Should you aim more mainstream? YEP! For one game you should. For one very well written source guide you should. You can not compete against warhammer; but you can compete like warhammer. Immersive worlds with 'preset' troops which you can just print out and use. Like your Tourtose and the Hare game; or Splatterball, and Pygmies. But niether of those seems to be broadly marketed or pushed as an example of the game system. You need something to flagship it.
D&D 3e is a generic system; with fantasy filler information. People are drawn towards the fantasy but there is still enopguh room to transform it into any game you want.
No. Im not all to sure its part of any business model. Those are both games written as enjoyment and spur of the moment things. Neither of which seems to be really augmented towards a lasting membership base. AND IM SORRY IM BEING HARD ON YOUR GAMES BUT YOUR RUNNING A BUSINESS AND THIS NEEDS TO BE DISCUSSED!!!! There is nothing wrong with the settings graphics or what ever
just the community model behind them. (Which arguebally should be the most important aspect post-release.)
For example you wrote splatterball as an extension and to enter into MIP #20; your motivation seems to be contributing to MIP. Pygmies were written along time ago and then transfered into the setting; why? Because Bryn became part of Oversoul games and ergo wanted his stuff in the same format. Niether of which points towards anything more than spur of the moment game design.
The games themselves are the only real example of actual marketing. You wrote Dice Chuckers; you sold dice chuckers. However it doesn't seem successful for some reason. The other day there were all the players of DC in the western US (As it seems) in the same room
. If something had happend; like a plane crash on us then the forum would lose 80-85% of its activity!
And yes im going to make you defend your practices. I've got as much time invested in writing and playing this game as anyone; and it's very disapointing to see it floundering in a post release state!
Nope just a endless cycle of obsucrity. I still work on games that no one has ever played or looked at. Im on my sixth version of Man Versus Nature. But I dont act like its going to become anything sooner or later; its just a hobby not a business.
Look heres how a model should work :
1)Sell lots of core books.
2)Build up an interested base who
plays the game. Supply them with little bits and pieces of game material.
3)Release source books and sell these to that group.
You can't get to 3 without 2; because without 2 there is no market for #3. Ergo theres no money in it; and if theres no money theres no reason to do #1.
See what you do? First off I find it hard to see what you guys do. Its to secertive. You dont post updates on these boards; you dont banter here. Theres no public input. So its hard to see what your thinking or mission statement is. Look at the bottom for my thinking behind this entire post btw. If you want me to understand how you want the system to be run then you need to discuss it more.
But im here of my own valition. Nothing really pulls me towards your systems at the moment
. My players in the German Politics want me to drop the forum and Dice Chucker and migrate to GURPS. Because we have tons of GURPS material aviable to our service. But I dont want to because im still trying to help and make these settings work one way or another! I am here out of my own curious mind tbh. My orginal reason? How much can contributing help grow a community? And in all honest it was an expierment in seeing the benefits of it. Sometimes contributing is an amazing grower to a community.
Hell. Heres a case study; A year ago Juniorgeneral.org. Matt used to post only his own stuff there and no one contributed. A few others and myself came along and started doing a ton of conversion work; making aircraft spending hours doing other little miniatures. Do you know whats going on at that site right now? Absolute success story (And its not because of me. Its because people saw that there was a community of like minded individuals and were willing to take the time to work on the issue.) ONE WEEK AGO. JG set up a new forum. 1 week and we already have something like 488 posts. From 31 contributing members. (Im biased on this as I am a co-admin.)
And this is all free; this is based on a set of figurines that the majority of the gaming industry deemed ugly and mis-shappend. In fact most people wont even use them given the most dire of circumstances! But there is a community. Matt has done a wonderful job turning his poor drawing (And he admits that
) into a standard for Historical models!
So if you want to be Quirky then by god be Quirky. But you have to be good at it; and you cant slack. You cant post 1 time in 6 months and expect communities to devolop. Its an uphill battle that must take place each and every day.
NOW why thtis post? There were two reasons : 1)I found a used copy of Warjack. 2)A comment someone gave me when I was beta testing their work.
1)Warjack really showed me why people get involved in systems. I'd never read warhammer or anything before so I didn't know what all the nonsense was about. But I could see why people build 12$ models and spend 30$ on game books. Because the system and the story is there; it brings you in, it sits you down, and it gives you a gaming lap dance
. All the units have backstories; the factions are unique and differnt, and the story is fun.
2)I had the same comment when helping someone with their system. They wanted people drawn into it; not just a nuetral 'cool.' It was interesting to recall this statement after reading the Warmachine book though. As finally I got what he meant by that comment.