Re: [WW] Final Verdict

["Steven D. Nelson" <sdnelson@advancenet.net>]

On Fri, 27 Jul 2001, Arne Reuter wrote:

> For the most part. While this is not bad, to me the updates often lack
> meat. I appreciate the effort Shane is doing - especially after the
> "restructuring" (we are in the same process right now). But
> nonetheless I feel somewhat left out of the loop - especially with hot
> new product like Weird Wars. I have been looking for weeks to a new
> installment of the production guide, but nothing has changed after
> part 9.

I think the lack of meat comes down to the fact that Pinnacle is currently
operating on a skeleton crew compared to what their staff once was.  I
remember weekly updates in the past that had a new adventure, a new
character archetype, articles on skills, and other substantial freebies.
But Pinnacle had more people back then who could write such material or
peruse user submissions.  I think Pinnacle's focus right now is getting
product out to the players.  I'm much rather see that new supplement or
adventure on the  game store shelf than a freebie article if it came down
to choosing between the two.

Also, this is the convention season, and Pinnacle's webpage updates are
always affected by the summer schedule as the crew hustles to get hot new
products ready to debut at Origins and Gencon as well as making
arrangements, travelling to the con, and then recuperating from the
experience.  Most gaming companies are being affected by this as well.


> What is keeping them to use friendly transcripts of the Origins
> "playtesting" to further fuel the fire? Or publish some interior art,
> a 2 page .pdf-excerpt of the final rules, a very simple introductory
> adventure? And with a glance into the future I guess people on this
> list would love to contribute something that lands on the official
> site, won't you?

I think it's probably a time and manpower constraint from convention
season that is doing this.  But I'd love to see this stuff available on
the web after GenCon is over.  I'd also love to see some more pics of
Pinnacle's people and booth at GenCon available on the web, for those of
us who couldn't make it to GenCon.


While I think a company's web-page is important, what good is a company
that has a great web-page but no tangible product?

So far this year Pinnacle has been dealing with the aftermath of
Cybergames, getting last years backlog of products out the door,
re-launching The Great Rail Wars, working up a D20 port of Deadlands,
supporting their existing product lines, and coming up with a whole new
RPG (Weird Wars).  Not too shabby for a skeleton crew to pull off in 7
months, eh?

Steve Nelson
sdnelson@advancenet.net