PANHANDLIUM

Okay, not really. But they should!

"You have given us lots of cash without our having to actually give you anything for it. Please keep doing so!"

I hate to foster cross-board war or anything, but damn that was a good burn in this thread.  Good burn man!

Cheers, mate. View it while you can, no doubt it'll be deleted soon

I remember a while back, the Panhandlium fanboyz were asking if they could get the old out of print books on pdf. The response was "zomfg no! we will be totally wiped out by piracy!" So a couple of guys fire up bitorrent, then take screenshots and post them, saying, "d00d, ur stuff is all pirated anywayz, may as well make some money off it." Their posts were deleted and they were banned.

I should have just gone through and picked out the grammatical mistakes, then offered my services as a copy-editor, and not made the "Panhandlium" crack. That would make the coming ban look even worse, even the fanboyz might blink.

Cults are typically only concerned with recruiting new members and making money.  They may make other goal statements to the contrary, but their actions will reveal that recruiting new members and raking in money are the only two functions.

Cults also typically have a messianic leader.  Said leader is often the supposed possessor of enlightened wisdom or special powers.  The leader is always right in all matters and cannot be questioned.  The leader is also set on a pedestal above others.  Direct communication with the leader is not allowed, and contact is handled through intermediaries.  This also has the beneficial side effect of allowing the leader to shunt blame to the intermediaries and not seem flawed when mistakes are made.

To help drive the cult, there is almost always an "us versus them" belief.  Cultists believe outside forces are working to destroy the cult.  Cult members must actively defend it by donating money and recruiting more members.  Those who question the cult are the enemy, and are attacked by those who have accepted the cult's dogma.

Quote from: JimBobOzCheers, mate.

I've been hit with Aussie slang!  I believe this means, "thank you, friend" if my Eenglish-Anglish dictionary is to be trusted...

Quote from: JimBobOzI remember a while back, the Panhandlium fanboyz were asking if they could get the old out of print books on pdf. The response was "zomfg no! we will be totally wiped out by piracy!" So a couple of guys fire up bitorrent, then take screenshots and post them, saying, "d00d, ur stuff is all pirated anywayz, may as well make some money off it." Their posts were deleted and they were banned.

That's actually pretty cool.  I wish I had seen that.  Sometimes people can be morons.

Quote from: JimBobOzI should have just gone through and picked out the grammatical mistakes, then offered my services as a copy-editor, and not made the "Panhandlium" crack. That would make the coming ban look even worse, even the fanboyz might blink.

Fuck 'em, your joke was funny.

Uh-oh, the fanboyz are striking back at me!

Quote from: Richard WintersI smell one of them rpgwhateverthehell forum members here.

Go away troll.

Quote from: aalarWhat rock did you crawl out from under? If you had any idea of the truth and a gram of common sense you'd understand that it was the  FANS that insisted on being allowed to help in anyway we can. Now be gone JimBobOZ before I contact the Bloodhood!

Should I make a peace offering?

:emot-flowers:

Questions:

1) The fans begged for the Big Kev to pandhandle?

2) And who is the Bloodhound? Is this some beastie in a Panhandlium product? I honestly haven't played one of them since Rifts over ten years ago... Not that I think they're terrible products, just that I only have so much money to spend, and there are a gazillion rpgs out there to try...

I should like to note that I am sceptical of all the tales of people burned by Big Kev. Every rpg company has a whole swag of ex-associates bitching and moaning about it. I also have nothing against any Palladium products. I simply haven't played them in about a decade. Not because I found them bad, just because there are a gazillion interesting rpgs out there to play, and I don't have a gazillion dollars; so I have to pick and choose.

But this is pretty sad. It's embarassing to watch, like one of the Seinfeld episodes focusing on George.


"Borrowing money from a friend is like having sex. It just completely changes the relationship."

"Bald men with no jobs and no money who live with their parents don't approach strange women."

"Yes, this is a business office, but I'm not a businessman per se. I'm here working for the people. I'm causing dissent, stirring the pot, getting people to question the whole rotten system." - George Costanza

A lot of people seem to hate Panhandlium for fuck knows what reason. Me, I just think this is a sad, sad business.

does this sort of behaviour encourage other near-death companies to employ these same techniques to basically "steal" money from their fans/customers, they they in turn had stolen from them.

do I like Palladium? no not really. either their games or ethics have never interested me.

According to Ken Hite's last "state of the union" column, Palladium did effectively get knocked off it's long-time and frankly insane position as the second biggest gaming company.

As I see it, this is just reality, sense and basic economics reasserting themselves.

As for the PDFs, I suspect the real answer is "there's no way we have the cash to launch something like that" but once you start saying things like that, then your creditors start to forget to pay you and before long you're not just circling the drain anymore.

Blaming piracy is a stock industry phrase for "I wouldn't even know where to begin doing that but obviously I can't lose faith in front of my minions".

QuoteAs for the PDFs, I suspect the real answer is "there's no way we have the cash to launch something like that" but once you start saying things like that, then your creditors start to forget to pay you and before long you're not just circling the drain anymore.

Blaming piracy is a stock industry phrase for "I wouldn't even know where to begin doing that but obviously I can't lose faith in front of my minions".

I suspect that too, that must be the real reason.

Oops, I meant "lose face".

One thing you have to thank WW for is setting a precedent that if you bring DRM into the gaming industry then people won't stand for it.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the Drive Thru RPG meetings when they decided to ditch DRM.

I would say the majority of RPG publishers use PDF as a method of making sales which doesnt harm their dead-tree version sales.

By saying that they wont embrace PDF's because of piracy (Well they got royaly fucked re:the actual theft), means any investor is basically going to be saying, "Im not touching this company, because it still lives in the 1980s".

Now, Im not expert, but with even minimal and cheap technology it is far easier to layout books using DTP programs than good-ol-fashioned paste-up, so I have no sympathy for PAL for not taking advantage of it.

I couldnt care less whether KS has an email address or not, but as JimBob says, produce a game I want to buy. To which I'll add dont beg in the streets, and give role-players a bad image.

Yes, the frequently astonishingly high price points of some PDFs are clearly down to a desire to not harm their dead-tree distributors, despite the fact that they're essentially parasites who cut into the company's profit margin on every book they sell.

I hope Sembieda gets audited for this...

"So your customers just... gave... you money?"
"Yup"
"Because otherwise you'd have gone under?"
"Yup"
"...and you're going under because your customers won't buy your books?"
"Yup"
"But they'll give you money?"
"Yup"
"So they'd rather give you money and not get anything in return for it than give money and get one of your books?"
*shrugs shoulders*