote:
Licensing has risks and they have shown reluctance to do that after being burned by Fallout. Kromm checking it is still a considerable time sink, I feel people keep missing how much time it takes to edit a book or code. I have done both, its boring (not nearly as much fun as creating content) and time consuming. Especially with a lot of numbers, tables, etc. The playtest could help a good deal though. Still seems to be missing a good return on investment form new revenue though. So you are getting more marketing, but how much of that would turn into new sales? I dont think we can really know till its tried. I am worried GURPS could die with a long hiatus on new content, or a big loss of money.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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remote play, virtual tabletop |
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