Re: (TFT) Supporting TFT with Nostalgia Goggles On

[Cris Fuhrman <fuhrmanator@gmail.com>]

Regarding business models for distributing TFT content (and also torrents
which came up in another posting regarding Space Gamer archives), I read a
blog posting about why "Breaking Bad creators don't deserve our money" --
http://junkee.com/why-the-creators-of-breaking-bad-dont-deserve-our-money
(warning
-- harsh language and long text).

Although I disagree with some of the author's attitudes, the long posting
did make me think about how things are changing with information
distribution and how business models have to adapt. I like how the
perspective goes back before there were books or writing. Stories that were
good got repeated (orally, as that was the only medium), and so nobody
cared who created them.

The future money is in creating the tools, the environments, the
distribution means for the content, and maybe the content itself will be
generated by the community and remain free? God knows that authors have
historically received small slices of the pie that is the book publishing
scheme. Same is true for content providers in music or entertainment (apart
from huge Hollywood stars). Are we just spoiled by the utopia created by
copyright laws? In reality, the period of human history where content was
legally protected is very, very small. It's also responsible for a lot of
the motivation behind important innovations in that same short period.

Regarding e-books. I own several (Kindle version) that I paid money for on
Amazon, mostly for my work as e-books are searchable and this is a big help
in research. My biggest complaint is that despite a digital format, the
publishers still think of what they sold you as a physical book. There are
no means in place to update the content of your e-book (despite it
notoriously containing horrendous typos, missing spaces, poorly formatted
electronic conversions, etc.). If you don't like the content of your
e-book, Amazon allows you to un-link it to your Kindle to get your money
back. But there's no "fix" process. It's hardly a step ahead, if you ask me.

There is some good news - I did buy recently an e-book about Android
Programming and the "license" allows me to download the PDF version for two
years (the PDF identifies me as the owner throughout, so it's not really
wise for me to redistribute it), including any updates to the content which
are expected when later versions of Android are produced by Google. The
author is "self published" and handles this business through Google Play
(kinda like the Apple Store/iTunes for Google). Granted, some book content
is more ephemeral than others (this book will be worthless in 10 years,
like most books on digital technology), but I like the idea that I'm not
buying some quasi-rasterization of a physical book. The two-year price is
reasonable, around $30.

Finally, I'm not sure software to allow people to play TFT over the web
would be a solution. As George said, old-school TFT got his son to get away
from the computer to play a game. The physical aspect (dice, miniatures,
graph paper, etc.) was and still is part of the charm for me. Maybe in 10
years when iTables are intuitive to use and in every home...


On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Joel BoardgameRpger <
joel.siragher@gmail.com> wrote:

> hey george! love your modules man. Ive bought 3. nice quality.
> I even like your system rewrite (legends).
>
> If youve thought of getting more out of them financially, you could expand
> to include rules to run them with gurps. a bigger audience. Or perhaps you
> can put out similiar units for savage worlds.
>
> Maybe you thought of that already.
>
> In either case, keep up the good work :D
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 1:21 AM, George Dew <gdew@responsenetworking.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Thanks David!
> >
> > I agree, we're all in this for the same thing.  And I appreciate your
> > candor.
> >
> > I first got into TFT back in the late 1970's.  I LOVED it!  D&D was too
> > complicated, and by comparison, TFT was much more elegant and playable.
>  I
> > was so disappointed when Metagaming folded.
> >
> > Then in the 1980's, GURPS put out several of the Conan adventures, and I
> > enjoyed "Queen of the Black Coast," though the other ones didn't really
> > appeal to me that much.  Did you guys ever play that one?  Then I went
> > through a phase where I kind of gave up on it when I was single and in
> the
> > Navy.
> >
> > This forum is really great because it gives us old-timers a chance to
> > reminisce and for me at least, it brings back really fond memories.  My
> > oldest boy (now 23) loves the TFT concept, and I had fun playing with him
> > while he was growing up.  Now he's on his own, stationed in Hawaii.
> >
> > My two younger boys (4 & 8) are enjoying the Lord of the Rings
> miniatures,
> > and the 8yo is already playing TFT and DCG adventures with me.  The
> problem
> > is that the little brother (4) feels left out, so when we start a game it
> > gets interrupted.
> >
> > Anyway, sorry to diverge...
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tft-admin@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-admin@brainiac.com] On Behalf
> Of
> > David Jackson
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 23:08
> > To: tft@brainiac.com
> > Subject: Re: (TFT) Supporting TFT with Nostalgia Goggles On
> >
> > George,
> >
> > I think we are all swimming in the same direction.  I just like to remain
> > clear-headed about where we are going.
> >
> > I'm sorry if I am too abrupt or direct.  But I think that's far more
> > valuable than being vague.
> >
> > David Jackson
> >
> > On 9/10/2013 10:45 PM, George Dew wrote:
> > > Aki,
> > >
> > > Once again, thanks VERY much for standing by DCG :-)  That being said,
> > > I didn't mean to get you into an argument with David.  He's got
> > > different views that me, and of course, that's just him.
> > >
> > > Anyway, thanks very very much for being a regular customer.  We really
> > > appreciate it!
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>
>
>
> --
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