Author Jaron Lanier has written a new book called "You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto". In he posits that the Web 2.0 evolution of the internet has "results in cynical mob behavior, the shouting-down of reasoned argument, and the devaluation of individual accomplishment".
Link to the book on Amazon with a very interesting Q&A with the author
I have to agree.
Another side of this is that with the ease of publishing electronic content, the price of that content is pushed further and further down, to the point of becoming free. (see the Q&A in the link)
So the question is: What is the "value-add" of companies like Paizo or Wizards or other roleplaying game companies when much of the content that they produce can be developed by individuals and shared online.
What is the value that you place on content? Can the same quality of content produced by Paizo and other companies be found online? Should this content cost the same as what it costs Paizo to produce? How will this new economy affect companies that produce intellectual property?
To offer full disclosure on this subject, I also run a web site that publishes fan-created roleplaying game material.
Thanks for pointing that out, tossed that onto my wishlist.
I miss that Veector fella. Nice to see him around.
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So the question is: What is the "value-add" of companies like Paizo or Wizards or other roleplaying game companies when much of the content that they produce can be developed by individuals and shared online.What is the value that you place on content? Can the same quality of content produced by Paizo and other companies be found online? Should this content cost the same as what it costs Paizo to produce? How will this new economy affect companies that produce intellectual property?
To offer full disclosure on this subject, I also run a web site that publishes fan-created roleplaying game material.
Quality and consistancy. The companies such as paizo take a large burden off of someone who does not have the time or is not willing to take the time to develop a setting or a scenrio on our own. While I am capable of doing so myself, I am not as accomplished or as practiced as the paizo staff. I can make my own art work but I am not evenin the same class as many of the artists hired by Paizo. I can and may at some point put things up on a website but ti is not like the hours and hours of play testing that is done with and for the great people who have spent years doing this.
I can make my own art work but I am not evenin the same class as many of the artists hired by Paizo.
Care to share some of that artwork? FB it if that's convenient.