RE: [DL] Selling Out

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>]

I have never seen a group of people so up in arms as I have seen the
PEG-related lists in just this past day or so.  I am amazed, and I hope that
Shane is heartened to see all the positive feed back -- and that Cybergames
is listening.  I see that they finally have a voice on the list, lets hope
it helps.

Now it's my turn to add to the noise.  I too support Shane, he's done
wonderful work and seems bound and determined to keep doing it.  To that end
he brought together the best people he could find, and at one point even
admitted that he couldn't keep PEG going the way he liked, or maybe even at
all.  That admission led to finding some source of capital, to keep PEG
alive.  I know how that feels, as my partners and I are currently trying to
sell a chunk of our company for working capital.  I also know that those
with money only give up the money in exchange for something - control.  So
now Shane finds that he is the only one left at PEG.  Can he still keep
Deadlands alive?  Yup.  Same way other companies do when low on manpower --
outsourcing.  Much of the Deadlands material pre-Cybergames was done by
freelancers, anyway, so as long as good freelance talent still does the
work, the books will still be outstanding.  I most definitely believe that
Deadlands can continue to be the game of choice for me.  My wife lets me buy
all the Deadlands stuff I want (God she's wonderful!), so listen up
Cybergames!  Show me some books!

However, Cybergames does seem to lack customer appeal.  I have no
information about Cybergames history, or if it's a new company.  I don't
know if the execs at Cybergames are RPG-industry old-timers, or if they are
more e-company experienced (cyber-ish?) or what.  They do seem to be trying
to apply the wrong business model to the RPG industry, and they've incensed
almost everyone on the lists.  They have mucked up a lot.  But they do seem
to be trying -- their response to the broken downloads of the e-books was
pretty good.  Yeah, the links shouldn't have been broken, and there should
have been more stuff to buy (printed and download), but maybe this is a sign
of them turning things around.

So listen Cybergames!  Listen to Shane, he knows how to keep fans happy.
Listen to the list members -- we may not be the majority of Deadlands
consumers, but we are the hardcore fans, and we know good work when we want
to buy it.  And gol-durn-it, I want to buy more books!

Oh, yeah, and definitely don't yank Allan's chain too much.  He's doing
incredible work for free, no company can do without that.  I've never seen
him post something so umm, emphatic, as his contribution to the Rant thread,
and thats with quite a bit of posts as moderator to shut some of us listers
up  (and we can be quite the pain!).  It's a great testament to his
incredible dedication to Deadlands that Cybergames' treatment of the line
caused such vehemence.

Ugh, sometimes I do wish I had the eloquence of, say, Mr. McGlothlin, or
several others on this list.  But hopefully I've constructively added to the
outcry of support for Shane and PEG.

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang