More about print-on-demand, publishing, and the future...

From "thebigmoney.com

Paradoxically, the proliferation of digital media that is arguably the biggest threat to traditional publishing also offers authors more opportunities than ever to distribute and promote their work. The catch: In order to do that effectively, authors increasingly must transcend their words and become brands.

And Andrew Sullivan, my favorite blogger, comments:

My own view is that the publishing industry deserves to die in its current state. It never made economic sense to me; there are no real editors of books any more; the distribution network is archaic; the technology of publishing pathetic; and the rewards to authors largely impenetrable. I still have no idea what my occasional royalty statements mean: they are designed to be incomprehensible, to keep the authors in the dark, to maintain an Oz-like mystery where none is required.

The future is obviously print-on-demand, and writers in the future will make their names first on the web. With e-distribution and e-books, writers will soon be able to put this incompetent and often philistine racket behind us. It couldn't happen too soon.

The Walking Eye posted it's first Interview, and it's none other than Fred Hicks of Evil Hat.

Topics covered: A bit of Don't Rest Your Head, IPR and Evil Hat's finances and how this nasty economy has affected them (Preview: they're doing just fine), a bit on White Wolf Mage vs. Dresden RPG, Escape or Die, and Evil Hat's new tactic of publishing a select few indie RPG's: Do and Mythender among a few other potential clients.

We had a lot of fun talking to Fred and look forward to doing so again. Double thanks go out to him for being gentle with us on our first interview.

Posted By: Paul WatsonThis is LTTP material, so I apologize if it's been brought up before and I missed it.

There's been a lot of talk, especially since WoW reached unprecedented numbers, of the negative impact of MMORPGs on table-top RPGs, that the MMOs are stealing players. I only recently heard about an upcoming MMO that's already in beta,Champions Online. It's a superhero themed MMORPG, based on sixth edition of the HERO system and Champions. In a cross-promotional move, DOJ is releasing the sixth edition of the table-top Champions game this year, and it will include rules for converting Champions Online characters and scenarios. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[1] I think you will see a lot more of this. Buying RPG's is likely an incredibly cheap way to buy very detailed Intellectual properties, that already have audiences to help create buzz.

[1] That is great stuff from Updike.

An interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun with 2 people from Ice Pick Lodge, a russian video-game studio that goes art, theory, experimentation, catharsis…

There's surely an RPG to be found n this.

1925 Girls' rifle team of Drexel Institute

AMC has links to full episodes of Patrick Mcgoohan's series here.

I first encountered The Prisoner in the 70's on my local PBS station. they ran it late night and padded the hour out with a professor type explaining the psychology of each episode. I wish I had paid more attention to that part as this is a very symbol rich series.

AMC is currently making a six part miniseries with Ian McKellen as Number 2.

Posted By: thorAMC is currently making asix part miniserieswith Ian McKellen as Number 2.

[1] Oh, holy crap, that is awesome.

I made the pdf version of the Misspent Youth ashcan free online (as part of the process of making the final version of the game).

Keith Baker is leveraging his Eberron and Gloom fame into couches around the globe.

Posted By: Paul CzegePlayDate thinks playing games in a night club is a compelling alternative to the singles meat market.

And people still scoff, here and elsewhere, when I say a Gamer Bar would work. *shrug*

[3] David, there are entire social networks devoted to letting strangers you've never heard of stay with you, so clearly it's not a problem for many people.

[3] Re: Game Bar.

It's not like it's something that does not exist, David. Maybe not in the US, but even in my backwater mediterranian republic (Italy, that is) the concept of a place that offers boardames, consoles and some other game, AND beverages and stuff to eat is relatively normal. Some are really specialized (and have huge stacks of game boxes), but most of the pubs have at least 4-5 of them (plus playing cards).

I even know a *game shop* that has tables where you can eat, a bar, a coffee machine and all that. On the other side of the room there are wagame tables, books and games :)

There it is, La Contea del Falcone

I guested on PulpGamer again when Uncle Bear got sick.

This kind of made me think of Hot War

If only because it's Brits in an apocalypse of sorts.

[7] Hah, I beat him to it. Except I only toured the couches of Sweden, but still. I visited 13 play goups and played games with them last summer. It was awesome. This year I'm thinking of dragging a couple of people with me, making it a convention on wheels.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot this was a "Stuff to Watch" thread. So ... [8], I guess.

Alien Past: concept sketches from an alternate ALIEN III film that was not made.

I got an email this morning that my Google Alerts email service term had expired - rather than renew, I searched around for something that would monitor search terms I'm interested in on Google and put the results into my feed reader, which I use a lot.

The answer seems to be Feed My Search, which converts Google search into RSS.

and



present the



Art Challenge!

Judged by Erol Otus and shown in the pages of Fight On!

All artists are invited to submit a picture on one of the following themes:

-The Adventure Takes a Surprising Twist
- One Charge Left
- Overland

By Erol's Command, Any Style, Any Media, and Any Freaking Thing Goes!

Winning Entries will be published in Fight On! and awarded PRIZES in separate Color and B&W categories, as follows:

1st Prize: Up to £ 50 worth of Otherworld's magnificent minis, or a full year's (four issue) print subscription to Fight On!



2nd Prize: Up to £ 30 worth of Otherworld miniatures, or a half year's (two issue) print subscription to Fight On!



3rd Prize: Up to £ 20 worth of Otherworld's fantastic figurines, or a full year's PDF subscription to Fight On!



Honorable Mention: Free PDF of the issue of Fight On! in which your work is published.

The six 1st-3rd prizewinners will also receive Erol's commentary on their work, published along with the image in Fight On! (Winning color images will be covers of upcoming issues.) That's six top prizes in all, three in each category! You can see Otherworld's product line at http://www.otherworld.me.uk/, and check out Fight On! at http://stores.lulu.com/FightOn.

Better yet, all artists submitting retain ownership of their own work. Fight On! asks only for the right to publish winners in a future issue of the magazine and for artists not to post their submitted work on-line in any form (including for sale in other PDF products) for six months after the conclusion of the contest. They may re-submit or re-sell to print venues immediately and to on-line venues six months after the contest's conclusion, and in general ownership and all rights except the delay in on-line posting/publication and Fight On!'s right to publish your image in a future issue of the magazine remain with the artist.

So artists - let's see what you've got! Please send submissions to iggyumlaut@gmail.com by Sunday, May 3, 2009 to be considered. Thank you!

Posted By: Jonathan WaltonRob Donoghue postedTen Useful Pieces of Gaming Technology. I addedfour more.

[1] Thanks!
neat stuff!

200,000 year old hominid hair found in fossilized hyena poop.

I created a Photobucket album for the pictures of the Dunesque Mechaton Campaign session I'm currently playing in with Vincent Baker and Joshua A. C. Newman.

(I am, so far, totally owning).

Wow... interesting. This came up as a post on RPG.net, I'm just gonna copy it over:

Dollhouse meets RPGs for an interactive web drama
Step into the Dollhouse!

Me and a couple of other roleplayers started Stockholm-based media company three years back. We're focused on interactive and participative media - essentially combining RPG methods with traditional media.

Our latest project just launched. It's an interactive web drama augmenting Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse. Our thing is called Dollplay and it's as close to video roleplaying as we can get. Check it out here: http://www.rprimelab.com/

The idea is that people can make their own videos and communicate with the main character through them. Some are clearly roleplaying, others are more focused on solving the mysteries or getting to know the character. (Or using this opportunity to perform horrible experiments on her...)

I think it's pretty awesome, and a great example of what the methods of roleplaying can do!

In case you just wanna watch it as a non-interactive online tv show, here's a page to do it in: http://www.rprimelab.com/previously

Evidence of bona fides: the poster, Revontuli, registered on RPG.net in May 2004.
Ah, here's the producer's website: http://www.thecompanyp.com/ Ah - it's the Turku school guys! Cool! I didn't know about this :-)

Gen Con is stealing our Commie kitsch.

Posted By: Chris PetersonLobster Dice, Bear Dice, Duck Dice

[1]

Koplow Games, baby! I just got the new 2009 catalog, come to mention it. Lots of foreign language dice: Looks like those are a big seller this year. What better way to have your Cossacks roll over the enemy than by rolling Polish Word d10s for their attacks!

-Andy

Mongoose shows how you, too can poop out supplements written by underpaid freelancers and lain out by monkeys that slowly suck all of the remaining life from all the beloved licenses you've managed to chain in your basement

...and all for only $29.95! That's only 81 cents per virtual page!

(2 or whatever) Yes, that is a great story.

[1] I'll put up five bucks toward a bundle, if that bundle includes Primetime Adventures.

I'm serious.

Interview with David Petersen (Mouse Guard) on The Onion A.V. Club.

Philip Parker examines the 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, which is just begging to have a roleplaying game written about it.

Graham

[1] Graham, how on earth did you come across that?

There's a very interesting discussion going on about some of the concerns that Double Exposure has about the way IGE does things at their events (Dreamation and DexCon).

Spoken Word Dot Org is a new thing created by the gentleman behind IT conversations. It let's you do several neat things, but is a work in progress. The main reason I'm bringing it up here is I started a collection for audio RPG game design podcasts right here. Right now it has all of my podcast Theory From the Closet, Master Plan, and the Independant Insurgency. Later I plan to dig through Cannon Puncture, This is How We Roll, and Synder's defunct podcast, and add their particular shows that discus design and / or theory. Plus I'm going to go dig up all the dreamation, and Gen Con panel stuff so we can have one place where all this is linked to. Each podcast can be rated, and so can each individual episode.

So if you already listen to my show, Master Plan, and Independant Insurgency, and want to lazily grab other design / theory podcasts, there is a button above that will subscribe you via RSS feed.

Posted By: Ice Cream Emperor
[1] This is just bizarre to me, on the level of terminology & appropriation. It's like somebody creating a site called 'cubism.org' and filling it with discussions of geometry. I keep looking forpoetryand all I see are tech discussions!

[2]Ha.

Posted By: GrahamPhilip Parker examinesthe 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais, which is just begging to have a roleplaying game written about it.

I think the last thing the gaming industry needs is another Tolkien-ripoff Fantasy Heartbreak... huh, what?!

What would Henry Rollins do ?