More Drama from the Gaming Community

I'm talking about this and this.

Some random, Adam Smithian thoughts about this:

• RPGNow has every right to run their business how they want. The thing that turns me off is the marketing, spin-doctoring about how this is "better" for the "indie" publishers. If the majority of their sales comes from the main site, they're going to devote most of their efforts there - it only makes sense. Having "The Edge" (oooooo!) site seems more like PR than good business. Maybe they're trying to avoid the (small and in the end, ineffectual) backlash that White W- er, DriveThruRPG had when they were initially perceived as "too selective" or some such. My opinion: Focus on what drives your business and don't worry about the "indies". If there's a market for them (and there is), someone else will come along and fill that niche. I think it would make more sense to have RPGNow focus on its "main" site and have someone else handle the "indies"; someone who could focus just on their needs and not their's and publishers who complain about having to operate in a free market.
• My last comment was based on publishers who derive an income in gaming who don't like that people who are hobbyists or amateurs are producing product as well. This fits in with that "elitist/prima-donna" attitude I've commented on in the past that annoys me (again, as I've said before, this isn't all publishers, just a vocal few). I really hate it when people complain about the very market forces they themselves have used to their advantage but which are inconvenient once they've reached a certain level in the market.
• That said, if complaints of the "mainstream" publishers drove this decision (and it sounds like that may have been the case, but there were a number of other factors as well), so be it. RPGNow has to consider what's best for its well-being.
• When someone says "If this makes it harder for new publishers to get into the business, good!", they kind of sound like an elitist prick (even if I know they're not) But, really, it's true. People shouldn't be publishing unless they're serious about it. But if they're serious about it, it won't be any harder for them than it would be otherwise - they're going to go through the same planning and processes as they would otherwise. Naturally, the market will weed out the crap and let the quality rise to the top. I wouldn't stand in the way of that. It's just nice if there are processes that help facilitate that.
• To go back to my previous thought, I think a better statement would be "If this makes it harder for new publishers to get into the business who shouldn't be there in the first place, good!" That qualifier seems less prickish, and in most cases is probably implied. We've all seen small-press...excuse me, "independent" publishers comes and go who should never have been there to begin with (though they get some credit for giving it a shot; unfortunately, it probably hurt them the most in the long wrong). Good ideas, quality, talent...if you have the drive and ambition to go along with them, you're going to succeed in a free market. The degree of success is something for another discussion.
• Someone complained that this would be an impediment to people with good ideas, creativity, and talent. Bull. What did these sort of people do before RPGNow? The exposure people have to one another owes exponetially more to the Internet itself than RPGNow, the OGL, ENWorld, or anything else.
• Usually if I'm looking for something in PDF it's not by publisher or title, but by subject matter. What I want to see is a search utility that looks at both RPGNow and "RPGEdge" (or whatever the hell it's called) and gives me results based on the subject I'm looking for.

That's enough drama on my part... And before someone complains, my putting quotes around "edge" or "indie" or whatever is not meant to be denigrating to small publishers. I just find the terminology to be a little ridiculous. "We're cutting edge!" "We're independent!" C'mon. You're a small publisher with a new or niche product. You don't need "hip" labels, just product a quality product. Reminds me of the self-imposed titles a lot of the PDF publishers were using (and sometimes still use) for their "positions" within their companies. It's rather ridiculous to call yourself an "RPG Products Brand Manager" when the company consists of you and two of your gaming buddies publishing PDFs from your spare bedroom...