Involved Observer wrote:Ok, not to stir the pot here or anything (or add more work to our good Lord Z), but the page count is now around 2-3 regular Rifters. Would it be better, instead of having one jumbo Rifter 0.1, to split this into two or three issues? Rifter 0.1, 0.2, maybe even 0.3? Not only would that allow more profits to PB, but also people could pick which one sounds most interesting to them. It would also make the load-up time less when we access the file on our computers. What do you all think?
Greetings and Salutations. I actually had a similar thought a couple of weeks ago. After thinking about it for a few hours I'm pretty sure I came to the conclusion it was a bad idea (well, not
bad, but one I would avoid). I'll list a few thoughts on the matter.
1) Money: More money for Palladium/Alex is, of course, a good thing, but this one has a few different angles to look at as well.
A: Splitting it into several Rifters though may put off some fans. I say this as I remember seeing complaints about Palladium putting out several smaller books for more money and they would have rather just had one book (more money individually, but cheaper than all the other books combined). Granted, the fan base is pretty split on a lot of things. This is just one factor to consider.
B: If money is the only factor, the price for this particular electronic Rifter can be raised. The original was ... $3 (just looked it up). So, instead of making 3 new Rifters ($3 each for $9 all of them) maybe just raising the price of the one as a super sized issue ($7.50, cheaper than 3 separate but more than an individual smaller one).
C: Small and cheaper can be better! I know this goes contrary to point A, but I'm not here to be biased. With economic times and people tight for money, people are more likely to buy something the cheaper it is. So people who wouldn't buy one large book might put out for one of the smaller books.
D: If comparison to Point B, smaller books could (potentially) also make less money (see #2C for details).
2) My first thought on this was to split it into various books settings (so like one for Rifts, PF, and BTS, for example, depending on the amount of content), but like above, there are some more factors to look at.
A: Can the content be split evenly? For example, I believe Boxed Nightmares 2 is something like 200+ pages. So maybe only splitting it into two books is an option, but that would effectively make Boxed Nightmares 2 (if I have the size of it right) in its own book. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not sure if this is really still a Rifter so much as an electronic sourcebook.
B: The Rifter is (typically) a collection of different settings. It's designed as a collection for all Palladium fans. Separating by settings (or genre) would lose some of this feel (similar to A). While the thought to put a little of something into each of multiple electronic Rifters is an idea, how much of that is really an option? With some of the articles just being huge in their own right, it makes it harder to mix and match. Though I say this without seeing what's there, so I can't judge for sure.
C: Smaller, more focused Rifters can be great for fans. This lets them pick what they want. So if someone wants some BtS material, they buy the one Rifter and ignore the other one or two. Alternatively, if initial reviews of only one or two are good but one or two are bad, the ones with bad reviews may not sell well (for note, this is not a slam on anyone's work, heck the bad reviews can be my submissions for the example). Now some will still buy these, sure, but I can see it hurting the sales of some of them. This is one of the reasons I'd be a fan of a bigger Rifter (just at a higher price).
3) What was promised: This is another factor not to be dismissed. While I'll admit some fans probably barely even know anything about this project, I will say some do. If the project (which was advertised as one book) is suddenly split into two (or more) it could come off as a broken promise and/or Palladium trying to milk money from their fans. By no means would I say this is the case, but I'm worried about impressions.
4) Cofusion: Splitting the project into many electronic Rifts may raise some other questions. Currently, the proceeds of the Rifter 0.1 project is to be donated to Alex. If there are three, are all of them going to help Alex? One is helping him and the others go to Palladium? Which ones are which? If something can come off confusing, I'll usually suggest it's a bad idea.
For note, I'm not saying it's a bad idea. And if that is what is decided, the idea has my support. I'm not speaking against the idea personally, but I did want to go into some of the thoughts that came to mind when I had considered this before (and why I chose not to suggest it myself previously). The thought does have merits, but also potential pitfalls to consider. Maybe some of those thoughts are off base, and if so feel free to ignore them. I'll stand by whatever decision is made. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.
