Re: The New Era: A Curmudgeon's Thoughts

> From: [email removed] (metlay)
> Subject: The New Era: A Curmudgeon's Thoughts.
>
> >     Contrary to what some might believe, this is not a move just to
> >make more money with a new rules set.  While it is true that new rules
> >sell well, the initial sales of TNE will pay for itself and that's
> >all.  It takes a lot of effort and resources to put out a rules set.
> >Profit comes as a result of reorders, so for TNE to be profitable, it
> >must be good and its appeal must grow.
>
> Oh, give me a break here! I'm willing to spend money on products if
> they're GOOD products; please don't insult my intelligence by saying
> that you're not selling them to make money; you're either a liar or a
> fool.  I can't tolerate either. You're damn right that growth is vital
> to a game's longevity, but don't try to make us believe that the
> initial sale is an act of charity. A loss-leader for followup
> products? MAYBE I could swallow THAT, given my ignorance of the game
> industry's economics, but somehow I doubt it. Give us credit for a
> little intelligence, okay? It's OKAY to earn money. Honest!

  To formulate what Mike Mikesh said a little differently, GDW (Frank Chadwick,
I think, to be exact) said up front that one of the "why's" of TNE is that
Traveller as it stands (MegaTraveller) doesn't bring in enough revenue
and the little it does take in is shrinking due to loss of old players and
no regrowth.
  Furthermore they said that MegaTraveller has already accumulated so much
bad publicity (typos, no support, incomprehensible to neophytes etc) that it
is a lost cause, so the only solution is to scrap it and start over again.

> True, but if wild frontiers were ALL you wanted, why not just a new game,
> or better yet the wonderful forces set in motion in HARD TIMES?

  It might be that GDW noticed that what some people on TML said (that
Hard Times would either lead to a very short night on the order of a few
years or a long dark night on the hundreds of years scale, depending on what
assumptions one made) and decided that they still wanted a 70year night
for plot reasons and invented the mechanism to create one.

  If they had used Hard Times raw to achieve a 70year night, I would have
expected to see esseys here saying that the Hard Times mechanisms impossibly
could lead to a 70year long night:)

> What award? Most Errata in One Volume Of Rules? Dumbest Ship Combat System?
> Worst Pseudoscience?

  Frankly, Battlelords of the 23'rd century leads in all those areas, even the
errata one:)

> And to Bertil, for his comment on the Metlay System of Space Combat:
> THHPHHHBBBT!
>
> |->

  My first thought when 'boardings with bayonets to avoid harming the ships'
was mentioned was: "Hey! This is what Mike Metlay said they did in his campaign
long ago!" :)

  BTW: they did mention using a plasmagun in engineering as a Very Bad Thing
To Do :)^3

- -bertil-
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