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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Legend's "Lost Adventures" (was: Eric the Unready: Great Game.)
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Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 03:39:43 GMT
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Josh Mandel (josho@crosslink.net) wrote:
> I'll be happy to clear things up. I've worked at Legend for the past two
> years and only left the company as of the 1st of the year (the day they
> surrendered CALLAHAN'S CROSSTIME SALOON, which is another story, boys
> and girls).

> Legend cut a deal several years back with Random House, to become part
> of their software division (RandomSoft). At first a cooperative silent
> partner, RandomSoft began to eat away at Legend's infrastructure and
> eventually managed to basically get Legend's marketing department fired.
> Randomsoft had the completed Lost Adventures probably about a year ago
> and was going to publish it. But they have pretty much lost interest in
> the game market.

> Meanwhile, Legend went through a rout because RandomSoft didn't want to
> invest anymore. We lost our Marketing department. We lost our PR
> department. We became a DEVELOPER as opposed to a PUBLISHER; thus, it's
> not within Legend's power anymore to publish the Lost Adventures by
> itself. Legend has to find a publisher for the game. I believe this is
> close to happening, if it hasn't happened already. 

Sigh. I am familiar with this particular sensation of being slowly nailed 
to the wall. (Did you hear any horror stories from Magnet refugees while 
you were at Legend? Or maybe Magnet was the place you made fun of when 
things got really bad... I dunno. :)

I am not terribly familiar with recent Legend games, since I've never 
owned an IBM. I did, however, buy the three Spellcasting games just so 
that I could play them on school computers at college. (The power of 
Meretzky's name was such that it got me to *touch* an IBM. A moment of 
silence, please.) They had merit.

And I've just gotten finished saying that Anthony's Xanth books read like 
IF transcripts, in a lot of places. And the Callahan's books live in the 
"important" section of my bookshelf. 

The point of all this is, basically, that in spite of the many times I've
blasphemed at Legend's guts for not doing Mac versions... I want Callahans
and Lost Adventures anyway. When I see them, I'll buy them.

> Bob Bates and Mike Verdu are wonderful people who would rather lose
> their OWN jobs than let the employees under their care lose THEIR jobs.
> But this is a double-edged sword. Legend has been taken advantage of by
> RandomSoft, but Legend sticks to its agreements, and they had legally
> surrendered publishing rights to RandomSoft...which has been doing
> nothing (probably out of sheer disinterest) to publish the collection.

My conclusions from the last two years are: If you have a product you care
about, don't give it to The Industry. Work on it in your basement;  keep
your day job; don't sell stock; and don't sign anything. Assume that the
"mass market" will never hear of it. And, ideally, develop for some
totally unknown niche-market platform, because a high-quality fish can get
noticed in a small pond. In a big pond, the money currents are stronger 
than you are, and they will determine what happens, not your intent.

This is a depressing view, but hey, I write text adventures, so at least 
I take my own advice.

Anybody want to develop games for the BeBox? I've got this idea for a
kick-ass strategy game... 

--Z


-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
