[UA] The future of UA? (Was Godwalker Preorders)

[Cassady Toles]

I suspect the market failures of UA are less based on the half-dozen gamers who pirate copies of role-playing games (I suspect illegal downloads probably affect sales of d20 substantially more than UA).  I suspect, rather that UAis ultimately stymied by the precise reasons that I so enjoy it.

It's ultimately a much less approachable RPG than many more successful RPG's.  

By approachable I think you can easily sum up the nature of the most successful genres of RPG by defining the book or film that most relates to it, that the average gamer (14-20 year old middle-class caucasian) has experienced:

d20:  The Lord of the Rings
Star Wars:  Star Wars
Espionage games (spycraft):  James Bond, Tom Clancy
Vampire, Werewolf, et all:  Anne Rice, Various Comic Books, Myriad Horror films
Superheroes Games (Champions, Marvel etc, DC etc, etc.):  Myriad Comic Books
Anime Games (BESM, TFOS, Mekton, most DP9 games):  Japanese Amimation
Cyberpunk Games (CP2020, Shadowrun, et all):  Myriad Pocket Fiction Authors including but not limited to Walter John Williams, Bruce Sterling, Bill Gibson, Ellison, Hubbard, and Effinger; Myriad Movies including but not limited to: Cyborg, Mad Max et all, Johnny Mnemonic, Robocop and its sequels, and Freejack.

Look at the less successful RPG genres in this discussion and their bases:

Non Tolkien Fantasy (stormbringer, talislanta, pendragon, 7th sea):  Various sources, some as well spread as Tolkien (i.e. aurthurian legend), some less so (i.e. Talislanta which is basically made up from whole cloth).  These games also have to compete with d20 which is vastly better distributed and has a long history in gaming.
OTE:  William S. Burroughs' The Naked Lunch.  (A book I didn't really get until the first time I'd done heroin)
Kult:  Gnostic Metaphysics
Unknown Armies:  Tim Powers, Eco's Focault's Pendulum, some wierder comic books (hellblazer, books of Magic maybe)

The only game I can't explain with this system that I can think of is CoC.  I didn't read Lovecraft until after I played the game.  I suspect it got a foothold as the first horror game, and pulled a horror crowd even if that crowd, like myself, didn't know Lovecraft.

All these games face whatever level of comptetiton comes from places like Kazaa.  I don't particularly like the self-righteous pirates much more than you do, but every game has to deal with this problem, and I suspect it really effects a specific _percentage_ of buyers for each, not a set number.  I also suspect many kazaavians wouldn't buy any of the stuff if it weren't for free or would buy less than they'll download.

If the market won't support UA, that sucks.  It's a brilliant game, but I think its more fringe market in the industry is more to blame than illegal internet distribution.

Cassady

You know, he's got really great hair, for a speed freak...-Excerpt from actual conversation 

--- On Sun 02/01, Chris Cooper < insectking at yahoo.com > wrote:From: Chris Cooper [mailto: insectking at yahoo.com]To: ua at lists.unknown-armies.comDate: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 09:45:37 -0800 (PST)Subject: Re: [UA] The future of UA? (Was Godwalker Preorders)
--- Pablo_Valcárcel 
Isn't there anything we can do? I
> don't know, like each 
> one of the list buying 10 copies of "To Go" or
> something? ;).

There is precious little we can all do other than beat
up download pirates who scam scanned copies of games.

If the KAZAA motherfuckers put an end to scamloading,
and where forced to BUY copies, the market dip would
pop up.

The one's who bitch about how bad their unbought
copies are get stomped on the head for extra measure.

Chris, who fucking hates whining download pirates. No
really, I do.



=====
Yogurt. It's like yoga. But with less bones in it.

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