[UA] Release schedule stuff

[Stuart Anderson]

Machiavelli132 at aol.com wrote:

> Though I would defer to Greg's actual experiance in the game industry, I only
> want to ask- hasn't Atlas kept supporting "Over The Edge" for a while
> now?(Not sure how many years, exactly.)
> Only recently has there even been a sourcebook in the works.
>
> Forgive me if this has nothing to do with the discussion.

    I think it has a lot to do with it, in that I think they're trying to avoid
having another Over the Edge. One of those "best games no one ever plays." It
must be difficult to continue to allocate resources to a game that doesn't
generate much revenue in return, despite being acclaimed as a game that does
everything right. I think, as a company, they just want to have some more
self-sufficient lines, rather than the perpetual struggling critical successes.
On a personal level, I think maybe they're starting to feel a little like Jello
Biafra & Mojo Nixon in "Buy My Snake Oil": 'I'm tired of being legendary and
broke...' I don't have much comfort to offer. I'm broke and not even an artistic
success.
    I guess from a business standpoint, they're the worst, but I'd love to see a
small, bizarre magazine, reminiscent of Edgeworks, for UA. Keep them to six or
seven bucks, and even if they were pretty slim, I'd buy them. Or small books like
the DG Chapbooks. But like those products, out here in the sticks, I'd have to
special order them. I had to order all my UA books, other than the rulebook. So I
don't know. I can see both sides of the discussion, and I'm probably a little
cynical about finding a magic marketing strategy for something as odd as UA. Even
a comparatively cool CCG didn't skyrocket OtE to prime moneymaker status.
    But whatever you savvy bidnezmen come up with, I'll back it. It's a great
game. Have you discussed doing some kind of crossover campaign book in
cooperation with DG, or Cthulhu, or White Wolf (sacrilege, I know) or something
like that? I'm not proposing a discussion of the conflicting cosmologies, or rule
system conversion nonsense, or any of that. Just a campaign that was so damn
*cool* that it overcame all that and won some followers from the more popular
game? It works for comics, sometimes. And I think it'd be extremely fun. It would
be nice to have a big, glossy hype machine working for you. Just an idea.
--Stu


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