Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Adam J <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: FASA Online Playtesting [Off-topic on NERPS, but..]
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 12:50:02 -0700
At 09:52 AM 12/16/97 -0500, you wrote:
> So, why don't they do that more often? It's a great way to get
>material and comments without paying anyone. It sort of benefits
>everyone, although it does kind of exploit the gamer, by charging $20+
>for something that they basically wrote themselves.

Probably because most of FASA's staff is fairly new to the internet, and
aren't really sure to go about doing it. After NaGM ended up all over the
net in fairly short order, after only suppposedly 'trusted' people could
access it, I imagine they were a bit discouraged.

I talked to Mike Mulvihill (SR line developer) about this briefly, and one
of the main reasons is time: FASA has no real permanent full time internet
person, they just handle it as best they can, and are often WAY behind. (I
can attest to this. I had to phone Mike to get him to log on to read the
edited interview we did with him ;)

FASA is still doing limited net playtesting (AFAIK), but the scope is much
much smaller, I believe.

-Adam J
-
http://shadowrun.home.ml.org \ TSS Productions \ The Shadowrun Supplemental
ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader \ AdamJ@******** \ fro@***.ab.ca
The Shadowrun Archive Co-Maintainer: http://www.interware.it/shadowrun
Message no. 2
From: Bull <chaos@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: FASA Online Playtesting [Off-topic on NERPS, but..]
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 21:01:53 -0500
At 12:50 PM 12/16/97 -0700, Adam J wrote these timeless words:
>At 09:52 AM 12/16/97 -0500, you wrote:
>> So, why don't they do that more often? It's a great way to get
>>material and comments without paying anyone. It sort of benefits
>>everyone, although it does kind of exploit the gamer, by charging $20+
>>for something that they basically wrote themselves.
>
>Probably because most of FASA's staff is fairly new to the internet, and
>aren't really sure to go about doing it. After NaGM ended up all over the
>net in fairly short order, after only suppposedly 'trusted' people could
>access it, I imagine they were a bit discouraged.
>
>I talked to Mike Mulvihill (SR line developer) about this briefly, and one
>of the main reasons is time: FASA has no real permanent full time internet
>person, they just handle it as best they can, and are often WAY behind. (I
>can attest to this. I had to phone Mike to get him to log on to read the
>edited interview we did with him ;)
>
>FASA is still doing limited net playtesting (AFAIK), but the scope is much
>much smaller, I believe.
>
I can back this up...

FASA has, I believe, less than 30 people working for them (23, IIRC),
including their editors, Line Developers, etc. And this is for all 5 of
their departments: SR, BT, ED, Book Department, and Computer Department.

Mike M himself barely knows how to access his e-mail, let alone do any
other net stuff... This is why the Shadowrun Online stuff is lagging as
much as it is... Lou Prosperi, head of the Earthdawn Department, is
actually their Web Designer, and he does that in addition to everything
else for ED.

FASA also like to keep it's playtesting stuff In-House, with either
offiicial employees, or with it's various writers and their SR groups...

<shrug>

Hopefully eventually they'll catch up to the net, but I doubt it... I'd
prefer to have good products than a really good web page (Though I'd love
both :))

Bull
--
Bull, aka Steven Ratkovich, aka Rak, aka Chaos, aka a lot of others! :]

The Offical Cuddly Celebrity Shadowrn Mailing List Welcome Ork Decker!
Fearless Leader of the Star Wars Mailing List
List Flunky of ShadowCreations, creators of the Newbies Guide,
---- in production now!
HOME PAGE: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/3604/home.html

"Oh no! It... It can't be! IT'S MEAT HAIR!"
-Power Puff Girls

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about FASA Online Playtesting [Off-topic on NERPS, but..], you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.