I get it. Monte Cook Games is "The Shit". Really. Just ask them. They'll tell you that themselves.
So, what does a company that lives on press releases do when ENWorld, the site that lives to post press releases (really, they hire staff to find press releases), is offline for a few days do?
They post their own press release.
Really. And you know what is even better? Charles Ryan even quotes himself:
Yes, please toot your own horn even louder while you are at it.
Being that MCG apparently can't publish a game these days without "artistic watermarking" obscuring the majority of the relevant text, I'm surprised they can publish self pandering press releases that are legible.
Hey, look at that. A Kickstarter I'm not backing. Imagine.
Word on the street is this one is gonna go over like a gas soaked paper dog chasing an asbestos cat through hell.
ReplyDeleteThey already have their money. At this point, they can be the black-turtlenecked guy with a German accent in the art gallery looking down his nose at the other game developers because he's made it already.
DeleteI was never a Monte Cook fan, what can I say? I'm an original hiptard.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though...I should quote myself more, but it always comes off really mean and "I told you so"-ey.
I dunno, yes they are hyping their wares a lot, but I've seen many company press releases in several different industries quote different members of the company. I think what makes THIS press release look so self-congratulatory is that it is on their own web site. If this, or exerpts thereof, were posted on ENWorld, RPG.net, or any other media out;et it may not have looked so extreme.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue is when Charles Ryan, author of the press release, quotes Charles Ryan within the press release.
DeleteMonte is an immensely talented individual, especially building upon other peoples' ideas and improving, or at least changing, them. I believed in him enough to back Numenera, and I feel I got a decent value on the Kickstarter, even if I really don't want to do more than strip the ideas and leave the system in the garbage. But these days he seems to have more of a huckster image, and Invisible Sun seemed to be trying to sell the idea of a stadium with all luxury boxes instead of bleachers. Too much hype. I don't think he can even live up to his own image any more.
ReplyDeleteThere's some interesting things in there to be sure.
ReplyDeleteMonte Makes a good game but sometimes his fans/press machine are myopic. I've had them come up to me and elevator pitch me Numenra as "The only game where the GM doesn't roll dice" but Hollow Earth Expedition has been doing that for 10 years.
Or another pointed out the rules for Invisible sun include running side missions for people that couldn't show up to the game. Well many GMs have been doing that since the creation of RPGs
(back in the 70s) and although it creates an opportunity for a bad event, I'd rather not have people missing in the first place. It's not innovative though.
Someone mentioned to me the other day how there was even "innovation" in the Kickstarter by having days where you offered different stuff, but heck I've seen that done many time in a RPG Kickstarter.
It's sort of like having a game made, and then this horde of people telling you how innovative it is, only nothing they tell you is new or innovative so it sours your perspective before you even try it.
One would assume with the amount of bakers these projects get they are beautiful amazing books and with industry name like Monte Cook it's got to be good.
I should point out another sour moment is probably the most promoted article last year of Monte's...the article is about how the RPG group should split the cost of RPG materials. After seeing the cost of Invisible Sun I couldn't help but be skeptical that there was a personal motivation for Monte having that article exist.
ReplyDeleteAlso....my group would never adopt that strategy for buying in RPG because the ultimate questions would be "who gets to keep the game"?
A buddy and I did that in the 1980s with a bunch of stuff: Car Wars, Star Frontiers, D&D, FASA Star Trek, & a ton of minis... a veritable crap-load of great stuff. It was all stored at his house, because I had hyper-sensitive parents.
DeleteEarly 1990s? Fire in my buddy's storage unit. >>POOF<< All gone in an instant.
You can tell what's important to someone by watching what they put their effort into.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think that Monte is the Alan Moore of RPGs.
ReplyDeleteMake of that what you will.
Very interesting comparison...
DeleteInteresting some of the comments this is driving on social media.
ReplyDeleteI respect the ones that disagree and spell out their position, but the ones that start with name calling? I think they do protest too much.
I think the ones that are starting with name calling care more about virtue signaling to the right people that they aren't like us peons.
DeleteSomeone should come up with an O5R monster that's one part sheep, one part lemming, and one part gullible asshole.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who has to do press releases based on reports I've written, I must confess to have quoted myself many times.
ReplyDeleteAh, but have you ever done it under your own by-line?
DeleteIf a bunch of people I'd never met collectively handed me half a million dollars I might be inclined to believe (and write) my own hype as well.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the no bullshit single volume version 5 years down the line.
If only to find out WTF it's all about.
While I have become somewhat enamored of the Cypher game system, this new one did not really appeal to me. Having one's own press release which you then quote, seems to take self-promotion to a new level. I doubt Monte Cook Games is the first to do it. If he is successful more power to him and his backers.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNever begin an ad with a question that your audience can answer in the negative. It gives them a psychological out. "Is Monte Cook Games Reinventing RPGs - and Kickstarter?"
ReplyDeleteNo. No they are not. Thanks for asking. Yeesh.