A friend recently asked me if I’d continue to buy and play games from an aggravating designer or publisher. I don’t have much experience with that. All the designer and publisher of the games I buy and play seem to be decent people.
Examples of aggravating publishers:
Some times the line is not so clear. What if you just disagree with a publisher that doesn’t want to publish PDF versions of books for fear of piracy? ¹
What happens if all you see is accusations or a catfight online: an artists claims they were not paid. Do you believe the artist? Do you contact to publisher asking for a comment? This casts a shadow of doubt on the entire thing.
Clearly, there are various degrees of aggravation. There are liars and cheaters, there are disagreements, there are questions…
The first thing to do, of course, is to make sure you’re getting it right. Check if other people are reporting similar issues. Check for rebuttals. Then decide what to do.
Here’s generally what I do, in order of increasing aggravation:
1. unfollow them on Twitter
2. unsubscribe from their blog
3. don’t visit their forums
4. tell my friends about my aggravation
5. be more selective than usual about the products I buy
6. buy products much later and only if I absolutely know they’re good
7. only buy second hand products
8. don’t buy their product at all
9. complain online and warn everybody else
Just remember that complaining online is tricky.
#RPG #Publishing