[UA] Release schedule stuff

[Jim Nicholson]

Yes.  I like the whole "1 big, 2 little" concept on several levels.  It's a
good compromise between WW-like quarterly releases, and the Pagan Publishing
model of "Well, how long did the King James Bible take to produce? It's done
when it's done.".

As a counterpoint to the "lots of releases = popular public perception"
argument, I used to be a sad Dream Pod 9 completist.  I mean, I bought EVERY
Heavy Gear product (roughly one a month), EVERY Jovian Chronicles product,
and the first few releases of Tribe 8 too.  Then one day I woke up and
realized that I had a small mint's worth of gaming materials on my shelf
that I had barely even glanced at, because I was too busy buying them all to
have time to actually READ them (let alone, gasp, *use* them!).  And then I
realized further that the real reason I hadn't bothered reading a lot of the
HG books were that they were error-riddled fluff-filled crap, relative to
the amount of money I was spending on them.  Nowadays, I hardly buy anything
from DP9 (and nothing HG), only the few products that *really* appeal to me.

And lest you think this is the lonely ranting of a nut, DP9 came to admit
that their must-put-out-a-book-every-month release schedule for HG was (a)
compromising quality (esp. editorial quality) across all their lines, and
(b) turning off customers who were unwilling to make the astronomical
investment required to keep up with the product line.  So they scaled back
the HG releases.

The moral of this story?

I love UA -- I honestly think it's the single best RPG in existence, with
phenomenal potential -- and I have transferred my completist appetites to
the UA line.  I certainly don't want to see such an infrequent release
schedule as a book every 6-8 months or so.  But if moving to a book or two a
quarter meant a drop in quality or more to the point (because I trust John
and Greg's QA more than DP9's), relevance, I'd have to drop the line.  Books
should be the size that their clearly-defined subject requires, and I prefer
a great book every four months than a merely above-average book every three.
"Merely above-average" doesn't compel the money out of my wallet the way
that standard UA brilliance does.

IOW, there's a case that insisting on frequent releases can turn off
customers as well as attract them.

Jim


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On
> Behalf Of James O'Rance
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 4:48 PM
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: Re: [UA] Release schedule stuff
>
>
> "James McGraw" <pdytjem at nottingham.ac.uk> said:
>
>  >>>In fact, I think a compromise of 3 supplements per year- one
> thick one
> and two thin ones- would be best.<<<
>
> Is there anyone else called James who thinks this is a good idea? One
> supplement every four months seems fairly regular to me.
>
>
> James O’Rance
> “Divine being creates petting zoo. It gets out of hand.”
> - The Bible (summarised by John W. Mangrum)
>
> http://www.geocities.com/dragon-dreamer/
>
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