Re: Why do games go commercial?

From: "Ryan S. Johnson" <guildofblades@iname.com>

Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 00:00:00 +0000

> Not that I'm thinking of starting a company. Rest assure, I haven't
> that intent. I'm still pro-hobby, and agains't commercial games. But I
> start to understand the for's of it.

That's a very black and white way of looking at it; either its a hobby or
its commercialism.Can't it be both? For one, I am every bit the game
hobbyst I was before founding the Guild of Blades Publishing Group,
perhaps more. The Guild of Blades Interactive is in beta test of its 1483
Play-by-email version of its 1483 Axis & Allies variant series of board
games currently. It is being run as a commercial venture, sure enough, but
it is also free to play. The commercialism aspects come into play through
advertising, associated sales of the 1483 board games, and through various
intellectual property merchantising and licensing issues. Most everyone
involved with the Guild is an active player.

But even if a play-by-email or play-by-web game charges per turn, that
does not mean that the game is no longer a hobby game, or that it has
somehow become anti hobby because there is a commercial element to it. For
example, our 1483 play-by-email (web supported) game requires human
moderation. It also requires photoshop, a piece of software with a
reasonably hefty price tag, among other things. Without our advertising
support, the only way we could effectively offer more than one game for
people to play at one time would be to charge per turn in order to hire
additional moderators. Trust us, we've run the numbers. No matter how much
we love the game, we could not offer more than one game at a time without
having either sold advertising space on the website or charging for game
play. In that sense, limiting the commercial aspect of the game would also
greatly limit the number of people allowed to play, thus also limiting the
hobby.

The adventure gaming hobby and the adventure gaming industry are very much
intertwined and I doubt that either would survive without the other. Even
the hobby needs companies out there with money who advertise gaming
products and help market the hobby to potential new gamers if itsto
survive on to the next generation...

Ryan S. Johnson
CEO, Guild of Blades Publishing Group
www.guildofblades.com

References

Why do games go commercial?
treasonmaster@my-deja.com
Fri, 26 May 2000 00:00:00 +0000