Put the Games Online!
A couple of days ago, I did a search for Swedish freeform role-playing games to see what’s new and hot and interesting and worth a read to get some inspiration and hopefully learn something new from.
I found quite a few (maybe 10 games I hadn’t seen before), and some of them were actually available on the web do download for free. But most of them were simply mentioned somewhere, and googling for the titles turned up empty-handed.
That’s sad. Hey, Swedish freeform role-playing authors! Why don’t you want people to play your games? We have way more downloads of our games at jeepen.org than we have players at the cons where the games premier. Put them online!
If you don’t have hosting space for some reason, we’d love to host them on jeepen.org, and you can link to them transparently from wherever, or put a page with us!
Anyway, I did what any sensible person would do. I emailed the authors of the games in point. I send four emails in total. And I have gotten no replies. In a week. Not even an “I’ll reply later.” I know I can be swamped and bad at getting back to people, but four out of four? What’s up with that?
This is not the first time this has happened to me. I’ve had several requests turned down before, because of some supposed fixes (aka vapor ware) to the game post premier at GothCon or wherever. Or because the premier con hasn’t been held yet.
I dunno. Do they think sending me a copy of their game is going to give them less players? I simply cannot wrap my head around this.
I’d like to propose that you think about your games as products in and of themselves that exist regardless of any con. I’d like to suggest that a dialogue with gamewrights of any shape or size about your games can only lead to improvements. At least never to any damage done to your game.
Put the games online!