A Dearth of Quality

I am noticing a bit of an idea nexus going on between several other bloggers and myself. We appear to be harmonizing on a common feeling about the state of the industry.

I want to highlight 3 in particular, but damn it is hard to choose from such a vibrant field this week.

First, (actually not from this week, but a truly epic diatribe) we got Zak's post about how the best module in existence still sucks. I would link this post, but I am at work and Zak's blog is blocked by my filter here. Damn porno freak! J/K Zak. You know I love you.

Second, we got Red Box DM talking about how he would reform D&D in a three-post epic: here, here, and here. Third, we got Ross Issacs coming back on the RPG scene, apparently after some time in exile, with some curmugeonly thoughts here and here.

This latest tidbit from Ross really got my motor running:
The problem is, your customer base has a hard time keeping up with all the releases, they may not want all that ancillary information, and (let's face it) eventually the creators run out of ideas and start putting out crap. You start putting out The Complete Guide to Red-headed, Gimpy Dwarves, and trying to figure out a way to justify it to the fanbase. And then the whole house of cards falls apart.

Damn fucking straight, Ross. I quite literally lol'ed with the Red-Headed Gimpy Dwarves line. That is truly epic comedy right there.

I think that a lot of the people in the industry may very well have jumped the shark, folks. They are just out of ideas. And rather than leave the field with their honor intact, they put out waves of crap and try to pawn it off on poor saps.

I am making games for free and releasing them as PDFs. The ideas in these games come almost exclusively from my skull alone. So I am going to make a statement here that I really want people to take seriously. I know it is hard to do so.

If you think the quality sucks, I want to know.

Something doesn't make sense, clumsy wording on my part, maybe a spell/class/race that seems overpowered to you, or underpowered, or whatever. I want to hear about it. I believe in the free competition of ideas without getting all emotional and personal.

Write me an e-mail, make a blog post, PM me on a forum if you see me posting, or make a comment on my blog. Don't be a stranger. I promise that I will take all serious criticism seriously. That doesn't mean that I will just do whatever you say, you need to make a case. You need to employ logic. And I may argue back and forth with you for a little bit sorting the whole thing out. But ultimately I am a man of science and I will bend to the power of reason over my own delusional fantasies of how things really are.

Minor Note: you may want to spare the rod on Synapse for the time being, I am actually working on a major rewrite of the core mechanic. So stay tuned on that for like a month or two. But then feel free to go to town on me for that game as well. I am pushing the envelope really hard in Synapse, I want to know where I am doing a crappy job.