| From: | Max Rible <slothman@*********.ORG> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: SR 3rd Ed. comments and questions |
| Date: | Thu, 3 Jul 1997 14:13:54 -0800 |
>>if it doesn't cost a lot to produce (i.e., you have all the layout stuff
>>already on a computer and maybe all you need to do is scan in the artwork,
>>do some futzing with Adobe Acrobat, and print it out to PDF files),
>>it could be a nice supplemental for the folks who have computers with
>>CD-ROMs.
>One day I advocate Acrobat format, the next, I shall slam it. Don't
>release the rulebooks in a format such as Acrobat, PDF, DOC, TXT, Anything
>like that!
>Write a custom reader, with a custom filetype. BLOAT the size of the
>reader. And the filesize, for that matter. Otherwise, its just too damned
>easy to pirate.
1. FASA is a gaming company, not a software company. Writing a custom reader
is *waaay* far away from their line of work, and would require an
amount of
investment that would make a CD-ROM project completely unprofitable.
2. Bloating the reader and filesize will just mean you need to ship it on
more CD-ROMs and that it will take longer to ship around the Net once
someone cracks it. Meanwhile, it's inconvenient for the real customers
who
have to swap CD-ROMs.
Laser printing costs a fair amount of money; so does Xeroxing. If you use
the PDF documents to create paper output, it'll probably run you about as
much money as it costs to buy the sourcebook by the time you have a stable
binding attached to the paper. CD-ROM publishing will probably have very
little effect on book sales. Preventing CD-ROM piracy is more problematic,
as most of the really good schemes for prevention entail investing in
infrastructure back at FASA (which would make the project less profitable),
but how many people are going to want to take up 200MB of their hard drive
with the documents?
--
%% Max Rible %% slothman@*****.com %% http://www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %%
%% "So, an Arisian, a Vorlon, and a knnn go into a tavern..." %%
