Some Quick Thoughts on the Commercialization of the OSR
Several floks have already posted there thought on this, but I felt as a contributor to the OSR, I'd chip in a bit. Mythmere has posted some great thoughts on the history of the OSR along with some thoughts on the commercialization of the OSR. You can read the posts here, here, and here. Rob Conley and Stefan Poag have also offered up their thoughts. Pretty interesting stuff. I know that there are some folks that aruge pretty passionately for OSR contributors only putting out free stuff while others just as passionately argue for for profit projects. I suspect that most of thefolks that have worked on the for profit projects have also done quite a bit of free projects.
Free is good for the obvious monetary reasons. Mythmere also states that he believes that since no one in the not for profit section of the OSR is making any money at doing this, the folks involved are acting as a quality control filter. Thus ensuring only high quality work will be released. Seems like a plausible concept and I don't necessarily want to dispute that.
The for profit argument states that since the contributors are in it for the money, they are going to pay for high quality work so that the paying public will purchase their product over one with lesser production values or lesser quality in general.
I guess both sides have good pro and con arguments. However, in reality I'm not interested in arguments. I've done quite a bit of ree work as well as paid work. For me, it is quite simple. I tend to do paid work for projects that are intended to be sold for a profit. If there is an interesting project that all the participants are going to be working pro bono and the end result is not for profit, then chances are, if it strikes my fancy, then I'll contribute.
I've turned down paid offers for things that I didn't think I'd be well suited for. I've done the same fro pro bono work. In the end, it isn't necessarily the money that motivates me. Let's face it, even the for profit ventures are not likely to ever become rich. So, if it strikes me as something of interest, then I probably will want to be part of it. In the end, money or no money, I'm far more interested in contributing to intersting projects than I am about making a little extra cash, but almost the entirety of the money I have ever made on the OSR has either gone back into buying other OSR products or paying for my supplies. And seeing the hobby continue to grow and put out cool, fun things is really what I think it should be about - money or no.
Free is good for the obvious monetary reasons. Mythmere also states that he believes that since no one in the not for profit section of the OSR is making any money at doing this, the folks involved are acting as a quality control filter. Thus ensuring only high quality work will be released. Seems like a plausible concept and I don't necessarily want to dispute that.
The for profit argument states that since the contributors are in it for the money, they are going to pay for high quality work so that the paying public will purchase their product over one with lesser production values or lesser quality in general.
I guess both sides have good pro and con arguments. However, in reality I'm not interested in arguments. I've done quite a bit of ree work as well as paid work. For me, it is quite simple. I tend to do paid work for projects that are intended to be sold for a profit. If there is an interesting project that all the participants are going to be working pro bono and the end result is not for profit, then chances are, if it strikes my fancy, then I'll contribute.
I've turned down paid offers for things that I didn't think I'd be well suited for. I've done the same fro pro bono work. In the end, it isn't necessarily the money that motivates me. Let's face it, even the for profit ventures are not likely to ever become rich. So, if it strikes me as something of interest, then I probably will want to be part of it. In the end, money or no money, I'm far more interested in contributing to intersting projects than I am about making a little extra cash, but almost the entirety of the money I have ever made on the OSR has either gone back into buying other OSR products or paying for my supplies. And seeing the hobby continue to grow and put out cool, fun things is really what I think it should be about - money or no.
Heck yeah. There have been a few projects where I was paid, but by the time I got done with doing and redoing and changes I made less than I would have if I worked the same amount of time flipping burgers (in fact, that experience is not unusual). I don't blame anyone for that --- that seems to be the nature of the bizness.
ReplyDeleteI still do freebie projects if they seem right, I want to be involved and I don't feel like I am being exploited. Like you, I draw the line at contributing to things that someone else is making money on (unless, I suppose, there is some other payoff --- I guess I'd trade art for sexual favors (just kidding) or beef jerky.
I try not to be reactionary. I had a paid project a while back where the client kept asking for change after change. I tried to be a good sport about it, but at one point I hit a wall, lost my shit and told him to kiss off. A lot of unpleseantness later, I discovered that he was still changing and revising the project... thank god I got out of that one.
The only feeling I want to avoid as a collaborator/artist is that of feeling like I am taken for granted. Being able to pay my bills is nice too.
While I love the great generosity of the OSR that's going on, with so many people creating and giving away so many things, I think there's plenty of room for "for profit" ventures. I Like buying stuff! My favorite stuff to buy is Old School gaming products. I like that my mad money is going to great writers and artists, fellow gamers, many of whom have worked on and given me free stuff, as well (not that that's necessary - just really, really, cool!)
ReplyDeleteIf I can shoot a little cash your guys way, now and then, that's a good thing!
All in all, I started contributing artwork for this stuff because, well, because I really love this stuff. When I was a kid, if I could have found a way to work for free for TSR, I would have been in heaven I think. As an artist, just ocassionally hearing that folks like your work is a HUGE deal. Having said that, I don't see profit generating ventures as a bad thing. This stuff takes time and effort and lots of us have families and day jobs. Doing this gaming stuff can take us away from that so I think it is fair to ask for recompense. I don't necessarily use money as my motivator but if the end result is to put some cash in someone's pocket, then I think I deserve a little of that too if I contributed to the venture. If I don't really jive with the work that is something else. Not all artists are right for all projects. Sometimes, I just can't get into something and no amount of money is going to change that. If I can't get into something, my output will show it and I really don't want to be that guy. It's not to say that the project is bad, it's just something I don't find myself well suited for. Also, money is a handy motivational tool if the amount of work is so vast that it will eat up my time. I have a full time job and a family so my time with my family is valuable. Even though I may work for beer money, it at least justifies the art supply and gaming material expenditures to some extent ;).
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