Navigation
Who's online
Sponsored Links
|
PlayFirst! Try out neo|classics such as Diner Dash and Chessmaster Challenge at PlayFirst now! |
Featured on
|
Slashdot, Slate, The Discovery Channel, The Escapist, GameSetWatch, Good Deal Games, AtariAge, ClassicGaming.com, Las Vegas Review Journal, GAMERadio, The Mercury News, Maxim and many more popular media outlets!
|
Syndication
Vintage Games book: Double the page count!
Well, this is probably not the greatest of news, but here it is anyway... According to the publisher, we're at DOUBLE the estimated page count of 352 pages, so obviously that's not going to fly and will require some cuts. Hopefully between a combination of layout restructuring by the publisher and us dropping a number of images, we can get closer to the original and required estimate. For those who don't recall, here are the estimated stats on the deliverable to the publisher, which apparently translated to the 700+ pages when formatted, which are obviously impractical for a mainstream book, particularly a full color one. On the plus side, right now it looks like the images that were cut and their companion captions will make it to a special password-protected Website from the publisher so readers will not miss out on the full experience. As a final, more positive update, we got some amazing testimonials in from people whose opinions really carry some weight, including from a legendary game designer, so the buzz is starting out very good already!
Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, is now available for pre-order from Amazon (only $23.07 at the moment!) and many other locations you'd expect:
Keep in mind that the expected release date is roughly February or March 2009 (the publisher wants it for GDC 2009). Thanks for all your support and we'll continue to keep everyone updated.
- Bill Loguidice's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Book and eBook
The "online bonus content" might be its own copy protection! Even if "unauthorized" persons gain access to the content, they're still missing the bulk of the book's content. It might even work out to a sort of "reverse" shareware concept; if you want more reading, you have to buy the book!
I'm not sure you have to worry too much as long as the bulk of the book remains offline. Readers interested enough to read the online content (if they get access to it first) might feel compelled to buy the book. Which brings me to...
That was actually a joke on my part that obviously didn't come across very clearly, playing off of the prior joke post. I really don't want to "copy protect" the book. The online content will be on the publisher's secure, password protected site, and every owner of the book will have access. If those nine chapters get distributed, so be it, it's good publicity for the book. I think people will really want to own the book, assuming, fingers crossed, the publisher nails the design.
We may even have excerpts run at places like Gamasutra. We'll see, but I'm all for that kind of stuff. I'll be excited for the initial reaction to the final chapter list too. Hopefully it will make sense to release that soon. I'm sure we'll get some positive and negative feedback already from that, which to me is a good thing. I want there to be all types of buzz, then the actual work to be the justification for an inclusion.
Alas, once "Ebooks" become the de-facto standard, your going to see piracy of literature on an unheard-of scale. For every "Vintage Games" sold, there will probably be 50 unauthorized readers!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
Any time content goes from physical to digital, there's a concern, but if you think about it, while there's rampant piracy of movies, music, videogames, etc., these are still thriving industries. I think when print does go all digital at some point (or even predominantly digital), there will still be plenty of ways to cash in even in the face of piracy. There's no reason print should be any different from the other forms of media in that regard. We're already seeing newspapers folding left and right, so the transition has already begun, though it will certainly take another decade or two for it to happen en masse to all traditional print...
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Online Content and Ebooks
The "online bonus content" might be its own copy protection! Even if "unauthorized" persons gain access to the content, they're still missing the bulk of the book's content. It might even work out to a sort of "reverse" shareware concept; if you want more reading, you have to buy the book!
I'm not sure you have to worry too much as long as the bulk of the book remains offline. Readers interested enough to read the online content (if they get access to it first) might feel compelled to buy the book. Which brings me to...
In theory, these ebook readers are awesome, and will almost certainly change the face of "reading" in the near future! "E-Ink" technology is fascinating and looks surprisingly good.
When E-Ink technology reaches the masses (via lower prices), I think a real revolution may be at hand. Imagine - one device to rule them all! No more lugging around books, just one tablet-shaped device. Schools would be revolutionized, casual reading of newspapers, magazines, and books would be revolutionized, even online blogs and such (like AA) might be revolutionized! And think of all the trees that can be saved from being turned to pulp. Ebooks are both economically sound and environmentally friendly!
Alas, once "Ebooks" become the de-facto standard, your going to see piracy of literature on an unheard-of scale. For every "Vintage Games" sold, there will probably be 50 unauthorized readers!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
eReaders
Yeah, it's good for serial readers like me too, who often lose interest in a book quickly and want to read something else. I can then go back to the other book or two if I'm so moved without too much issue. When they get slightly higher resolution and color on these things and maintain the same battery life, then they'll be game changers. Right now, they're great, but still not perfect.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Those ebook readers must be
Those ebook readers must be great when you travel around - or on a daily commute to work when you're not driving yourself.
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
ebook Readers
Nothing beats a real book, but it's nice to carry around hundreds of books in a paperback-sized device that you can take anywhere.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Those ebook readers have yet
Those ebook readers have yet to come over to the European mainland.....
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
Other thoughts
Bill--this might be worth bringing up to the publisher.
We can bring it up later in the process. I think it should only be applicable to just the online chapters, if any, simply because it would be too easy to spread the book around then. We have to give people some incentive to want the book. At the same time, if the book sold enough, there's no reason that that same online area for readers of the book couldn't make the whole book available as a PDF down the line once it crossed a certain threshold.
As for the Kindle or Sony Reader, I would LOVE our book to be made available in those formats directly for sale, but, as an owner of the Sony version, I can say with some confidence that these are not great for reading image-heavy books. These things are fantastic for text and nominal images.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
That's a great idea about
That's a great idea about the PDFs, Mark. I'd personally like to see the whole book available as a PDF that you could download with a special code after buying the book. That way, if you wanted, you could read the whole thing on a Kindle or what not. Even if they just make the bonus chapters PDFs, though, that'd be easy enough to deal with, and you could print them if you so desired. Heck, there might even be an online service somewhere that would take the PDFs and bind them into a nice book for you! Imagine that!
Bill--this might be worth bringing up to the publisher.
Let's see
Well, I don't know what the publisher's policy is, but since Focal is part of Elsevier, one of the biggest publishers in the world, I don't think it's an issue with it really going anywhere. With that said, if anyone is concerned, it should be simple enough to print and/or convert once you get access.
No doubt excerpts will be run from the book as well, at places like Gamasutra. We'll see how this all goes.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
I would love the 'extra'
I would love the 'extra' content to be on a magazine or downloadable pdf instead of one some publisher's website that will probably not outlive the book and it's content.
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl