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From: buzzard@TheWorld.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: The Future of IF
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Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 12:47:34 GMT
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In article <f904a017.0204151241.2a56ae9e@posting.google.com>,
>I'm wondering how other IF authors see the future of this genre. Not
>If 20,000 people will buy a paperback book by a virtually unknown SF
>author (and they will), surely it's not much of a stretch to imagine
>that one might be able to sell 20,000 copies of a $29.95 IF game if it
>were (a) well written, (b) attractively packaged, (c) bug-free, (d)
>competently distributed, and (e) imaginatively promoted.

Seems like quite a stretch to me: the paperpack costs, what, $5.95,
and I if it's good, I can re-read it over and over; after the first
time, the surprises are gone but the essence of the work is not.
This is not generally true of story-driven games; you have to work
at it, even though the interaction is no longer interesting, after
the first time. (There are exceptions, but rare.)

Plus the potentially-reachable market is a smaller; you don't
get taught how to play IF in grade school.

SeanB
