Not Impressed with MGT Preview #4

[nezeray]

How do we write this off on taxes?????? I must have missed that line.

James / Nezeray

 

[TrippyHippy]

Actually, I have.
Specifically, 1/4th of a $20 ink cartridge for my printer, and a fourth of a ream of paper, for printing playtest materials to run the game.

So far, I'm out about $7.

That's not spending on the product. Mongoose haven't recieved any money from you, and how you choose to use free material is up to you. There was no compulsion to print anything.

It was money spent on putting the product into usable state.

I don't care who the money is paid to, it was money spent on having a playable game. (I can itemize those costs as part of the hobby for my tax purposes...)

I found it perfectly useable straight from my laptop. Like I say, what you choose to do with your free material is up to you, but you still haven't paid a penny to Mongoose, or been obliged to in anyway.

 

[AKAramis]

Actually, I have.
Specifically, 1/4th of a $20 ink cartridge for my printer, and a fourth of a ream of paper, for printing playtest materials to run the game.

So far, I'm out about $7.

That's not spending on the product. Mongoose haven't recieved any money from you, and how you choose to use free material is up to you. There was no compulsion to print anything.

It was money spent on putting the product into usable state.

I don't care who the money is paid to, it was money spent on having a playable game. (I can itemize those costs as part of the hobby for my tax purposes...)[/quote]

I found it perfectly useable straight from my laptop. Like I say, what you choose to do with your free material is up to you, but you still haven't paid a penny to Mongoose, or been obliged to in anyway.[/quote]

You might have, but my players would disagree.

ANd I never said I paid anything to Mongoose. Your question was about money spent on the game. Never specified to mongoose until you got upset by my answer.

Nezeray: If you are a US taxpayer, and use form 1040, you can itemize and deduct hobby expenses. TurboTax Deluxe asks about hobbies.

You'll need receipts.

 

[nezeray]

Holy Gee Willikers Batman! I'm firing my wife.

I'll have to start saving my receipts now. And go shopping. >

Nezeray

 

[gnytro]

When I first saw the Scout deckplan in the MGT preview, I felt: Oh, OK...they didn't "wow" me there. Nothing exciting to see. Same old stuff.

Game material that you purchase should make you get a stiffy for the game. It should make you want to play, right there and then. "Hey! Look at this

On the other hand, I feel that maintaining at least some of the classic look and feel of Traveller products is important, it lets me adopt it without feeling like I'm adding yet another game to my collection.

Also, the classic deckplan look makes it easy for the plans to be copied by hand to graph paper, or scanned/image captured into a image editor for modification. I've seen some really fancy full color plans in the past, but skipped over them for that reason.

 

[TrippyHippy]

ANd I never said I paid anything to Mongoose. Your question was about money spent on the game. Never specified to mongoose until you got upset by my answer.

No. What you were doing was making a flippant reposte to a serious point. That being that you cannot claim 'consumerist rights' about a product that you haven't paid anybody for, and as such, any expressed indignation about it is entirely misplaced. You have not lost anything from the playtest files or previews, nor invested anything in them.

And I did make that point clearly enough for anybody to read. The very fact that you are arguing with it, simply illustrates precisely the attitude I am talking about.

 

[captainjack23]

Nezeray: If you are a US taxpayer, and use form 1040, you can itemize and deduct hobby expenses. TurboTax Deluxe asks about hobbies.

You'll need receipts.

Careful, though. It's limited to reducing the income received from a hobby - one that is not a business- and also has to be at least 2% (IIRC)of gross income before it is applicable in any case...

Now, in my experience meeting the 2% requirement has never been a problem I fear; its just that I don't have a not-for-profit hobby enterprise that I can use to justify the deduction.

Perhaps a fanzine : "CaptainJack's poorly punctuated Frothing Rants in UPPER CASE about Traveller and Fandom in general and about why you the reader in particular, and almost every game published since 1978 , are wrong and broken and stupid and ugly to boot"

.....that should successfully count as not-for -profit And in addition to gaming expenses I can deduct the lawsuit expenses and lawn damage from the torch and pitchfork wielding mobs......

Note that I am not a tax lawyer, accountant or professional in any area of the tax code....I am just repeating what my accountant told me when I brought up the issue. Any or all of the above may be wrong, and is intended solely for entertainment purposes.....

 

[nezeray]

Well, Pooh! I' too cheap to spend THAT much on gaming. One of the reasons I started demonstrating.

Now if I can write off the costs of Gencon and Origins, I might make the 2%

James / Nezeray

 

[FallingPhoenix]

Extremely high standards are easy to insist on when one is not having to produce professionally; it is often the case that the severest critics of a product have little understanding of quality control issues, and the problems and effort inherent in doing it professionally.

...

If it is easy to demand high standards with no personal consequences, it is even easier to take the bread out of another workers mouth and suffer nothing for the effort, and less for the consequence.

Are you a professional writer, by any chance, Cap? Or majored in English at some point along the way?

FP, purloiner of pouches.

 

[atpollard]

Perhaps a fanzine : "CaptainJack's poorly punctuated Frothing Rants in UPPER CASE about Traveller and Fandom in general and about why you the reader in particular, and almost every game published since 1978 , are wrong and broken and stupid and ugly to boot"

Do we need to subscribe or will you broadcast it as spam?

 

[captainjack23]

Perhaps a fanzine : "CaptainJack's poorly punctuated Frothing Rants in UPPER CASE about Traveller and Fandom in general and about why you the reader in particular, and almost every game published since 1978 , are wrong and broken and stupid and ugly to boot"

Do we need to subscribe or will you broadcast it as spam?

Perhaps I'll charge subscription to NOT get it.......that should make some money.

 

[rust]

I would not "unsubscribe" it, because it would probably be much fun to
print it and then burn it at the stake ...

 

[The Greek]

I am looking at redoing the ship plans and getting a pdf done. It has taken me a while to get round to dealing with this since my current workload is extremely heavy.

It will probably take a few weeks to get all these done and presentable for you all, so I ask for a little patience in this matter.

Now I will go back to the Spinward Marches (although with some trepidation, I mean what happens if I put an entire system in the wrong grid? Will I have to blame it all on a Zhodani plot using Ancient technology? Or instead be handed over to the K'kree following the BBQ sauce incident?)

The Greek

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

No, moving systems is an old Traveller tradition. The Spinward Marches Book and Supplement 3 (The Spinward Marches) have an entire system missing, not just misplaced; so you would be expanding and maintaing a long a proud tradition... :twisted:

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The one thing that gets my goat about all this faux-consumerist postering is that we can categorically guarantee that not one person here, or on the CotI boards, have actually spent a single penny yet on a Mongoose Traveller product.

Well, I pre-ordered the book and the Spinward Marches book.

My credit card was used to make the purchase.

While the money has not been charged to my card yet, I HAVE spent the money, on Mongoose Traveller, TO Mongoose.

I get to complain. I try not to whine, just offer constructive criticism.

I LIKE MGT, but it is NOT perfect (nothing ever is...) and I want to make it better. If a preview shows an error, I would HOPE that Mongoose would want to know about it; I doubt that they want to put out something wrong either.