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Author Topic: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005  (Read 2060 times)

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Knightmare

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #30 on: November 13, 2012, 06:52:37 AM »

I really dig PDF-only products, but I'm also a big proponent of BC.

BC? 

BattleCorps

Yup.

I love BC, and while I personally think BC's model could use some tweaking, it still rocks IMO.

Yes, he was alluding to the fact that he may be an exception to the average gamer because he enjoys the electronic productions from BattleCorps.

Correct. I tend to use electronic components only, including pick-up games at my house. I've noticed this is different in comparison to the average gamer who tends to still prefer dead tree product over digital during gaming sessions.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 06:58:24 AM by Knightmare »
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WORD (of Blake) is good for two things. 1. Leaving inappropriate notes on other people's work. 2. Adding fake words (of Blake) to the dictionary.

JPArbiter

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #31 on: November 13, 2012, 09:18:41 AM »

the biggest tweak is author recruitment, since lack of quality authors is why they have been... wanting, lately
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BattleTech products aren't Pokemon Cards. You don't have to catch, or collect them all.

WHAT NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THAT!

Knightmare

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #32 on: November 13, 2012, 09:30:53 AM »

the biggest tweak is author recruitment, since lack of quality authors is why they have been... wanting, lately

IMO, I don't think BC lacks quality authors. Not one bit. So we'll agree to disagree. 

I'm just saying that if BC was mine, and I was going to redevelop the platform, I'd just tweak its operating model a bit.

 
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 09:34:16 AM by Knightmare »
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WORD (of Blake) is good for two things. 1. Leaving inappropriate notes on other people's work. 2. Adding fake words (of Blake) to the dictionary.

JPArbiter

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #33 on: November 13, 2012, 10:36:00 AM »

the biggest tweak is author recruitment, since lack of quality authors is why they have been... wanting, lately

IMO, I don't think BC lacks quality authors. Not one bit. So we'll agree to disagree. 

I'm just saying that if BC was mine, and I was going to redevelop the platform, I'd just tweak its operating model a bit.

Jason Schmetzer said it himself, old B Tech heavies don't want to do low cost short stories, and of the new authors that submit stories, many of them are rejected for flat out bad quality.
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BattleTech products aren't Pokemon Cards. You don't have to catch, or collect them all.

WHAT NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THAT!

Minerva12345

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #34 on: November 13, 2012, 11:27:57 AM »

It boils down to two basic problems: Pay and talent pool.

First, the pay and intellectual rights situation is very bad so people who write for living get more from writing their own work and self-publishing it. Numbers work like this. I write 5000 words and get paid 4 cents a word for 200 USD and I lose rights to it. I get same amount for 1 USD short story with 70% mark up for selling 285 downloads for kindle. This is very low number of DLs for established fanfic writer doing erotica or any personal material. Furthermore, owning stuff actually means that if you make a hit, you can get more DLs for duration of your career from other stuff you have written. BattleCorps does not do that. This means that anyone with any proven talent stays away from BattleCorps and self-publishes.

Second, BattleTech talent pool is incredibly shallow so people who read for fun stay away from it. BattleTech simply isn't popular which means that number of potential writers is low. The amount of talent available is best seen from browsing what interested fans have written (official forum's fanfic board). Level is low and has gotten ever smaller during last few years. I personally believe that pool is effectively empty and whoever manages to put anything resembling a decent story has already been taken in. The pool is so shallow that there is perhaps one author who writes readable fiction while others are at best better than average fanfic crankers. This also means that BattleCorps stories are generally poor derivations that do not attract outside readers.

Solution to all this is money since you get what you pay for. Without money you cannot get even "bread writers" and without money all you get is miserable hacks. However, the miserable quality means that you do not attract readers who might read it even for a guilty pleasure. Ultimately the business model needs a revamp if they wish to make the BattleCorps work.
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Ken

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #35 on: November 13, 2012, 12:00:50 PM »

The quantity of quality is definately lacking.
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Knightmare

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #36 on: November 13, 2012, 04:26:55 PM »

It boils down to two basic problems: Pay and talent pool.

First, the pay and intellectual rights situation is very bad so people who write for living get more from writing their own work and self-publishing it. Numbers work like this. I write 5000 words and get paid 4 cents a word for 200 USD and I lose rights to it. I get same amount for 1 USD short story with 70% mark up for selling 285 downloads for kindle. This is very low number of DLs for established fanfic writer doing erotica or any personal material. Furthermore, owning stuff actually means that if you make a hit, you can get more DLs for duration of your career from other stuff you have written. BattleCorps does not do that. This means that anyone with any proven talent stays away from BattleCorps and self-publishes.

Second, BattleTech talent pool is incredibly shallow so people who read for fun stay away from it. BattleTech simply isn't popular which means that number of potential writers is low. The amount of talent available is best seen from browsing what interested fans have written (official forum's fanfic board). Level is low and has gotten ever smaller during last few years. I personally believe that pool is effectively empty and whoever manages to put anything resembling a decent story has already been taken in. The pool is so shallow that there is perhaps one author who writes readable fiction while others are at best better than average fanfic crankers. This also means that BattleCorps stories are generally poor derivations that do not attract outside readers.

Solution to all this is money since you get what you pay for. Without money you cannot get even "bread writers" and without money all you get is miserable hacks. However, the miserable quality means that you do not attract readers who might read it even for a guilty pleasure. Ultimately the business model needs a revamp if they wish to make the BattleCorps work.

This is a well crafted and meaningful post. Why aren't you writing for BattleCorps?
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 04:37:51 PM by Knightmare »
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Quote from: Dragon Cat
WORD (of Blake) is good for two things. 1. Leaving inappropriate notes on other people's work. 2. Adding fake words (of Blake) to the dictionary.

Minerva12345

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #37 on: November 13, 2012, 05:21:09 PM »

This is a well crafted and meaningful post. Why aren't you writing for BattleCorps?

I have written a factual book (for a hobby) that sold commercially (well, I was one of three authors), been a hobby magazine editor, have written to APAs and commercially to magazines for few years, translated (poorly) RPG products in my wild youth, written commercially few RPG products for both a company I was part in and to entirely different company). I also lectured people on different hobbies (including role-playing games). I also did a full-time job on top of all that too. However, then I got a severe burn-out to all that with weeping for months which essentially forced me to drop silly hobbies for sleep (I do play RPGs once a week). After all, hobbies should be only hobbies or both work and hobbies suffer.

On the other hand, this summer I was asked to write science fiction in English language but it boiled down to life choices (money). I get paid considerably more doing my day job for the same amount of time (500 words in English takes about one full day to me and a commercially viable short story would take me one month to write for mere pittance from BattleCorps). Furthermore, my current job has me on business trips for 2-5 days a week so I do not have much time for actually coming up original fiction ideas much less writing (I occasionally do write up descriptions of RPG sessions) in a foreign language...
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Knightmare

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #38 on: November 13, 2012, 09:51:46 PM »

Right on.

Well, if you ever change your mind I'm sure BattleCorps would love to have you.
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Quote from: Dragon Cat
WORD (of Blake) is good for two things. 1. Leaving inappropriate notes on other people's work. 2. Adding fake words (of Blake) to the dictionary.

Dread Moores

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Re: Historical BT Releases Back to 2005
« Reply #39 on: November 14, 2012, 09:35:45 AM »

One of the other potential issues (not that it is necessarily an issue, but a possible drawback, depending on your personal opinion of BC) is that BC and BT freelancing often recruit from the same limited pool. I found one of the problems I had with fiction in Shadowrun (post SR3, granted that such fiction was even more limited than BT fiction) was that too often it seemed to end up in the hands of freelancers who were solid for rules mechanics, but not so solid on the fiction side. There's a (sometimes mistaken) assumption by the players that knowing how to run a game (or even working out intricate house rules and homebrew campaigns) means you are supremely qualified to write riveting fiction. Sometimes, folks are very good at writing games...but just games. That's something it took me far too long to figure out back when I was pursuing freelancer status with Shadowrun way too many moons ago. Being a good GM or even a good tinker doesn't necessarily make you a good freelancer. Being a good freelancer doesn't necessarily make you a good fiction author. The circumstances of FASA's closing and FanPro's (then later CGL's) acquisition of the license made for a prolonged period of time without a sustained focus on fiction, something that wasn't an issue in pre-SR3 editions of SR. It really felt like that talent pool of folks who could do both (writing for the game and writing longer form mass market fiction) atrophied on the SR side by the time said fiction made any kind of return. To be fair, on the SR side, it seems to have only returned in a far more limited manner than even BT fiction. I'm not sure how much of an issue this was on the BT side, because my opinion of the earlier BT fiction is pretty low. :)  But, it's still a possible cause, I'd guess.
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