PDF Games? Aren't those like that Internet-thingee?

[clehrich]

(I can't believe you used "vanity" so much, Chris. You should know better.)

No, the various clarifications answered my question, but when I said "vanity press" I meant it.  A vanity press, as noted, is one that charges the author for the pleasure of seeing his name on the spine.  Self-publishing, as also noted (though not by me, not knowing anything about that end of things), is a somewhat different matter.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Chris,

I mentioned Amazon.com com as a (now) clear example of hidebound thinking trampled by reality.  (But, think about how big and strange a deal it was for average consumers only a few years ago.)

Tav,

Thanks. You nailed the bit I couldn't quite put my finger on.  The publishing models are *completely* different between lit/non-fiction publishing and RPGs.  The economics are VERY dfferent.  To make this clear to people would be a good thing.

Because, here's a truth: there's a huge screening aparatus set up by publishers to find good books and keep out bad books.  Truth to tell: it usually works.  Vanity works are usually those books that simply couldn't make the cut.

The entire business of RPG is completely different. So different the term "vanity" in this context is completely misapplied.

And that, Chris, is why I brought up Amazon.  It's a completely new model that breaks the rules of the way people think things "work."  They actually work (quite well, actually, thank you very much), in a completely different way that blows past hidebound expectations.

To make clear that the term vanity -- and the inferred anology to book publishing/self-publishing issues -- is misapplied and only serves the egos of those with bad business sense is the goal I was speaking of.

I guarantee you such thinking is floating around in the brains of people who might otherwise buy some games.

Matt's got a point.  Quality wins out. But what if I don't even look at a game because it's a "vanity" game -- like those "vanity" books that couldn't find a publisher -- and so, by definition -- the *perecieved* quality is already lower than it needs to be.

Christopher

PS I'm not just talking about PDFs.  I'm talking about the whole Indie* (*whatever it's gonna end up being called) endevour.  Times are changing, but a pushing hand is often a good thing.  Two years ago on RPG.net, if you talked about buying a PDF game, the reaction was pretty much, "WTF, are you a schmuck?"  A year ago, people started saying, "So, they're got all these old games in PDF at online stores. What do you guys think?"  Now people are saying, "I'm not sure why I'd buy anything but PDF."  Now, translate that from previously hardcopy PDF games to we-never-got-around-to-do-a-book-version game (ie Indie**whatever), and there's a lot more gas loose in the kitchen...

Which you guys can ignite.... or... something.

Anyway....