At my kitchen table for one.

there's a whole thread where people argue about this though.

Quote from: joewolz;406716Free games tend to be crap, if they're not, then they're wasting the value of the game by offering for free.

I've paid for many, many games that turned out to be crap. About the same percentage of free games I've looked at turn out to be crap. Paying for the game does not, in my experience, do much to increase the chance that the game will be worth the time it takes me to read it, let alone worth actually playing regularly.

I give lots of stuff (not just games) away that I could charge money for (e.g. some software I've written, I freecycle most household goods rather have a garage sale, etc.) I don't consider any of this wasting the value of the item because I don't charge someone money for it. Everyone who produces or sells an item should be allowed to price it as they wish (and free is a price) and let the market decide.

QuoteWe like to pay for something to prove its worth the investment of time.  Or I'm talking all out of my ass on this part.

I guess I'm wired very different (wrong?) because I don't need to pay for something I enjoy doing just to prove its worth to others. I don't give a damn if "others" think something I do is worth the time/effort/money/whatever I spend on it or not.

Outside of Gamma World *, I've got more hours of game play out of FUDGE (which was always free) than any other game, paid or not.

But just look at software, from Firefox, Java and Linux... free stuff hardly unappreciated.


* And at one point I converted Gamma World to FUDGE and that was lead to one of my memorable Gamma World games.

Quote from: Soylent Green;406763But just look at software, from Firefox, Java and Linux... free stuff hardly unappreciated..

Free software, yes.  Free hobby materials?  I don't think so.

I wish you luck on your new venture.

I see a different distribution of quality: more safe mediocrity in professional products, more outright junk but also more flashes of genious in amateur materials (some of which are semi-commercial).

Quote from: Aos;406833I wish you luck on your new venture.

If I work in the hobby games industry, it'll be in the marketing/distribution side, I'm not interested in writing gaming materials often.  I write enough as a prof, thanks!

I don't think there's anything wrong with "freebies". But you get what you pay for.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;406950I don't think there's anything wrong with "freebies". But you get what you pay for.

RPGPundit

Exactly.

Quote from: joewolz;406630I think its bad for the industry because of the time necessary to play many of these games.  There's a person in every group who buys a ton of crap, and most people don't buy anything.  Marketing-wise, freebies should be to keep the non-buyers playing your game, while the paid products are for the one or two who do buy stuff.  This is why I'm not against free corebooks.  Hook the players with a free game, but charge for supplementary material.

I've said this before...but I *hate* buying rulebooks...but I will absolutely buy supplements...so I support this wholly.

I also support the next best thing, which is a vastly cheaper rulebook (which is how Savage Worlds hooked me, and I've spent a ton on supplementary material since).

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;407014I've said this before...but I *hate* buying rulebooks...but I will absolutely buy supplements...so I support this wholly.

I also support the next best thing, which is a vastly cheaper rulebook (which is how Savage Worlds hooked me, and I've spent a ton on supplementary material since).

I agree with your second point.  I only checked out Savage Worlds when the explorers' edition came out.  Why do you hate to buy rulebooks?  That doesn't make sense to me.

Quote from: joewolz;407085I agree with your second point.  I only checked out Savage Worlds when the explorers' edition came out.  Why do you hate to buy rulebooks?  That doesn't make sense to me.

They are typically the highest priced books in a line (retail, at least...that changes at times in the secondary market), and I don't tend to find rules interesting. Setting material/fluff/NPCs/etc? That's good stuff. The 800th variation on Fire/Falling/Drowning rules? *yawn*

Give me that stuff just as cheap as possible and make me pay for the interesting stuff...the stuff I might wind up swiping for another game, even if I don't like the rules for this one.