The Real Problem with "Kids These Days"

Noisms has some interesting things to say about selling RPGs to kids today, commenting on some points Trollsmyth made on the same topic in a post on Mishlergate. They're both largely right, I think. I got into D&D with 3e when I was in middle school, but I was a kid who'd wanted to play D&D, and D&D specifically, since 4th grade. That's not usual. The group I play with at college is almost entirely composed of people who hadn't played RPGs at all before I met them, because even though they're all Grade-A RPGer material, they either never realized what RPGs actually are, or got intimidated out of trying them on their own. The industry doesn't reach a lot of potential players.

But that's partly reasonable of the industry. Though most of the people I knew in high school were perfectly able to spend the money to buy RPG books, most of them didn't. Why? Sometimes, it was because they'd rather spend that money on computer games or manga, both of which are much more expensive hobbies than RPGs if you're into them on the level that these people were.

But mostly, it was because they didn't see anything wrong with downloading PDFs illegally rather than buying books, and why spend $30 on something you could get for free? I can't generalize outside of the people I personally knew in high school (and know in college) but most of them didn't see PDFs as valuable. Either they didn't understand the work that went into them, or they didn't care. Likewise, they didn't understand the work that goes into distributing and marketing a product, so even if they did recognize that they were ripping someone off by downloading a PDF (or an mp3 file, or a movie, or a video game . . .) without paying for it, they just figured the main person they were hurting was "the company," which wasn't doing anything useful or properly compensating the artists to begin with.

So I can understand why a company wouldn't be interested in marketing their stuff to teenagers.

On the other hand, I won't deny that there's plenty of foot-shooting going on. The big issue is that companies are still making games for boys. But that's another post entirely.

(And note that, for the most part, I think my generation has a lot more good qualities than it's critics give us credit for. We vote, for one, and we've got pretty impressive volunteering and service numbers. But, for whatever reason, a lot of us do have this one obnoxious blind spot.)

4e GSL and Related Speculations

You've probably already heard by now, but the 4e GSL and accompanying SRD is now out. You've probably already heard because Trollsmyth, the Chatty DM, and James Maliszewski are already discussing it. I mention it for completeness, and because it's worth checking each of those sites for their own take.

None of the reactions are good. You can't reproduce Monster Manual stat blocks in adventures, there's some dodginess about web support, if you Wizards publishes something similar to what you're already doing you have to cease-and-desist immediately, no questions asked.

A lot of it sounds like they're trying to avoid competition with their D&DI, which kind of worries me because at this point I have no confidence that the thing will actually be usable. I hope it will be, but if it ends up disappearing I'd like to be able to access fan-created resources that do similar things.

What I don't really get is why they appear to be so worried about people taking their system and doing other things with it, stuff like Iron Heroes and Mutants & Masterminds and so on. I could be misinterpreting it, but it looks pretty much impossible to do that with the new license.

That isn't going to keep people from jumping ship to other systems, it just means that 3.5/d20, rather than the new edition, is going to be the keystone system that people learn because they want to be able to play a bunch of games with one set of rules. And people who care about that kind of thing may well be inclined to pick up Pathfinder as their fantasy RPG of choice.

But I'm not much for prediction or for business, so there's a good chance I'm completely wrong. I'm just disappointed that it looks like there won't be nearly as many supplements for my game, especially the crazier ones. I wasn't planning on dropping 3.5 completely anyway, so this is just one more reason. And I am starting to worry a bit about the fan site policy, but that's a wait-and-see situation, too.

Wizards Podcasts

Spent the afternoon listening to some of the Wizards podcasts. They're really good, and interesting, in a "why does D&D work in the way that it does?" kind of way.

Even if you're not into that, at the very least you should check out the 18th minute of the Drow podcast. Because Chris Thomasson tells us about his character, a 19-year old Goliath cleric/homebrewed prestige classes with a neat name that I can't spell.

He has several amusing stories about this character, but the best one is his horrible, horrible death. (He got better.) Seriously. We are talking classic GM evil.

Chris Perkins is his GM. I am in awe. I am also in awe because apparently, for this campaign, he tweaked every player class and implemented a 20-level spell system. This is the kind of stuff that I wish I had the time and attention span to implement.

I am not nearly as good at GM evil as I'd like to be.

Grand Literary Tradition

"Vampires, ghouls, and werewolves shall all be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition, such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high-caliber literary works, written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world."

Comics Code, as revised 1971

When you're writing the Comics Code, irony is optional.

Credit where credit is due: I found this quote in Reading Comics, by Douglas Wolk.

That's Not How Money Works

Apparently, Fox thinks they're allowed to deface U.S. currency for profit.

I know a bit about currency. Part of my elementary education. Mostly what I remember is, "Money is fancy! Don't mess with it! The Secret Service will get you!"

I don't recall, "Unless you have a really good reason! Like money!"

Mostly, I like how they didn't intend to “suggest that there was any approval from the U.S. Mint or the U.S. Government.” That's what money means: the U.S. Government has approved this metal. They say it's worth something. Otherwise, it's not money. If something is on money, and it still functions as money, that literally means, "the government is cool with this."

Note that the Franklin Mint is a private company--that's not entirely clear in the article linked. New York Times has a better article (meaning: not cribbed from the AP) but you have to sign up for a free account.

Wonderful World of Work

They have jobs like this. This is a legitimate source of employment. It's an entire field, even.

I had no idea.

(Quoted because that link will probably change at some point.)

Creative Designer – Digital Games
Requisition ID 1999
Full/Part Time Full Time
Location Renton, WA
Description Suits Optional ...
...Brains Required!!

Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. and the world's largest publisher of adventure games, including Magic: The Gathering® Trading Card Game and Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Games, has an exciting opportunity for a Creative Designer to join our team.

Why us? Because we offer competitive salaries, a great benefits package, and the excitement of working in a creative organization. But the best part of working here is that most of us think selling games that bring hours of enjoyment to millions around the globe is an inherently cool way to earn a living.

PURPOSE
The Creative Designer in the Digital Games group is responsible for the development of concepts, names, and flavor text for Digital games under development.

In this position you would be responsible for sourcing and coordinating a team of internal and external writers to produce creative text for cards, packaging, inserts, and assorted other purposes. In addition, the Creative Designer contributes to world-building and Intellectual Property (IP) development for Digital games.

Key Relationships
-Project Team: Producer, Art Director, Lead Developer, Lead Designer, Concept Illustrator
-External contacts may include illustrators, writers, and vendors.
-Interactions focus on information exchange, receiving and providing direction, or receiving and providing training.

Duties and Responsibilities

Creative Direction:
-Ensure continuity and quality of names and flavor text
-Meet all quantitative and qualitative goals and strategies defined by the R&D.
-Coordinate a team of writers and possibly other creative staff providing hands-on direction.
- Monitor design and output ensuring all text is editorially appropriate for the product line.
-Help connect textual materials with art assets
-Assure excellent quality, consistency and timely completion of all projects.

Administration:
-Ensure that timely and effective communications are affected among the various parts of R&D (Design, Development, Creative, etc.) to enable successful development.
-Establishes consistent scheduling and resource use in coordination with the Lead Developer.
-Work directly with writers and designers to execute world building on a scheduled basis.
-Manage external contractor, either teams or independents.

Process and Standards:
-Work with the R&D leadership to define non-existent or dated processes and set goals and participate in action to establish, eliminate or improve these processes for the benefit of all stakeholders.
-Meet or exceed all department and corporate standards for business, including work hours, professional conduct, mutual respect, and teamwork.

Knowledge, experience and Skills

Required:
-Minimum 2 years experience as a writer or artist or manager of creative talent
-Demonstrated ability to write high quality, concise creative text and explanations
-Working knowledge of game mechanics, ‘races’, characters, environments, and their trends and implications.
-Ability to develop, coordinate, and maintain the overall style of intellectual property
-Must foster a highly creative environment, and manage (self and others) effectively in a fast paced environment.
-Strong oral and written communication skills, with the flair to “sell” creative ideas
-Strong creative intuition and ability to recognize and develop outstanding creative/written work produced by others
-Consistently have authored creative materials through an understanding of the target customer, consumer patterns, usage patterns, popular and economic trends.
-Enthusiastic and knowledgeable about other fantasy entertainment properties.
-Strong initiative, stays current on emerging products as well as industry trends.
-Ability to lead and participate in brainstorming sessions to develop unique concepts.
-Strong interpersonal and team building skills, must be an organizer and a motivator.
-Ability to see the big picture and ensure that all the small details support it.


Strongly Preferred:
-BA or BS —Creative Writing, Technical Writing or other creative field preferred.
-Previous work in creative writing is strongly desired.
-Ability to produce quality sketches and paintings is a nice bonus.
-Ability to write fictional prose in multiple genres (fantasy, science fiction, etc.) is strongly desired.

Light Years Behind . . . Painting

Not too be too down on BBC News, but their tech guys are idiots. Complete and utter maroons.

They've got this article about how, according to the industry "experts," we are at most two years away from photo-realistic humans. Which is total nonsense. We may be two years away from photo-realistic movement, but that is not the biggest challenge standing in the way of photo-realism in games.

That, hands down, is skin. Human skin absorbs and scatters light in a way that we don't really have the technology to do, even in pre-rendering, let alone real time. You'll notice that a lot of games, like Oblivion, with high quality graphics have characters that kind of glow. It's a way of tricking you into letting computer people be pretty, and not freakish. We may not be able to simulate subdermal refraction, but we can at least make people glow!

That's not my favorite part, though. My favorite part is down at the end. After the article has made a big deal about how, in the future, computer characters will be totally indistinguishable from humans, it quotes Ian Livingstone of Eidos: "We will be able to play with people's emotions - we can make them laugh, we can make them cry, we can make them sad."

Because, y'know, you totally can't affect people emotionally, unless your characters are totally, perfectly human. We're totally impervious to anything that doesn't look 100% real. Without the perfect visual experience, without being able to see every nuance of the characters action, no one ever feels any connection to a story.

Because no animated movie, or novel, or radio show has ever made anyone feel sad.

Honestly, I think that games would be better off if they went less realistic with their graphics. Not lower quality, mind you. Just less realistic. Characters drawn with broader strokes can actually be more effective, emotionally, because it's for people to invest in them. It's easier to imagine them as being exactly what you want them to be.

Eventually, computer games are going to figure out that there are other kinds of art out there. Naturalism isn't the only way to make pictures look good. Someday, video gaming is going to discover impressionism. And they're going to realize that suggesting an image, and capturing a feeling, and making it really pretty, are all way more important goals than "realism."