Idea: Free to Non-Roleplayers

[Jonathan Walton]

So I'm in the middle of writing this extremely long article on the origins and development of wuxia for my in-the-works progressive roleplaying journal, Push.  And I was thinking, "How can I get copies of the journal into the hands of non-roleplayers, who might be interested in wuxia, say, and maybe even interested in how roleplaying games have approached the genre, even though they're not roleplayers themselves?"

Then, I thought: "What if the other contributors and I agree that purchasers of the PDF version of the journal can send copies of each issue to their non-roleplayer friends?"  Roleplayers would have to buy their own copies, but we might be able to get a Creative Commons license and word it carefully so they you could freely distribute the journal to people who weren't already roleplayers.  I figure we wouldn't be losing a whole lot of sales there, since non-roleplayers wouldn't be likely to pick up copies of a "progressive roleplaying journal" on a whim, especially if the main channels for distribution are places like RPGnow and such, which are targetted directly at the existing audience.

In any case, this is just a thought right now.  What do people think about the feasibility of such an idea?  Would it work?

[Jack Aidley]

I think it's a great idea; but I suspect it would not work. I suspect the roleplayers would regard it as being free; and you trying to rip them off and thus only take copies.

[Matt Snyder]

It strikes me as a completely non-feasible idea. How in the world could even the "role-players" themselves verify whether another person qualifies. It impossible to enforce and make workable, I think. There's just no way beyond

Publisher: "Um, pretty-please with sugar on top give this free ONLY to non-players."

Reader: "Whatever."

[timfire]

Don't people already do this on their own?

"Hey Jack, you like wuxia - you know, I just read this great article on this e-journal..."

It seems to me that anyone who cares enough to share articles with their friends are probably already doing it. I don't know, what do other people think?

[ethan_greer]

Cool idea.

I think that no harm can come from including in the document a sentence that reads, "Feel free to distribute this document to non-gamers as an introduction to wuxia, the roleplaying hobby, or both."

I don't think trying to make it legal through a Creative Commons-ish license of some sort would be necessary (or, as others have pointed out, feasible).

[jdagna]

My recommendation would be to advertise and distributre a free copy in places that gamers don't really hang out.  The free copy doesn't even have to be different than the regular one except in name.

To get it to non-roleplayers, you'd have to look at what options you had available.  There are certainly public forums that would allow you to advertise or post links.  You could print physical copies and then see about leaving them in the newsracks at restaurants or other non-gamer stores.

However, marketing something specifically to non-gamers has always seemed (to me anyway) like trying to sell ham in a kosher deli.  They're just not interested.

Heck, for that matter, how easy is it to give away free games to gamers?

(Despite all the doom and gloom, I'm not saying it isn't worth giving this a try).