Any industry professionals who'd like to discuss the pros and cons of
having their "open gaming content" materials freely available on the web
are welcome to contact me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I've been selling game products that are freely available on the Web for
5 years now. :-)
My guess is at least half of the Fudge customers over the years
purchased the book *after* finding the rules (in their entirety) online.
Why would they pay for a game they already got for free? Because the
typeset, bound book looked nicer and was easier to deal with. (I upped
the ante -- and the price -- for the Expanded Edition, adding some
material that wasn't readily available on the web, but not *much* --
about 90% of the contents of the Expanded Edition is available somewhere
on the Internet.)
Yes, many many more have downloaded Fudge and *not* bought the book
(although many of *them* have bought Fudge dice and some of the other
Fudge derivative books) -- but would those people have bought the book
if that were the only form it was available in? I don't think so -- not
in significant numbers, at any rate.... And those Fudge fans who "just"
downloaded Fudge and didn't pay for it are actually extremely valuable
to Grey Ghost as a publisher. They've put an amazing amount of Fudge
stuff on the World Wide Web, which greatly increases the value of Fudge
as a game system. Plus I *am* mining their material for publishable
stuff. It's not "stealing" (as some people seem to fear with D20/OGL)
because I ask them first, and pay them afterwards. :-)
Oh, and a not insignificant number purchase the Fudge book *just because
they want to support Grey Ghost.* I'm sure the same effect will occur
for D20/OGC publishers.
So I agree with John and others -- a large enough number of people are
willing to pay for *presentation* of material they can get free
elsewhere to make commercial publishing of "open content" worthwhile.
Add in some closed PI and you give fans even more incentive to support you....
--
Best regards,
Ann Dupuis ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Grey Ghost Press, Inc. (http://www.fudgerpg.com)
"Hey, Kids! Summon your own Fuzzy Bunny! Just draw a circle on the
ground and say these words..." - ad in Supernatural Entity Monthly,
probably completely unrelated to a sudden spontaneous infestation of
Demon Bunnies. (From the "Gatecrasher" roleplaying game;
http://www.fudgerpg.com/gtcrasher)
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
