A Vested Interest

There's a quote from one of my favorite screenwriters, David Mamet, that goes, "Accept criticism only from those with a vested interest in your success."

Insightful words. Makes you look at reviews in a whole new way.

Except that I think Mamet was probably referring to reviews of his own work. While that's fine, and I agree it's smart, that's not what Mamet's quote makes me think of. It makes me think of the reviews I write of other people's work.

"That's right," you might be thinking. "You write reviews, Monte, and yet you publish your own material, writing for other companies as well as for Malhavoc Press. You don't have a vested interest in the success of those you review -- why, you're a competitor!"

Except that's not how I look at it at all. Indulge me for a moment.

I don't think game companies or publishers really compete with each other. I think they (we) all have just one competitor: people not playing RPGs. When I worked at Wizards of the Coast, it was clear to us that, while a few gamers who bought our products stopped buying them in favor of other companies' products -- or they never started buying Wizards titles because they played other games -- we lost a far, far greater number of gamers to the fact that they just stopped playing altogether. People lose interest, lose their free time, or just move on.

In the d20 crowd, I think there's even less competition than there is between publishers of other games. People who buy a Fantasy Flight product one month might pick up a Necromancer product the next. To gamers, it's as though there's just one big entity out there putting out d20 stuff. And that's great. Great for gamers, because of the vast selection, and great for game producers, because we can feed off of each other's successes.

It's the last part of that statement I'm really talking about. See, if Fiery Dragon or Green Ronin puts out a great product, it invigorates everything. People who buy that product are happy, their interest in playing the game continues (or increases), and they're more likely to want or need to buy another product next month. It's in my best interest, as a game designer (particularly one with his own imprint), to see everyone putting out good products.

There's something going on right now that people are calling the "d20 glut." There are too many products being published, they say. It's going to dramatically hurt everyone's sales. That might be. But my secret (somewhat cynical) opinion is this: The "d20 glut" is a glut of poor and mediocre products. Oh, there's plenty of good stuff out there, but there's a lot of really bad stuff, too. Worse, there are a ton of just mediocre products. Stuff that's just clogging up the shelves. Stuff that people have bought and felt vaguely dissatisfied with. Things that do not leave us gamers hungry for more.

When d20 started, I -- just like every D&D fan -- couldn't wait to see what kinds of products would come out. I went to the game store full of anticipation, and so did everyone else. I could see it in their faces. I'm sure they could see it in mine. I don't see that look anymore.

If there were more good releases out there, people would be eager to buy more products than they do. I mean, everyone wants the good stuff, right? I know I do. Thus, I hope, in some small way, my reviews help encourage publishers to work harder -- either by criticizing products that aren't up to snuff or by praising and spotlighting the material that's good. And I want people to do the same for Malhavoc Press releases.

Because we all have a vested interest.