Quote from: Haffrung;1095131Are they? I'd guess 90+ per cent of people who play RPGs never visit online forums or follow industry insider Twitter feeds. And of those who do, I'd be willing to bet most take "a pox on both their houses" stance towards the Culture Warz. It's a fraction of a fraction of the market who care about any of this shit.

It's specifically because of that groups of 100-200 are considered massive.

QuoteSunje stalked across the room and flung herself into a chair. "I think you're all rather vapid."
Milo told Glawen: "Perhaps I should mention that Sunje endorses the program of the New Humanists, who are in turn the cutting edge of the Peefers."
"LPFers, if you don't mind."
"These are terms and phrases from the nomenclature of Naturalist politics, Milo explained to Glawen. L, P and F stand for 'Life', 'Peace' and 'Freedom'. Julian is an ardent member of the group."
Glawen said: "With such a slogan, how dare anyone raise his voice in opposition?"
"It's generally agreed that the slogan is the best part of the program", said Milo.
Julian ignored Milo's remark: "Against all sanity, opponents to the great LPF movement not only exist but flourish like noxious weeds."
"These are evidently the 'DWSers': the advocates of 'Death', 'War' and 'Slavery'. Am I right?" said Glawen.
"They are clever and devious!" said Julian. "Never would they flaunt their true colors so brazenly. Instead they call themselves Chartists and think to hold the high ground by waving funny old documents at us."
Milo said: "These documents are known as the Articles of the Naturalist Society and are otherwise known as the Charter. Julian, why don't you read them someday?"
Julian made a debonair gesture. "Far easier to argue from ignorance."
"All this comes as a shock to me," said Glawen. "At the Station we consider the Charter to be the First Law of the Universe. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be a Yip, a madman or the Devil himself."

Jack Vance: Araminta Station

I'd like to run a mid-sized tabletop gaming company and take a hands-off approach to social media. I'd make the social media 'voice' of the company a generic profile (ABC Games Marketing) to carry out all the normal functions of marketing and customer services: announcements, promotions, rules queries, etc.

But other than that:

* No identifiable 'face' of the company on social media.

* No engagement whatsoever with social media controversies.

Received wisdom holds that this approach would handicap the profile of the company and its products. That generating goodwill and enthusiasm with active, personality-driven engagement with potential customers is vital to fostering a positive profile in the market. But I really have my doubts. What tangible negative consequences would we have really seen if, for instance, Pelgrane had simply ignored the Twitter mob calling for denunciation of Tweet instead of throwing him under the bus? Some culture warriors complain about Pelgrane in their echo chamber for a few days? So what. What reason is there to believe that results in fewer copies of their next game being sold five months from now?

Quote from: Haffrung;1095138I'd like to run a mid-sized tabletop gaming company and take a hands-off approach to social media. I'd make the social media 'voice' of the company a generic profile (ABC Games Marketing) to carry out all the normal functions of marketing and customer services: announcements, promotions, rules queries, etc.

But other than that:

* No identifiable 'face' of the company on social media.

* No engagement whatsoever with social media controversies.

Received wisdom holds that this approach would handicap the profile of the company and its products. That generating goodwill and enthusiasm with active, personality-driven engagement with potential customers is vital to fostering a positive profile in the market. But I really have my doubts. What tangible negative consequences would we have really seen if, for instance, Pelgrane had simply ignored the Twitter mob calling for denunciation of Tweet instead of throwing him under the bus? Some culture warriors complain about Pelgrane in their echo chamber for a few days? So what. What reason is there to believe that results in fewer copies of their next game being sold five months from now?

What would happen is some controversy would pop up, then everyone would come around to your company to pressure you to denounce it or weigh in. If you don't they'd accuse you of indirectly supporting it and then make that the story every time anything related to your company comes up.

Quote from: Melan;1095137Jack Vance: Araminta Station

I really have to bump Araminta Station higher up my To Read list.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1095139If you don't they'd accuse you of indirectly supporting it and then make that the story every time anything related to your company comes up.

New scandals flare up so quickly that the mob would have moved on within weeks, if not days. And why assume that a few people who are clearly zealots badmouthing a company on an obscure Twitter feed or gaming forum would actually impact sales? What tiny fraction of the tabletop gaming customer-base has ever held back from buying a product they would otherwise have bought due to denunciations by a Twitter mob? Is it even 1 per cent?

Quote from: A5paperboy;1095134It's specifically because of that groups of 100-200 are considered massive.

But massive, per capita, does not preclude it from also being incestuous. One of the pitfalls of statistical sampling is stumbling upon an ideological enclave and presuming it has popular cache beyond its cultists.

Quote from: Opaopajr;1095145But massive, per capita, does not preclude it from also being incestuous. One of the pitfalls of statistical sampling is stumbling upon an ideological enclave and presuming it has popular cache beyond its cultists.

They are incestuous in the sense they are resilient to outside influence, that doesn't make it not seem massive (especially if we're assuming the +90% and that most of those 100-200 don't actually play the game).

Quote from: A5paperboy;1095150They are incestuous in the sense they are resilient to outside influence, that doesn't make it not seem massive (especially if we're assuming the +90% and that most of those 100-200 don't actually play the game).

Yes, but it is an appearance due to statistical assumptions. And, well, sociology statistics is more of an art with how much of making an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me' it can accidentally be.

Quote from: Haffrung;1095140I really have to bump Araminta Station higher up my To Read list.

I really think you should. For myself, I normally  read very little genre fiction anymore, but Vance is one of the few I reread regularly.

Quote from: Zirunel;1095185I really think you should. For myself, I normally  read very little genre fiction anymore, but Vance is one of the few I reread regularly.

Me too.  And you can even get some really nice reprints of some of his hard to find stuff now.  The strange thing about Vance is that his stuff is almost never like anyone else's--sometimes not even his other stuff.

Quote from: Haffrung;1095122I'm not sure they'll disengage from Twitter, but the smarter companies will recognize the reality that Twitter does not reflect their customer-base.

In the last 20 odd years they have failed to realize this so odds are that they will just keep on believing that catering to the outrage brigade is somehow good for business.

Quote from: Melan;1095115So they just shut down the thread with a weaselly post when it turned out Tweet had not, in fact, been a raving racist. Classy.

With "sanctions" to follow.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1095220Me too.  And you can even get some really nice reprints of some of his hard to find stuff now.  The strange thing about Vance is that his stuff is almost never like anyone else's--sometimes not even his other stuff.

I know what you mean, his novellas from the 50s seem different from his series from the 80s, and yet not. The sharp prose and the wit are there all along. He seems to have found his voice very early. Dang I could go all fanboy about Vance, I'll try to restrain myself.

Quote from: Zirunel;1095228I know what you mean, his novellas from the 50s seem different from his series from the 80s, and yet not. The sharp prose and the wit are there all along. He seems to have found his voice very early. Dang I could go all fanboy about Vance, I'll try to restrain myself.

When the Lyonesse game gets closer to release, we'll have to start a topic on Vance. No restraint required.