Report To The Stakeholders

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Ugh, Munchkin. I'm with Owen: I really don't understand the wide appeal of the game to the mass market. But I have to be glad that it's supporting SJGames; without developing that game, I fear that Steve would be long gone, and have taken the development of the games I do want with him.

And honestly, as much as I love GURPS, it's theoretical at this point. I last bought books probably 5 years ago, and last played even longer ago than that.

Hooray for OGRE! And too bad it's probably going to lose money or best case break even. On balance, it doesn't do much to encourage my faith in that aspect of the industry.

I have to say, at least for my part, I am much more likely to play OGRE and Car Wars than either Munchkin or GURPS at this point. If Munchkin sales will fund OGRE and GURPS, and at least kickstart Car Wars, what can you say?

btw, as a participant in the CW forum, I agree with a point made above: honestly, a summer 2015 release is looking more likely than anything else. It shouldn't prove distracting to anyone other than Phil this year, although it might need more resources next year as design and playtest spins up.

And no one else has mentioned it, but it's truly remarkable that this company can provide for 28 employees, and actually be seeking more. That's almost an empire ;)

[margath]

Originally Posted by philreed

As long as I am here I will continue to push to improve our profitability and sales. We will publish new titles as we have time, and we will do our best to make sure those titles meet Steve's quality expectations. We will not rush titles to market in an attempt to produce many different things in a year.

Phil's statement above is quoted for truth, justice, and the hope that the Ogre won't crush my house first when the revolution comes.

No. Seriously, this is why I've loved SJG since 1978. :D

Also: Phil: Thank you for being Evil Hat's Dice Connection. :D

[philreed]

Originally Posted by margath

Also: Phil: Thank you for being Evil Hat's Dice Connection. :D

Happy to help! I'm glad that the months we spent knocking that project around has resulted in (well, will result in) such pretty dice.

[The Wrathchild]

Just adding to the chorus of yearly appreciation for the report and it's usual candor.

As primarily (very!) a GURPShead it has been a bit of a quiet time, but I understand the reasons and I have every confidence that we will be back to our usually pampered state in the realm of new releases before too long. edit: And of course, Pyramid has been churning out good stuff as clockwork! Great job!

My only peeve? SJ calling a hold on After the End. I notice with enormous interest his failure to provide for an unnamed GURPS title. Here's hoping that he will actually get the time to go there this year ... :-)

Hmmm hmmm hm hm hm hm ...

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

I'd have loved to heard a big announcement of future GURPS expansion, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm pleased that Ogre is coming along as it is, and that Munchkin continues to sell. To me included, actually, even though we don't play it as often now that we've got a Dungeon Fantasy game going. Overall, it's nice to see SJG can make a profit, give vacations, and still plow money back into the hobby overall.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mnemonic

Ugh, Munchkin. I'm with Owen: I really don't understand the wide appeal of the game to the mass market

I do. It's RPG-lite. You know those stories RPGers love to tell about crazy mechanical set-ups, ridiculous builds, or unlikely events happening in RPGs? Munchkin simulates those all very well without requiring the heavy investments of an actual RPG. It's something you can just whip out and play with friends and laugh about as the potted plant becomes a Giant Potted Plant Of Doom With Minions.

I doubt Munchkin sees the kind of deep, invested love that GURPS does (which is probably one of the reasons SJGames still supports GURPS as much as it does, plus I think Steve just really likes GURPS), but you don't have to. The point of mass appeal is that it's broad, but not necessarily deep. There are hundreds of thousands of people who would enjoy a game of Munchkin, but only thousands who would put in the time necessary for a good game of GURPS, even though those thousands love GURPS with far more intensity than the hundreds of thousands love Munchkin. The result is Munchkin is far more profitable.

I think one of the continued successes of Munchkin is that SJGames understands why it appeals, but they tend to be masters of the tight, focused, quick game. My very first SJGame was the original Ogre (played with my dad on a hotel floor), and it was just a little map and a few tokens. I also really enjoyed Zombie Dice, and it has a similar set-up.

[SolemnGolem]

GURPS gets a very steady stream of support from SJG: the catch is that it's no longer relying on the increasingly unpredictable and expensive up-front costs of traditional bricks-and-mortar hard-copy sales. GURPS now has many more titles in 4th edition PDF formats than it does in hard-copy, for reasons that we've already discussed in depth elsewhere on these boards.

GURPS gets a decent number of "flagship" title releases (many of which are of award-winning quality - vide Horror, my favorite purchase of 2012) - but its level of support is only really grasped if you take into account all the issues of Pyramid magazine too. Few other systems have such a diverse library of "crunch" alt-rules and discussions... those that even have the vision of encouraging such in their readership (most do not, in my experience).

I've seen a number of players focus on the hard-copy output for the system, and I can imagine there may be reasons for that. But if you're doing so merely out of deference to traditional practice, I'd strongly encourage checking out the official GURPS offerings on e23, and even dipping into a few of the Pyramids issues. I'm consistently impressed with the quality of the articles and supplementary rules and I think the Report to the Stakeholders assumes that GURPS aficionados are aware of those non-traditional channels and are following them.

[AndreasDavour]

Thanks for the report, and the way you value contact with the stakeholders, Steve!

[margath]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I have power tools and demonstrated poor judgement when it comes to this sort of thing. I may have to build a Coffee Table Mk. V.

Actually, just thinking about it, treads for the "Ogre Box" (which very might well need the treads that an Ogre VI has) might be just the thing to conveniently pull the thing around on a "leash", thus obviating the need for a back brace to carry the thing.

[dkwd]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I have power tools and demonstrated poor judgement when it comes to this sort of thing. I may have to build a Coffee Table Mk. V.

Matt, I really like what you did with the Batcave. Nice work.

David