Pyramid - an excellent game magazine
Jim Duncan
in the adventure gaming industry. Pyramid moved online almost 2 years
ago as a means of controlling costs since it was too expensive to
publish in paper format. I miss the paper format now and then, but
really believe the online web based format is better.
Pyramid has a new issue out every Friday. The content is well worth the
$15.00 annual subscription fee. Pyramid features game reviews (2-3 each
week), source material and background information for a wide range of
roleplaying games, adventures, and Adventure Pizza's (mini-adventures
outlines with lots of options), John Kovalic's comic strips - Murphy's
Rules and Dork Tower, and lots of other stuff. Roleplaying games
covered include GURPS, AD&D, Feng Shui, Marvel Super Heroes, In Nomine,
Shadowrun, Castle Falkenstein, Cyberpunk 2020, and lots of others. Card
game is a bit more sparse and although they'll cover just about any card
game they've only done a few to date -- INWO, Doomtown, L5R, and Star
Wars come to mind. They're actively looking for more card game
articles, but most of the readership currently seems to be roleplayers,
and the articles mainly come from folks who read the magazine -- though
this includes lots of industry types. Pyramid also covers computer
gaming, miniatures, board games, war games and such. They do an
excellent job of covering industry news and the news is updated daily
as it happens.
Other great Pyramid features:
- Archives of back issues including issues that were previously in
print format (they've got about 13 of the 30 print issues online now and
they add one every few months)
- Steve Jackson Games playtest material which is mostly for GURPS and
INWO.
- A chat area which features weekly sessions with SJ Games staff and
lots of industry folks like Ken Hite, David Pulver, Gary Gygax, Greg
Porter (BTRC), Dan Cope (Uncle Figgy), Scott Haring, Doc Cross, Matt
Forbeck (Pinnacle), John Kolvic, Loren Wiseman, Mike Stackpole, and
lots of others. All of the past chat sessions have been archived and
they make for interesting reading.
To check out samples of Pyramid go to the following:
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/
If you decide to subscribe, please put me down as a reference, my
username is griffin (I get a free month added to my subscription).
Pyramid is an excellent gaming magazine, so give it a look.
-- Jim Duncan, jdu...@erols.com
On Pyramid: griffin
Karen J. Cravens
>If you decide to subscribe, please put me down as a reference, my
>username is griffin (I get a free month added to my subscription).
That would make this spam, Jimbo. I rather doubt SJGames appreciates the
association.
--
Karen Cravens (sil...@phoenyx.net)
Phoenyx Play-by-Email Roleplaying - http://www.phoenyx.net
Listserver: majo...@phoenyx.net
Sidhain
Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine' ultimately they don't
have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
isn't this a bit excessive?
They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year worth it for an
electronic magazine?
Ryan Conner Stoughton
Sidhain wrote:
<QUICK DECISION>
No.
Lizard
<80kgt6$rqh$1...@ash.prod.itd.earthlink.net>:
>Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
>'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or any of the
>MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so isn't this a bit
>excessive?
>
No. They have to pay writers to write, and people to maintain the site.
Skilled techies don't come cheap.
>They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a
>year worth it for an electronic magazine?
Yes, without doubt, absolutely. I consider it about the best purchase I've
made online.
They publish one 'issue' a week, which is very content-rich. You pay
twenty-eight cents per issue. Frankly, I'd pay 28 cents a week just for
Dork Tower and Murphy's Rules. The rest is gravy.
Chris Camfield
<ryca...@idirect.ca> wrote:
>Sidhain wrote:
>
>> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine' ultimately they don't
>> have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
>> isn't this a bit excessive?
>>
>> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year worth it for an
>> electronic magazine?
That's $1.25 a month. Is that really such a huge amount of money?
><QUICK DECISION>
>No.
Well, that's up to you, but I think my Pyramid subscription is one of
my better gaming purchases within the past year. And I don't even
play GURPS.
Good articles, columns, and stuff; discussion groups that I get a lot
more out of than frp.misc. Now, granted, I also enjoy reading rpg.net
and that you can read for free. Chacun a son gout.
Chris
William Barnett-Lewis
subscriptions. I guess the real question is - did you like the old paper
mag? If you did, this will be worth the cost; if not well, it's still the
same magazine.
I don't care for GURPS really and only got involved in it due to the recent
GURPS: Traveller material. That said, the online magazine as been a wealth
of goodies for me to use in Runequest, my homebrew fantasy system, and
classic Traveller. That and it's so exquisite to get to my office on Friday
each week and be able to pull up a new Dork Tower. That alone is worth the
price! :>
In the end, if they have paid off their servers or not is irrelevant.
There's this little economics tidbit that claims that a price will become
what the market will bear. If $14 a year is too much for you to spend, you
won't spend it. If enough others agree with you, SJG will either a) lower
the price or b) cease production of Pyramid. As their numbers are increasing
(I want to say in the neighborhood of 3000 subscribers now), I'd think that
enough find it to be a good value at that price. For me, well, I paid 12.95
for _1_ issue of "Megatraveller Journal" back in 1992. 'Nuff said.
in article 80kgt6$rqh$1...@ash.prod.itd.earthlink.net, Sidhain at
sid...@earthlink.net wrote on 13/11/1999 2:13 PM:
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine'
> ultimately they don't
> have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing
> a magazine, so
> isn't this a bit excessive?
>
> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year
> worth it for an
> electronic magazine?
William
--
Live without fear; your Creator loves you | William Barnett-Lewis
as a mother. Go in peace to follow the good | mailto://wle...@mailbag.com
road and may God's blessing be with |
you always. |
St. Claire |
Carl D Cravens
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
> 'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or any of
> the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so isn't this a
> bit excessive?
Just how much is fifteen bucks? It's half a roleplaying game nowdays.
With Pyramid, you get new articles every week... as a weekly 'zine, that's
only twenty-nine cents a week. Twenty-nine cents for three to four
articles, two to three columns/editorials, two comics, and two to three
reviews every week. What other magazine can produce twelve full reviews,
twelve or more articles, eight comics, eight columns or editorials every
month?
And then consider that the paper magazine doesn't provide instant-feedback
polls, a convenient rating tool on the articles, a chat area with industry
names, a discussion area via web or news server (not just Pyramid or SJ
Games specific... there are several generic discussion areas), access to
SJ Games playtest materials and every electronic back-issue of Pyramid
plus about half of the paper-printed back-issues (with the rest to come as
they get entered). Fifteen bucks and you get *years* worth of Pyramid.
Their payment rates are the same as the paper magazine. And the volume of
material is greater than that of the paper magazine. I think it's worth a
measley twenty-nine cents a week just to have access to the spam-free,
more-intelligent-than-average discussion areas... I can consider the
articles gravy.
They are't as heavily supported by advertising as the paper magazine and
their readership is significantly smaller. (No gamestore sales...
subscription only.)
> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a
> year worth it for an electronic magazine?
They also pay for art (yeah, the articles have art), editing, management
of the Pyramid part of the site, management of the forums and news server,
management and hosting of the chat server and chats, writing of the daily
news updates, additional bandwidth and server horsepower (which isn't
free, as you seem to think).
It's just fifteen bucks... try it out for yourself. I've never regretted
my subscription.
--
Carl D Cravens (ra...@phoenyx.net)
Where am I . . . and why am I in this handbasket?
Carl D Cravens
> I don't care for GURPS really and only got involved in it due to the recent
> GURPS: Traveller material. That said, the online magazine as been a wealth
> of goodies for me to use in Runequest, my homebrew fantasy system, and
> classic Traveller. That and it's so exquisite to get to my office on Friday
> each week and be able to pull up a new Dork Tower. That alone is worth the
> price! :>
Just to be clear, Pyramid isn't a GURPS magazine... it has articles on
many different games, including D&D (rarely, but it happens, and the last
one was fairly generic and didn't need to be about D&D at all). Ken
Hite's column isn't system-specific... it's just a lot of ideas for
running weird games. (He's a conspiracy/weirdness nut.) The
gamemastering column is GMing advice (to be taken with a grain of salt)
independent of game system. Adventure Pizza is always generic.
Supporting Cast is often in GURPS terms... but it generally isn't hard to
convert the characters you want to use to another game system.
Then there are articles on various things like card games, new ways to
play Killer, etc. They card game articles are infrequent enough not to
bother the non-CCG player, I think. (Or at least this one.)
--
Carl D Cravens (ra...@phoenyx.net)
Dogs crawl under fences, Software crawls under Windows.
Klyfix
<sid...@earthlink.net> writes:
>
>Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine'
>ultimately they don't
>have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing
>a magazine, so
>isn't this a bit excessive?
>
>They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year
>worth it for an
>electronic magazine?
>
>
It would be interesting to see some sort of cost analysis; after all, there
aren't
a lot of paper RPG mags around now. I'd much prefer to have a paper mag,
and since I lack a credit card subscribing to an online publication is a bit of
a problem. But it may well be that it's not possible to make a profit on a
paper
mag unless it happens to be _Dragon_.
V.S. Greene : kly...@aol.com : Boston, near Arkham...
Eckzylon: http://members.aol.com/klyfix/eckzylon.html
RPG and SF, predictions, philosophy, and other things.
Renovations underway, Aug. 22, 1999
Doug Berry
stone tablets, which when translated read:
>They publish one 'issue' a week, which is very content-rich. You pay
>twenty-eight cents per issue. Frankly, I'd pay 28 cents a week just for
>Dork Tower and Murphy's Rules. The rest is gravy.
Ken Hite's _Suppressed Transmission_ is more than worth the cost
of admission. I have gotten more evil ideas, both for gaming and
my own research, from that column than from any other resource I
can think of.
Having access to all the back issues without digging through the
closet is a nice touch also.
--
Douglas E. Berry grid...@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/
"We are GURPS. You will be assimilated. We will add
your distinctive setting and background to our own. |
Resistance is futile."
Doug Berry
read:
>> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a >>year worth it for an electronic magazine?
>
><QUICK DECISION>
>No.
Howzabout 28 cents an issue for up to date industry news, two
cartoons (including Murphy's Rules), access to the SJG playtest
files, at least six new articles a week.. Compare that to any
paper mag remaining on the market.
StilesC
>a problem.
Not a problem with Pyramid. I sent in a check for my subscription. It really
is a great buy for the money.
Christina
SD Anderson
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
> 'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or
> any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
> isn't this a bit excessive?
> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is
> 15.00 a year worth it for an electronic magazine?
Hardly. For the cost of year subscription to Newsweek you can
buy a LOT of blank paper. Being overcharged? No. You aren't
buying paper per se, you're buying INFORMATION. Pyramid is
considerably cheaper per year in e-form than it was in paper form
and you get things you couldn't get with the paper version, live
chat, message boards, playtest materials...
Against a cost of $15 per year, the decision to subscribe or
not to subscribe is a REAL no-brainer.
SD Anderson
> Sidhain wrote:
>> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
>> 'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or
>> any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
>> isn't this a bit excessive?
>> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is
>> 15.00 a year worth it for an electronic magazine?
> <QUICK DECISION>
> No.
Just an observation. If you aren't interested in gaming news
and articles 'No' is absolutely the correct answer. If you are
interested in gaming and reading gaming articles then comparison
shop: 3 issues of Dragon is one year of Pyramid Online. Dragon
covers ONLY TSR/WotC games. Pyramid covers all games. You see
more GURPS stuff because, as Scott Haring observed, he gets more
GURPS material submitted to him.
SD Anderson
> paper mag unless it happens to be _Dragon_.
When Pyramid Online was first announced they had a credit card
requirement. WELL before it first was published, public pressure
got SJ Games to change policy and accept checks. If you can get a
money order and snail mail it to them you have a subscription.
Sidhain
> > No.
>
> Just an observation. If you aren't interested in gaming news
> and articles 'No' is absolutely the correct answer. If you are
> interested in gaming and reading gaming articles then comparison
> shop: 3 issues of Dragon is one year of Pyramid Online. Dragon
> covers ONLY TSR/WotC games. Pyramid covers all games. You see
> more GURPS stuff because, as Scott Haring observed, he gets more
> GURPS material submitted to him.
The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read it at my leisure, and
not have to worry about losing the information I liked because of a HD crash.
James Wallis
>ultimately they don't
>have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a
>magazine, so
>isn't this a bit excessive?
>
>They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year
>worth it for an
>electronic magazine?
Speaking as someone who earns his real income from 'real' magazines...
absolutely. Pyramid does a knock-out job. It's weekly, it has
interesting content, its back-issues are available on-line, and it makes
use of its net-nature by organising on-line chats and the like.
If you can get 52 issues of a print magazine about gaming delivered to
your home for $15, then go for it. Otherwise, fork out for Pyramid. It's
worth every penny.
--
James Wallis
Director of Hogshead Publishing Ltd (ja...@hogshead.demon.co.uk)
Posting this from his home address (ja...@erstwhile.demon.co.uk)
Check out our somewhat groovy website: http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk
Noman
wrote:
>Sidhain wrote:
>> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
>> 'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or
>> any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
>> isn't this a bit excessive?
>
>> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is
>> 15.00 a year worth it for an electronic magazine?
>
> Hardly. For the cost of year subscription to Newsweek you can
>buy a LOT of blank paper. Being overcharged? No. You aren't
>buying paper per se, you're buying INFORMATION. Pyramid is
>considerably cheaper per year in e-form than it was in paper form
>and you get things you couldn't get with the paper version, live
>chat, message boards, playtest materials...
>
> Against a cost of $15 per year, the decision to subscribe or
>not to subscribe is a REAL no-brainer.
Another point to make is that most magazines make back a large
percentage of their costs via advertisers. In fact, some magazines
(not gaming, probably) make the majority of their profit off
adverstising.
Pyramid has very little, as well as the fact that they still
have to pay people to format the articles, post them, etc. They also
have to pay the authors, at I believe anywhere from 2-4 cents a word.
The Wraith
wrote:
>
>The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read it at my leisure, and
>not have to worry about losing the information I liked because of a HD crash.
You can save Pyramid, and its information is then "yours", and you can
re-read it at your leisure. As for losing the info, you can lose the
info in a paper mag too - when I moved recently, I tossed 95% of my
on-paper "information" for a combination of two main reasons - it took
up too much space for its utility, and its condition was poor at best
and getting worse.
(Everyone is familiar with the concept of a back-up, aren't they? If
you are paying for software or data, you should make sure you back it
up. If you want to store something long-term, you make multiple
back-up copies and you check periodically that you can still retrieve
from each - restoring corrupt copies from good ones.
How far back do Pyramid Online back-issues go? If they keep the
back-issues available just about forever, you don't need to worry
about back-ups. Your subscription would allow you to download it
again, if necessary.)
--
Now, by popular demand, a new .sig!
I still can't think of anything witty to say, though.
The Wraith
Doug Berry
translated read:
>The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read it >at my leisure, and not have to worry about losing the information I liked
>because of a HD crash.
Do you have a printer? I print out the articvles of interest to
me, and save the originals on disk.
I used to have a small mountain of paper magazines stored so I
could have access to a single article. This is much easier. It
also allows me to reformat things to my heart's content.
Ryan Conner Stoughton
> Ryan Connor Strohon (sp) wrote:
> > Sidhain wrote:
> >> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
> >> 'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or
> >> any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
> >> isn't this a bit excessive?
> >> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is
> >> 15.00 a year worth it for an electronic magazine?
>
> > <QUICK DECISION>
> > No.
>
> Just an observation. If you aren't interested in gaming news
> and articles 'No' is absolutely the correct answer. If you are
> interested in gaming and reading gaming articles then comparison
> shop: 3 issues of Dragon is one year of Pyramid Online. Dragon
> covers ONLY TSR/WotC games. Pyramid covers all games. You see
> more GURPS stuff because, as Scott Haring observed, he gets more
> GURPS material submitted to him.
I don't buy Dragon either. Buying Dragon would be especially dim given
my last statement, wouldn't it?
I don't think it's worth it to spend any money to get someone else's
opinion on gaming - I get enough of that from newsgroups, hobby shops,
etc. As for source, I write my own, or I get my players to help. I
don't see what Pyramid would have to offer me (I also don't play GURPS).
Ryan Stoughton
Klyfix
<10225...@CompuServe.COM> writes:
Hmm, we shall most certainly consider it.
Still asking the question though; is role playing now so marginalized
that the only way magazines other than _Dragon_ can survive is in
purely electronic distribution?
Well, of course I suppose one can print out the stuff oneself; as I now
"have the technology" I could just do that. :)
V. S. Greene : kly...@aol.com : Boston, near Arkham...
SD Anderson
> The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it
> re read it at my leisure, and not have to worry about losing the
> information I liked because of a HD crash.
You are contractually allowed to keep ONE *hardcopy* of any
article available to subscribers. If you lack a printer take it
to Kinkos. If your hard drive crashes, EVERY single article is
still of SJG's servers for downloading and rereading etc except
playtest material after the playtest period is over.
That complaint is UTTERLY bogus.
SD Anderson
> I used to have a small mountain of paper magazines stored so I
> could have access to a single article. This is much easier. It
> also allows me to reformat things to my heart's content.
A case in point. One of my articles printed out in a manner
the put about 3/4ths of one of andi jones' pictures on one page
the the remainder on the next. While that would never have gotten
out a paper mag editor's door, it was EXTREMELY simple to fix.
Yes word processing programs these days have some versatility...
SD Anderson
> I don't buy Dragon either. Buying Dragon would be especially
> dim given my last statement, wouldn't it?
Don't see why. Your last statement was an emphatic no in
regard to getting a PYRAMID ONLINE magazine subscription, with
nothing remotely indicative of a lack of interest in gaming
magazines in general. It was a specific NO to ONE publication
only.
SD Anderson
> Another point to make is that most magazines make back a
> large percentage of their costs via advertisers. In fact, some
> magazines (not gaming, probably) make the majority of their
> profit off adverstising.
There is a REAL old Mad magazine article about an obvious Life
magazine clone and the extraordinary efforts made to get this one
subscriber to renew. They wound up PAYING him to resubscribe.
WHY? The advertising dollars from having a huge subscription
base made it profitable to lose money on his subscription.
Now Pyramid has broken the 3000 subscriber mark and appears to
be in the break even or in the black area as is. If they could
land Amazon.com ads or something we could start seeing more than 2
articles a week, written more by pros than by fans.
Lizard
<80lk1f$5rg$1...@birch.prod.itd.earthlink.net>:
>> > <QUICK DECISION>
>> > No.
>>
>> Just an observation. If you aren't interested in gaming news
>> and articles 'No' is absolutely the correct answer. If you are
>> interested in gaming and reading gaming articles then comparison
>> shop: 3 issues of Dragon is one year of Pyramid Online. Dragon
>> covers ONLY TSR/WotC games. Pyramid covers all games. You see
>> more GURPS stuff because, as Scott Haring observed, he gets more
>> GURPS material submitted to him.
>
>The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read
>it at my leisure, and not have to worry about losing the information I
>liked because of a HD crash.
Ah! I see your problem. I should inform you that a new technology is being
developed in a joint research effort by Microsoft, IBM, and Toshiba, and
ought to be available by about the middle of 2000 or so. This new
peripheral device will connect to your computer, and, via an extremely
advanced process of molecular adhesion, will place small black dots of ink
on a flat, white, object made of dried and pressed tree pulp. When it is
finished, you will have a near-perfect facsimile of the data on your
computer screen!
This new 'printer' technology will be pricey at first, but ought to drop
substantially as it is perfected. Though it may seem a mere frill now, in
time, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it, and be astonished no one
thought of it, oh, thirty or forty years ago or so...
Ryan Conner Stoughton
SD Anderson wrote:
However, my decision was based on the cost of an online magazine - it
DID have a context (I was reacting to Sidhain's post). Since I was
basing my response on cost, one could therefore extrapolate that cost
was a factor in my decision.
Ryan
David E. Smith
[Yo, Sidhain! They're called 80-character margins. Reformatting applied.]
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine'
> ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE
> expensive materials in producing a magazine, so isn't this a bit
> excessive?
IMO, not at all.
> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year
> worth it for an electronic magazine?
$15 a year is comparable to many print magazines (though not many
gaming-oriented print mags that I know of). And if you take a month's
worth of Pyramid, you have a comparable amount of material to many of
those monthly print mags.
I couldn't care less from paper. I'm primarily interested in the content.
And that, Pyramid delivers. I'm willing to pay for their content, even
though I'm not a big GURPS fan.
...dave
Glen Barnett
>
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine' ultimately they don't
> have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
> isn't this a bit excessive?
>
> electronic magazine?
Well, actually, $15 per year is far, far too cheap. For what I
have been getting, I'd consider $1 *per issue* good value. At
about a quarter of that price, it is exceedingly cheap.
Ken Hite's column is worth the purchase price. The comics, reviews,
news and editorials are worth twice the purchase price between them.
Then there's the other columns. Generally, there's at least one
article worth at least the purchase price again, sometimes two or
three of them are that good (this is for a non-GURPS player,
remember - many articles aren't GURPS-related at all). Then
there's all the other stuff you get besides the magazine itself -
again, easily worth the purchase price. That's about 5 times
the purchase price. I imagine GURPS players would rate it
even higher, because of the regularity of GURPS content.
You don't need to play GURPS to get value from Pyramid. I have
never played GURPS (though I own a number of GURPS source books
for use in other games). It does publish GURPS stuff, because
that's what people send in - but it publishes everything else
as well. RPGs, both specific and generic. CCGs. Board Games.
All kinds of stuff.
I used to buy Pyramid about half the time when it was a paper
magazine, and generally thought it was pretty good. It didn't
have half the value to me that Pyramid does now. My biggest
problem is that I get more stuff I like than I can possibly have
time to use! At least I don't have to store it all.
There are very few advantages I can think of for a paper magazine.
- the news is always weeks or months out of date in a paper magazine
- it costs at least 10 times as much per useful article in a paper
magazine. Usually more.
- I can print out the articles I want from Pyramid to read on the
train - so paper magazines don't win out there either.
- I don't have to keep paper copies of articles I'm not ready to
use yet - but I can access them any time later.
- I can talk to people from all over the world about issues raised
by the magazine. If I think there's a problem or a mistake, or
just something I disagree with, dammit!, I can talk to people
about it... and the editor of the magazine will see what I say.
- I get access to lots of back issues - even ones I never paid for
- I can search for articles on particular topics. If I want to find
all articles on a particular game, or all articles by a certain
author, blam, there they are. No searching through piles of
magazines for that one issue that you later discover has gone
missing.
I'll take Pyramid any day. A paper magazine would have to be *very*
good to induce me to buy it now. I haven't seen any that come close
lately.
Glen
Jeff Stehman
Pity it started from spam, but this discussion has gotten me to
subscribe. Interesting line in Pyramid policies:
Any posting not carrying an explicit copyright notice is also
assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
An on-line message board seems quite a different forum than a letters
to the editor department. Comments on this policy?
--jeff
Mark Baker
>Speaking as someone who earns his real income from 'real' magazines...
>absolutely. Pyramid does a knock-out job. It's weekly, it has
>interesting content, its back-issues are available on-line, and it makes
>use of its net-nature by organising on-line chats and the like.
>
--
Mark Baker
Web Pages: http://www.lange.demon.co.uk/Index.html
Paul Jackson
Its possibly a little broad but its not as unreasonable as
it first appears to be.
1) Lots of the boards are explicitly commenting on playtest
material and SJG certainly needs to have clear legal right
to any playtest comments.
2) the pyramid board is about as close to letters to
the editor as pyramid has and so also probably needs this.
3) As is the norm on the net conversations very quickly
go off topic and one can therefore sometimes find things
that SHOULD belong to SJG (eg, playtest comments) on
other boards.
4) SJG employees read the boards and SJ has to protect itself
from the potential problem of several people independently
coming up with the same idea. The last thing SJG needs is to
be sued by somebody claiming that they stole the idea that
was posted on chatter.
5) At least they ARE quite explicit about their policy, including
giving a very easy "out" if you post something that you care
about
Disclaimer - I have no relation at all with SJG except as
a customer.
John A. Nephew
>that the only way magazines other than _Dragon_ can survive is in
>purely electronic distribution?
I think the economics of the industry have just changed dramatically.
By publishing electronically, Pyramid dramatically lowers a whole bunch of
costs -- primarily to do with production and distribution. That $15 goes
straight to SJG; if it went through distributors and retailers, you'd have to
be paying $37.50 to get the same dollars to Steve.
For readers, one extension of this is that money not spent on, say, color
printing plates, is available to commission writers and pay them reasonably
well -- meaning more of your dollars are actually buying articles for you to
read.
Which makes Pyramid a better value. Which means more subscribers. Which
justifies the lower subscription cost (versus paper) and keeps the volume of
content coming. It also means less reliance on advertisers -- getting
advertising, and more importantly getting advertisers to pay their bills, was
the Great Killer of Magazines in recent years.
All in all, it seems to be a very successful approach, in a day when general
interest RPGs have generally not proven viable.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[O] John A. Nephew Atlas...@aol.com
[0] President, Atlas Games **new area code** (651) 638-0077
[O] Atlas Web Page: http://www.atlas-games.com
Karen J. Cravens
<uMVX3.12730$YI2.6...@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>:
>Pity it started from spam, but this discussion has gotten me to
>subscribe. Interesting line in Pyramid policies:
Well, as long as you gave Carl as a reference and not the original poster,
it's okay...
--
Karen Cravens (sil...@phoenyx.net)
Phoenyx Play-by-Email Roleplaying - http://www.phoenyx.net
Listserver: majo...@phoenyx.net
George Herbert
>> Any posting not carrying an explicit copyright notice is also
>> assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
>> use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
>> or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
>
>law it would not: any transfer of copyright has to be explicit. I'll ask
>a couple of lawyers about it later.
You can impose an explicit licensing agreement on the forum.
You can't grab copyright except with explict agreement of the party.
But saying "we can publish or use as we see fit" isn't them taking
copyright, it's just giving them an unlimited use license to your
posted (and automatically self copyrighted) work.
-george william herbert
gher...@crl.com
Brett Evill
>
> Pity it started from spam, but this discussion has gotten me to
> subscribe. Interesting line in Pyramid policies:
>
> assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
> use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
> or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
>
Would this hold water legally? My impression is that under Australian
law it would not: any transfer of copyright has to be explicit. I'll ask
a couple of lawyers about it later.
Regards,
Brett Evill
Klyfix
(Doug Berry) writes:
>
>On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 00:09:51 -0600, "Sidhain"
><sid...@earthlink.net> found stone tablets, which when
>translated read:
>
>
>>The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read it
>>at my leisure, and not have to worry about losing the information I liked
>>because of a HD crash.
>
>Do you have a printer? I print out the articvles of interest to
>me, and save the originals on disk.
>
>I used to have a small mountain of paper magazines stored so I
>could have access to a single article. This is much easier. It
>also allows me to reformat things to my heart's content.
>
Would burning a CD of Pyramid mags be a reasonable thing to do?
Klyfix
<ste...@onyx.southwind.net> writes:
>
>Pity it started from spam, but this discussion has gotten me to
>subscribe. Interesting line in Pyramid policies:
>
> Any posting not carrying an explicit copyright notice is also
> assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
> use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
> or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
>
>An on-line message board seems quite a different forum than a letters
>to the editor department. Comments on this policy?
>
I suppose they need to cover their backsides, but while it's not a big deal to
me to have a Usenet post of mine copied about and it doesn't bother me hugely
that a "Vampires: the Varieties" thing I wrote got copied in its entirety to a
Web
page I do have a certain amount of discomfort at the prospects of something
I've
written getting copywrited and sold for profit by a company because I did not
happen to include an explicit copyright notice in every message.
A.F. Simpson
> >> Any posting not carrying an explicit copyright notice is also
> >> assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
> >> use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
> >> or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
> You can impose an explicit licensing agreement on the forum.
> You can't grab copyright except with explict agreement of the party.
> But saying "we can publish or use as we see fit" isn't them taking
> copyright, it's just giving them an unlimited use license to your
> posted (and automatically self copyrighted) work.
However, the phrase, "for any use the company sees fit, including later
publication in whole or in part under the SJ Games copyright." does
indeed seem to be claiming the copyright.
> -george william herbert
> gher...@crl.com
love
Anna
Jeff Stehman
> Well, as long as you gave Carl as a reference and not the original poster,
> it's okay...
You know me. I'm not likely to help out anyone.
--jeff
Doug Berry
stone tablets, which when translated read:
>Would burning a CD of Pyramid mags be a reasonable thing to do?
When I get the Big New Computer, one of the things on my CDs to
make list is a GURPS fantasy Cd with articles from Pyramid, stuff
off the GURPS-Net archieve, etc. for easy use on a laptop while
running a game.
Justin Bacon
<ste...@onyx.southwind.net> writes:
> Any posting not carrying an explicit copyright notice is also
> assumed to be a contribution to Steve Jackson Games, for any
> use the company sees fit, including later publication in whole
> or in part under the SJ Games copyright.
>
>An on-line message board seems quite a different forum than a letters
>to the editor department. Comments on this policy?
It's a logical precaution. The last thing you need is someone posting (for
example): "Wouldn't a GURPS Ice Age book be neat-o?" a couple of months (or
weeks or years or whatever) before they release it and then make a legal fuss
that SJ was "ripping 'em off". Better just to avoid the problem altogether.
Also, note, that a lot of those forums are used for playtest purposes. They
need to have a clear right to use that material, or the playtest is worthless.
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
Justin Bacon
(Klyfix) writes:
>Still asking the question though; is role playing now so marginalized
>that the only way magazines other than _Dragon_ can survive is in
>purely electronic distribution?
How many really successful non-DRAGON magazines have there been?
I can think of five (Space Gamer, SHADIS, Pyramid, White Wolf, and White
Dwarf). White Dwarf went a different way, along with its publisher. Pyramid
effectively replaced Space Gamer. SHADIS will shortly be replaced (unless AEG
changes their mind again) with RONIN. White Wolf was never a *really*
successful magazine, but it did have its following for awhile -- anyone know
what the exact reasons for its end were?
And do we get to count KODT as a magazine? If so, we're about where the
industry has always been (1-2 magazines besides DRAGON/DUNGEON).
And in terms of the hobby industry as a whole, we're in pretty decent shape
overall. DRAGON, DUNGEON, WHITE DWARF, INQUEST, DUELIST, KODT, and probably a
few others that I'm missing. Plus Pyramid on-line.
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
Justin Bacon
<ryca...@idirect.ca> writes:
> I
>don't see what Pyramid would have to offer me (I also don't play GURPS).
Since Pyramid isn't a GURPS magazine it should be fairly clear why I don't
think your opinion is worth using as toilet paper.
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
Justin Bacon
<sid...@earthlink.net> writes:
>The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it re read it
>at my leisure, and
>not have to worry about losing the information I liked because of a HD crash.
Unless of course you have a fire, which would be the analogy of your HD crash.
Personally I've had more information lost in minor flood damage (wet basement
soaked into boxes my mother had carelessly left on the floor) than I have to HD
crashes.
Plus, you are deliberately choosing the negative interpretation of this
feature.
1. You can easily back your HD up. This is far easier than trying to "back-up"
paper magazines.
2. Searching for specific information on your HD is far easier than searching
through stacks of paper magazines. (I can never find anything in my DRAGONs;
searching through my saved Pyramid files is as easy as going down to my Start
Menu. And I can always use the Pyramid search commands as long as I'm
subscribed.)
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
Justin Bacon
<sid...@earthlink.net> writes:
>Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine'
>ultimately they don't
>have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing
>a magazine, so isn't this a bit excessive?
Do the math, Sidhain.
5-7 articles/columns a week, 52 weeks a year: 312 articles/columns
2 cartoon strips a week: 104 strips
Plus playtest materials.
What are the costs?
1. Editorial
2. Writers
3. Artists
4. Web Page Design/Maintenance
5. Web Server/Technology Maintenance
So you're paying approximately 5 cents for every article/column. That ain't
bad, especially when you add in the other features.
A subscription to DRAGON costs $34.95. Using a similar definition of
article/column(*) I end up with a count of 10-12 articles in my recent issues.
That comes out to 132 articles per year, or about 27 cents per article/column.
So, the only way we can assume that Pyramid is ripping you off is if we
conclude that DRAGON spends more than 4/5ths of their budget on printing costs.
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
(*) For Pyramid I didn't count the comics(**), the playtest material, the
reviews, the forums, or the press releases/news items/convention notices. For
Dragon I didn't count the comics, D-Mail/Forum, Sage Advice, PC Portraits,
ProFiles, Convention Calendar, TSR Previews. This is a pretty even break of
material.
(**) Comparing comics is also pretty much an even break -- KODT cancels Dork
Tower; 4-5 Murphies cancel out the 4-5 monthly panel comics of Dragon; the new
What's New by Phil Foglio edges Dragon out in front, but then Pyramid charges
less per comic at the end of the day.
Bryan J. Maloney
tria...@aol.com (Justin Bacon) wrote:
> changes their mind again) with RONIN. White Wolf was never a *really*
> successful magazine, but it did have its following for awhile -- anyone know
> what the exact reasons for its end were?
WW went down the tubes when it stopped being "the new White Dwarf" or "the
new Space Gamer" and became a house organ.
James Nicoll
Justin Bacon <tria...@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <19991114142627...@ngol02.aol.com>, kly...@aol.com.bogus
>(Klyfix) writes:
>
>>Still asking the question though; is role playing now so marginalized
>>that the only way magazines other than _Dragon_ can survive is in
>>purely electronic distribution?
>
>How many really successful non-DRAGON magazines have there been?
>
>I can think of five (Space Gamer, SHADIS, Pyramid, White Wolf, and White
>Dwarf). White Dwarf went a different way, along with its publisher. Pyramid
>effectively replaced Space Gamer. SHADIS will shortly be replaced (unless AEG
>successful magazine, but it did have its following for awhile -- anyone know
>what the exact reasons for its end were?
>
followed by a collapse in sale so abrupt as to make the terminal stages of
black hole formation appear slow by comparison, all aided by a 'with free-
lancers like these, who needs enemies' situation is my guess.
I mean, in the space of one month after the change over from
White Wolf to Inphobia, sales of the rag at my store dropped by a
factor of -12-. The only worse move I can imagine from a sales
perspective is if they had started putting spring-loaded axes in
every issue to leap out and bury themselves in the foreheads of the
patrons and _Apocalyse Cow_ came close to being that bad all on its
own.
James Nicoll
--
Bryan J. Maloney
jam...@morse.uwaterloo.ca (James Nicoll) wrote:
> Change of format to something utterly useless and repugnant,
> followed by a collapse in sale so abrupt as to make the terminal stages of
So "Hey, Net Punks!" was indicative of the editor's GENERAL stupidity, not
just his complete incomprehension of the online audience, I would surmise.
Bryan J. Maloney
> I mean, in the space of one month after the change over from
> White Wolf to Inphobia, sales of the rag at my store dropped by a
At one time, White Wolf (the magazine) was a GREAT thing to read--it was
where you could find articles on all the really cool and funky games,
whether they were in or out of print at the time (like RuneQuest, which at
that time was virtually out of print, if not actually so--it was one of
the very few places where one could find NEW Glorantha material until the
fanzines took up that slack). Then WW put out their own games and turned
their magazine into a company rag. It died a most deserved death.
James Nicoll
Bryan J. Maloney <bj...@cornell.edu> wrote:
>In article <80ukfo$ljk$1...@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>,
>jam...@morse.uwaterloo.ca (James Nicoll) wrote:
>
>> followed by a collapse in sale so abrupt as to make the terminal stages of
>
>So "Hey, Net Punks!" was indicative of the editor's GENERAL stupidity, not
>just his complete incomprehension of the online audience, I would surmise.
My assumption at the time was that WWM wasn't making enough money
and the format change was an experiment. A lot of experiments are
unsuccessful.
Thinking _Apocalypse Cow_ was publishable was an odd idea, I'll admit.
--
Guy McLimore
I've been enormously happy with the value I receive for my PYRAMID
subscription. I'm not a GURPS player, either (though I own a lot of
GURPS sourcebooks, which I use for reference). But I get more for my
buck from PYRAMID than I have from any print magazine. It would be
worth it just for the articles each week, but add to that the archives,
the playtest material, the chats, and the forums and I'm a very happy
PYRAMID subscriber indeed.
For someone who is in the industry professionally, PYRAMID is a great
buy, just for the industry news (with informed commentaries and insider
info). The articles that followed and explained the recent company
buyouts and mega-mergers were certainly better and more reliable than
any other source of information going.
Guy McLimore / gu...@evansville.net
MicroTactix Games
http://www.microtactix.com
John Kovalic
Justin Bacon wrote:
> (**) Comparing comics is also pretty much an even break -- KODT cancels Dork
> Tower; 4-5 Murphies cancel out the 4-5 monthly panel comics of Dragon; the new
> What's New by Phil Foglio edges Dragon out in front, but then Pyramid charges
> less per comic at the end of the day.
Plus SHOP KEEP in Dragon as well, remember, which should be more or less monthly
now...and NODWICK, of course.
Man...my own work is cancelling itself out...
John K.
--
-----------------------
DORK TOWER #6 ("Goth Drops") is OUT NOW!
*****************************************************
"This must be Thursday. I never COULD get the hang of Thursdays"
- Arthur Dent
*****************************************************
"Dork Tower," "Shop Keep," "Wild Life," "Murphy's Rules":
at 'TOON CENTRAL: http://kovalic.com - e-mail: jo...@kovalic.com
*****************************************************
SD Anderson
> Plus, you are deliberately choosing the negative interpretation
> of this feature.
> 1. You can easily back your HD up. This is far easier than
> trying to "back-up" paper magazines.
> 2. Searching for specific information on your HD is far easier
> than searching through stacks of paper magazines. (I can never
> find anything in my DRAGONs; searching through my saved Pyramid
> files is as easy as going down to my Start Menu. And I can
> always use the Pyramid search commands as long as I'm
> subscribed.)
He's deliberately misinterpreting something more basic. You
are allowed one *HARDCOPY*. If your hard drive dies you can
DOWNLOAD the material again from SJG's servers. And that assumes
you follow the largely uneforceable restriction against printing
out more than one copy from your printer.
SD Anderson
> White Wolf was never a *really* successful magazine, but it did
> have its following for awhile -- anyone know what the exact
> reasons for its end were?
Ken Cliffe started editing it. WW hit it stride in it's 20s
but Wieck gave up the editorial reins and Cliffe took over, threw
out gaming material for crap like Apocalypse Cow and tried to
imitate wired. It changed it's name to Inphobia at #50 and died
shortly thereafter.
SD Anderson
> So "Hey, Net Punks!" was indicative of the editor's GENERAL
> stupidity, not just his complete incomprehension of the online
> audience, I would surmise.
Seems that way. Certainly he was cluess as to how annoying and
disrepectful his paranthetical interruptions in almost EVERY
single article he published were. Nor did he seem to understand
that the "We are here to enlighten you goobers!" attitude didnt'
come across as humor, just as the actual opinion he had of his
audience.
David Crowe
: In article <19991114142627...@ngol02.aol.com>, kly...@aol.com.bogus
: (Klyfix) writes:
: >Still asking the question though; is role playing now so marginalized
: >that the only way magazines other than _Dragon_ can survive is in
: >purely electronic distribution?
: How many really successful non-DRAGON magazines have there been?
: I can think of five (Space Gamer, SHADIS, Pyramid, White Wolf, and White
: Dwarf). White Dwarf went a different way, along with its publisher. Pyramid
: effectively replaced Space Gamer. SHADIS will shortly be replaced (unless AEG
: changes their mind again) with RONIN. White Wolf was never a *really*
: successful magazine, but it did have its following for awhile -- anyone know
: what the exact reasons for its end were?
Would Challenge (the former JTAS) be on that list? It lasted for a number
of years and covered a large number of games (almost exclusively modern
and sci-fi games as a counterpoint to Dragon's fantasy focus).
--
David "No Nickname" Crowe http://www.primenet.com/~jetman
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find out who this Cubone guy is. Any
cute cartoon animal who wears the skull of one of his defeated enemies as
headwear is my kinda cute cartoon animal.
-Kurt Busiek on Pokemon
Lizard
<19991117044737...@ngol06.aol.com>:
>White Wolf was never a *really*
>successful magazine, but it did have its following for awhile -- anyone
>know what the exact reasons for its end were?
Rein*Hagen had extraordinary delusions of grandeur. He believed he could
make a media magazine that would continue to appeal to geeks and gamers,
but also establish WW as incredibly hip, trendy, cutting-edge, etc. He
ended up alienating the entire core readership of White Wolf while not
attracting asingle non-gamer, and the new magazine (can't even remember its
name) folded like a napkin at an origami festival.
Mark Rouleau
Cliffe (who liked to editorialize in parenthesis (even when it was
inappropriate (and disrupted the flow of the article.)))
--
Mark Rouleau
The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels
down, where it is still possible to get things done.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Lizard <liz...@mrlizard.com> wrote in message
news:8E81DA0F1liza...@enews.newsguy.com...
Justin Bacon
<10225...@CompuServe.COM> writes:
> He's deliberately misinterpreting something more basic. You
>are allowed one *HARDCOPY*.
Well, I was trying to avoid that because I knew that I would get this reply
back:
"See! They're making *you* pay for the printing but they still have the
unmitigated gaul to expect you to pay for the creative labors of other people!
The scoundrels!"
Personally I've got hard copies of all the Suppressed Transmission columns
laying in various places in my apartment. Ken Hite is amazingly talented.
Justin Bacon
tr...@prairie.lakes.com
Jim Duncan
> Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper 'magazine' ultimately they don't
> have to pay for ink/paper or any of the MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so
> isn't this a bit excessive?
>
> They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a year worth it for an
> electronic magazine?
And where do these free servers they own supposedly come from? How do they pay for them? What
about backups, maintenance, power, SysAdmin, web admin, the internet connection.
Then of course, there's the thing about paying writers and artists *PROMPTLY* which unlike some
other folks in the industry, Steve Jackson Games has pretty much always done.
$15 is certainly worth the service provided if you are into the type of games covered.
-- Jim Duncan
Klyfix
<10225...@CompuServe.COM> writes:
Hmm, I remember the guy (an Australian; why I remember that I don't know)
who replied to "Hey, Net Punks" with "Hello, Corporate Lackey". :) Was rather
an amusing little flame war for a time.
Doctor TOC
>
> Personally I've got hard copies of all the Suppressed Transmission columns
> laying in various places in my apartment. Ken Hite is amazingly talented.
Agreed. His column is the main reason I subscribe. BTW, isn't he suppose
to be producing a collected volume of Suppressed Transmission columns?
Given the extremely useful nature of "Nightmares of Mine", and the fact
that I've got more gaming ideas out of his column than from *anywhere*
else, I'm rather keen to know.
Doctor TOC
--
The Reverend Doctor "The Other Chris"
ICQ # 4814586
Time War RPG - http://jump.to/TimeWar
The TOC Files - http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/wilhelm/148/
Niccolo Machiavelli
Lizard <liz...@mrlizard.com> wrote:
>sid...@earthlink.net (Sidhain) wrote in
><80kgt6$rqh$1...@ash.prod.itd.earthlink.net>:
>>Sorry but how legitimate is it to charge 15.00 for a non paper
>>'magazine' ultimately they don't have to pay for ink/paper or any of the
>>MORE expensive materials in producing a magazine, so isn't this a bit
>>excessive?
>>They own the servers already, they do pay for articles, but is 15.00 a
>
>made online.
>
>They publish one 'issue' a week, which is very content-rich. You pay
>twenty-eight cents per issue. Frankly, I'd pay 28 cents a week just for
>Dork Tower and Murphy's Rules. The rest is gravy.
And the playtest files are pretty good, too. I could never afford
to buy all of the books that I'd like to read, especially since I know my
gaming group won't use most of them. I can download the playtest versions
and take out whatever I want for my campaign without cluttering my small
apt with tons of books. If I lived in the states this wouldn't be as much
of a benny, but even there, a lot of stores shrink wrap their stuff so you
can't thumb through them before you buy 'em. And while it isn't exactly a
glowing recommendation, John Wick had a really could column in their most
recent issue, easily worht the $.28 I paid for the rest of it.
--
Dave C.
iN*T*x
Niccolo Machiavelli
Klyfix <kly...@aol.com.bogus> wrote:
>
>It would be interesting to see some sort of cost analysis; after all, there
>aren't
>a lot of paper RPG mags around now. I'd much prefer to have a paper mag,
>and since I lack a credit card subscribing to an online publication is a bit of
>a problem. But it may well be that it's not possible to make a profit on a
>paper
>mag unless it happens to be _Dragon_.
>
I paid for my Pyramid subscriptions and years of my io.com
payments by personal check. I pay by bredit card now, but they were
pretty good about checks. I was able to pay quarterly, and they didn't
cut me off when I was late by about a month with one of my payments (I'd
sent an email ahead of time to explain why the payment would be late, but
it was still pretty nice of them Didn't even charge me extra). I think
thye'll even take money orders, but I could be wrong.
Sorry about the typos, I'm posting fro a really laggy unix host.
--
Dave C.
iN*T*x
SD Anderson
Don't see why not, a money order is essentially a check drawn
on a big company's account. It's less likely to bounce than Joe
Random Citizen's check.
Necruar
> Hmm, I remember the guy (an Australian; why I remember that I don't know)
> who replied to "Hey, Net Punks" with "Hello, Corporate Lackey". :) Was rather
> an amusing little flame war for a time.
Hmph! You yankee doodles just don't 'get' our sense of humour...
:)
N.
--
-128 point lamer...
Peter Knutsen
SD Anderson wrote:
>
> Sidhain wrote:
> > The difference is the Dragon is then MINE, I can old it store it
> > re read it at my leisure, and not have to worry about losing the
> > information I liked because of a HD crash.
>
> You are contractually allowed to keep ONE *hardcopy* of any
> article available to subscribers. If you lack a printer take it
> to Kinkos. If your hard drive crashes, EVERY single article is
> still of SJG's servers for downloading and rereading etc except
> playtest material after the playtest period is over.
Also some of the paper magazines haven't been converted to on-line
format yet. I think it's maybe 40% of the 30 paper issues that is
available on-line, but SJG is working on it.
> That complaint is UTTERLY bogus.
True. You get acces to more than 1 1/2 years worth of old
on-line issues, which is about 78 issues. Plus the 12-13
paper issues that have been put on-line so far.
Sometimes, in the new issue, I don't find any interesting articles.
But it doesn't really matter, because next issue, there might
be two, or three interesting articles, and one review of a
product that interests me. Plus I get the news from the gaming
industry. $15 for 52 issues (plus all the old ones) is so cheap
that I'n pathologically unable to regret my subscription.
--
Peter Knutsen
SD Anderson
> Sometimes, in the new issue, I don't find any interesting
> articles. But it doesn't really matter, because next issue,
> there might be two, or three interesting articles, and one
> review of a product that interests me. Plus I get the news from
> the gaming industry. $15 for 52 issues (plus all the old ones)
> is so cheap that I'n pathologically unable to regret my
> subscription.
Of all the arguments he's made against the magazine, the most
basic one is the most refutable one. The claim that 28 cents per
issue is too high only applies to people who don't have an
interest in RPGs, Boardgames, Card Games, Playtests, Chats with
Industry people, Game News, etc.
Over on alt.music.lawrencewelk, he might find people who meet
the criteria. On rec.games.frp.misc he's posting to the wrong
folks... (;
Klyfix
Oh, I thought the comment was rather entertaining. Anyway, it was
Everyone vs. the "Corporate Lackey". :)
johnc...@my-deja.com
> > I don't care for GURPS really and only got involved in it due to
the recent
> > GURPS: Traveller material. That said, the online magazine as been a
wealth
> >SNIP(some details of content of Pyramid)
I was wondering how much CAR WARS material Pyramid has (per issue and
the archives). I haven't even looked at pyramid or the hardcopy version
for over four years specifically because I felt that the hard core CW
players have been treated badly by SJG for years, which was a bit
rotten when CW was the major money spinner when SJG was fighting it's
law suit with the secret service (I was encouraged in an issue of
Autoduel Quarterly to go and buy some CW material to keep SJG in
business, I dutifully went and bought £50 worth of stuff). I got the
first issue of pyramid and felt the CW content of very low standard. A
few months later I found that a system that had supported a 56+ page
magazine had been relagated to only two pages
Would anyone like to counter my thought that Car Wars got dumped on
because it was too violent? I remember that SJG were heavily involved
in the first of the FALLOUT series of games, but were sent scurrying
behind the sofa as soon as Black Isle Studios showed them how gritty a
post-apocalypse world could be. SJG promptly pulled out and left them
to it (which was no bad thing).
PS I'm still waiting for the 'Chassis and Crossbows' source book!
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Carl D Cravens
> Would anyone like to counter my thought that Car Wars got dumped on
> because it was too violent? I remember that SJG were heavily involved
Car Wars has petered out... there isn't much left to write about without
just adding more and more weapons and junk that it already has too much
of. (I think the latter years of new weapons and accessories helped
contribute to Car Wars demise.) There are plenty of arenas and race
tracks. We might be able to use some more scenarios, but they generally
all come down to killing another vehicle and don't require too much
creative thought. In the end, there isn't much Car Wars material in
Pyramid because nobody's writing any. They can only publish what people
write and nobody writes Car Wars despite being encouraged to.
IMO, if you want to revive Car Wars, rewrite it. Not necessarily to make
it more "realistic" but to smooth out all the years' worth of
discrepancies that have crept in. Torpedos and advanced guided missiles
compared to the trusty old Large Rocket... the LR just isn't worth
it. Car Wars is a huge series of patches, and while they *did* rewrite
some stuff for the Compendium (2d crash tables are my addition,
appropriately mangled by the editor soas to barely resemble my more
reasonable approach.) they didn't fix any of the weapons and accessories
discrepancies.
--
Carl D Cravens (ra...@phoenyx.net)
Hey! Don't pick up that Dog! !@#$*!?% NO TERRIER