Re: [DL] Rant!

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

At 08:09 PM 1/5/2001 -0700, you wrote:
 > >Actually, there have been some product releases in the last few
 > >months... Fields of Honor and Collegium most recently. Waste Warriors
 > >is coming out in the next couple of weeks.
 >
 >Counter-point.  Fields of Honor was out at GenCon - five months ago - and
 >before CG picked up Pinnacle.

While I'm at it. . . let's look at exactly what Cybergames has done with 
PEG in the past five months.

Staff has been reduced from 8 or 9 to 1 person - probably the only person 
Cybergames couldn't get away with getting rid of.  And now a large number 
of people who talent and dedication I've come to respect - some of whom I 
would like to consider to be friends - are out of a job.

1 item has been released.  Already written, but four or so months after the 
purchase.  That makes it very difficult to maintain a fan base.

Two other "new" products - also already written when CG took over, finally 
were released to the website only.  Never to be seen in a retail store.  I 
imagine that nothing pleases a store owner more then to find out that there 
are items that he will never be able to stock.

Excuses about why the delay in publication - about having to space things 
out for economic reasons - except that you can't make any money if you 
don't sell anything.  My personal guess is that the reason already written 
book aren't getting released is because there aren't enough people left at 
PEG to handle more writing.

Absolutely no website support since the domain was pointed over.

A new online retail system that is unfriendly to modem users, offers no 
descriptions of the items listed, is not very pleasant to look at, and a 
webmaster who puts up items without testing to see if they work.

The cancelation of the D20 Deadlands book.  An item that generated a lot of 
buzz on the internet - hate the idea, love the idea - people were talking 
about it.  Everywhere.  And it would have been a great cross-over/intro 
into the DL setting.  If PEG could have just gotten 1% of the people who 
bought 3rd edition DnD, that would have been an incredible boost.

The cancelation of the player involvement in the ongoing 
storyline.  Another buzz creator.

For the first time PEG fans are being left feeling like mushrooms - in the 
dark and fed fertilizer.

I've been a fan for a large number of games - several of whom ended up 
disappointing me - TSR and the selling out over demons, Hero games with the 
4th edition and large gap in releases, White Wolf and the 3 month 2nd 
editions and annual Christmas pink slip party, L5R and their lie to me, 
WotC and the money over gameplay decisions with magic - and three years ago 
I found a game company that was honest to their fans, didn't blow them off, 
that seemed to seriously care about the quality of their products, AND 
actually listened to our suggestions.

In short - I found a damn good company.  A good enough company that I'm now 
volunteering my time, from 10 to 20 hours a week, to moderating this 
listserv, for a while there posting reviews of all PEG products to rpg.net, 
doing the accumulated rulings, building a (admittedly low powered) fan 
website, answering the question account at deadlands@deadlands.com, and 
lately answering the Gaming Outpost forums.  Usually fitting the time in 
between my full time paying job and the night classes I'm taking.
It's that good of a company - it was that good of a crew.

Excuse me if this sounds hostile, but you have a HELL of a lot of ground to 
make up before you can EVEN hold your head up as high as Shane's.  Instead 
of raising all of your child companies up to the level of PEG, you've 
brought PEG down to the lowest common denominator -  Hero - a part-time 
garage run company - and whose only  way to make a profit was to keep 
repackaging the same rules and selling them as new and improved.  5th 
edition my foot.  You've been sitting on that for over a year now.  And you 
expect us to believe you when you say that Pinnacle stuff will be coming 
out "soon".

And don't tell me to "wait and see, things will get better" - I'm the one 
who was giving that speech on this listserv 2 months ago.

And if anyone at CG wishes to remove my sanction from answering the 
official email and forums for speaking my mind on this - just say the 
word.  You will, of course, have to speak to AB about kicking me off of 
this listserv.  Given the kind of feedback you've been getting, I doubt you 
want to keep this listserv around anyway.









-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/

Fretting about overpopulation, is a perfect guilt-free - indeed, 
sanctimonious - way for "progressives" to be racists.
                 -P.J. O'Rourke