Release schedule query

[starfleet]

Matt,

Alright I'll give you the printing error is the right thing to do to pull the book no i hadn't read the traveller forum yes I have now. But why not post the PDF up so that at least there is SOMETHING for us to get.

There is nothing stopping us from buying that is there? other then the fact that the books not out?

On other things to target then release schedual.. there is a big list that could be targeted, Armegeddon 2069 needing it's entire combat section reworked so that the Mecha combat actually fits with the rest of the book, etc etc.. But Traveller is what I'm playing and buying at the moment as I said I gave up on ACTA due to over priced mini's (which looking at the artwork etc wouldn't surprise me if the original models used if they where 3D printed are from people I know anyway *shrugs* but that's beside the point) Moongoose claims they have no say over the pricing strange the LGS says that the publishers set the pricing..

but back to the topic,

I'll appologise for going off tap on High Gaurd obviously as I admited I'd not read all the facts so I appologise to Matt there. But still why no PDF?

-Rob

 

[MongooseMatt]

Alright I'll give you the printing error is the right thing to do to pull the book no i hadn't read the traveller forum yes I have now. But why not post the PDF up so that at least there is SOMETHING for us to get.

Many retailers have issues with PDFs being released before or at the same time as the books, as they see it as potential competition to their own stores. While other publishers release their PDFs at the same time, we undertook to support the retailers, who have a hard enough time as it is and, whom without, the hobby as a whole would wither and die.

And, at the end of the day, High Guard has only been set back two weeks. . .

Moongoose claims they have no say over the pricing strange the LGS says that the publishers set the pricing..

We set the US price, as you will see on the back of our books. No other prices are set at retail by us.

 

[lastbesthope]

Armegeddon 2069
-Rob

Dude, it's Armageddon 2089, at least get the name of the game right when you're critiquing it :lol:

LBH

 

[starfleet]

Why get the name right? it was a waste of hard earnt money.. the best example is the fact that personal and Vechile combat use the Square grid system, then suddenly mech's use a hex grid combat system. There are other sections which make it annoying as well.

Matt: I respect the sentiment there but I don't agree with it, and i think you'd find a lot of people don't. If PDF publishing really effected the sales that much then Classic Battletech wouldn't sell Any books, as their books all come out in PDF format before they are avalible in Deadtree format.

I actually had a long talk with the LGS owner over it and he pointed out something I agree with, Yes PDF's do tend to sell more then the books, why? Because generally they are cheaper (and they'd want to be your not paying for the printing of the book after all). But people still end up wanting a hard copy.. because you can take a hard copy to bed, bathroom etc etc etc (hey some people do read in the bathroom ). So over all sales don't change that much, least not here.

The big reason most people here like PDF sales I think is because at least we get FAIR prices for the damned things seems generally we are paying USD rather then AUD, 90% of the time we end up paying twice to three times the amount of a book's Recommended Retail price in the States, it's even worse with minitures etc. At least with a PDF you can check the price and go ok i'm just paying the Currency diffrence. Rather then for example a 39.95$ book costing me 80$ here, even though our dollar was at the time .8 USD.

*shrugs* but either way obvious we aren't getting High Gaurd in a hurry and Obvious if it's been pushed back two weeks I'll be waiting more then a month (Another reason Why I buy PDFS) heck i've gotten the PDF's for Merc, Patrons but the books still haven't turned up in my LGS.

 

[lastbesthope]

Why get the name right? it was a waste of hard earnt money.

Why? Politeness, accuracy? OK maybe you didn't think it was worth your money, I thought it was worth mine, but that's what makes everyone different. Personally I find it harder to take someone's critique of a game (or any other work) seriously if they can't even be bothered to get the name right. For all I know you could be talking about 2300 AD RPG instead of Armageddon 2089, it's about as close in terms of accuracy of naming. Yes A:2089 had flaws, I'm not disputing that.

Of course there is in this case the added irony that one of your main gripes of late is the delay of High Guard, due to Mongoose wisihing to recall and reprint to correct a printing error. imagine what they'd have had to own up to if they'd printed the wrong name on the book? But then perhaps you'd be OK with that?

But hey, don't let me get in the way of you letting loose that Sheridanesque "good mad" you've obviously worked up about the whole thing.

LBH

 

[dmccoy1693]

Yes PDF's do tend to sell more then the books

ummm.... where are you getting this info from? I have yet to hear of a single product from a major RPG company where the pdf outsold the print. Ever. EVER. Heck, Paizo is going through the time and expense to put out pathfinder RPG despite it being very close to 3.5 because (in their own words) having the rules only available in pdf format only would the "kiss of death" of their game and company.

Check out the company that puts out Spirit of the Century (blanking on the name). They release their sales figures every quarter (one of the few companies that do). I did the math a few of the quarters when SotC was new. About 75% of their sales were in physical products, 25% pfd. That's from an INDY company, a sector of gaming that heavily uses pdfs and the physical outsold the pdf by 3 to 1.. PDFs currently do not outsell physical.

The thing is is that PDFs are growing. Compare that to 10 years ago when somewhere around 0% of all RPG products were PDF, PDF is a growing market. And LGSs want some way to compete. If getting them the exact same product one month early makes them happy, then I'm all in favor of waiting a month for a PDF.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Yes PDF's do tend to sell more then the books, why? .

No, they don't. PDFs sell a tiny, tiny fraction (it struggles to get above 1% for most of our titles) of books.

Hence us doing everything we can to look after the hard working guys who sell our books. . .

 

[Alan Hume]

good news that High Guard is arriving

Personally I agree with some other posters
I dont mind waiting if it makes the product better

and the art was (to be fair) the one failing I found with the Traveller core rulebook, so anything that makes that better is ok by me

good job guys 8)

 

[Imajica]

It's interesting that PDFs sell so poorly compared to their dead-tree counterparts. For me (as an IT professional with an unhealthy RPG collection) pdfs outnumber actual books by about 20 to 1. But... when I actually want to play a game I'll either purchase a real book if it's available or print out the PDF if it isn't. To me, nothing says "The DM isn't paying attention" more than him staring at his PC throughout the gaming session.

Now, if someone could combine a DM's screen with, say, 3 flexible-paper eBook readers, that might make things different. Where's my purchase order book...

 

[Old Bear]

I love the presumably intentional irony of 'dead-tree counterparts' in the sentence before printing out PDFs. :lol:

 

[MarkNorfolk]

It's interesting that PDFs sell so poorly compared to their dead-tree counterparts. For me (as an IT professional with an unhealthy RPG collection) pdfs outnumber actual books by about 20 to 1. But... when I actually want to play a game I'll either purchase a real book if it's available or print out the PDF if it isn't. To me, nothing says "The DM isn't paying attention" more than him staring at his PC throughout the gaming session.

My PDF purchases tend to be those cheap one-shot idea pieces that I may or may not insert into a campaign. My regular purchases still result in a godzilla sized carbon footprint. And I hate GMs who use computers - it never runs as well as you think it will.

Meanwhile

Aha Old Bear! Our paths cross once again!

Cheers
Mark

 

[Old Bear]

It's interesting that PDFs sell so poorly compared to their dead-tree counterparts. For me (as an IT professional with an unhealthy RPG collection) pdfs outnumber actual books by about 20 to 1. But... when I actually want to play a game I'll either purchase a real book if it's available or print out the PDF if it isn't. To me, nothing says "The DM isn't paying attention" more than him staring at his PC throughout the gaming session.

My PDF purchases tend to be those cheap one-shot idea pieces that I may or may not insert into a campaign. My regular purchases still result in a godzilla sized carbon footprint. And I hate GMs who use computers - it never runs as well as you think it will.

Meanwhile

Aha Old Bear! Our paths cross once again!

Cheers
Mark

So they do!