I told you I was going to be sporadic for a bit. In a future post, I'll explain what's been going on in my day-to-day life.
I have backed fewer and fewer projects on Kickstarter. There are a ton of reasons for that, but the end result is that a project needs a really good hook to grab my attention.
Early last year, I saw a project on Kickstarter called Dusk City Outlaws. The pitch was good, and the team involved was phenomenal. John Rogers, Scott Lynch, Saladin Ahmed, and Steve Kenson are all people I am familiar with and like. I wasn't familiar with Susan Morris at the time. The involvement of the Penny Arcade guys gave me pause.
So I dug in, and found that it was definitely interesting. So I dropped $65 in as a Day One Backer.
And then ... I forgot about it. It funded. It delivered its PDFs. A week or two ago, I had shipping confirmation. I told my wife to keep her eyes open for delivery of an RPG boxed set. I figured it'd be a digest-sized book in a slightly larger box with a couple of dice and some cards.
What I got looked more like a board game than an RPG, and the contents failed to dispel that impression - the Player's Guide was less than 30 pages and looked like an FFG rulebook. The Judge's book was similar. It included all the dice you'll need, a pad of character sheets, some Cartel and Specialty sheets, tokens, and a digest-sized setting book
The form factor was unique enough that I decided not to just add it to my Pile of Shame. I decided to have a quick read, and I'm really glad I did. This game is unique, and I expect it'll be a ton of fun, once it hits the table.
Mechanically, it's simple.
At Character Generation, Players choose a faction (Cartel) and then a role within that faction (Specialty). Each combo gives a character a set of skills and knowledges. Just copy that information onto a character sheet (there is a pad of them included). Some Cartels and Specialties are Rare. You may only have one Rare character per party.
Skills are percentile, and characters have a limited pool of Luck. Luck functions like Hit Points, but it does more than that - for example, you can spend Luck on failed rolls to turn them into successes.
The GM lays out the Job and its time limit. Players then have that time to do Legwork scenes to set up their success or Drama scenes, in which maybe something goes wrong. Every Day and Night, each player gets to take lead in one scene.
Some things that most games relegate to "background work," this puts front-and-center. One example in the book is that your characters are likely scruffy lower-class folks, so going into the richer parts of town is going to draw attention. Most games would let you just make a Disguise roll and call it good - in Dusk City Outlaws, you'd need to spend a Legwork scene to get your disguise together. And that eats up time.
As the session goes on, characters generate Heat, which gives the GM a few more toys to play with.
There are (8-sided) Advantage Dice and (10-sided) Challenge Dice that can adjust the outcome of your rolls. Each die only has one symbol (but it appears on multiple faces). Advantages and Challenges cancel one another out. These don't change the numbers on the percentile - or its outcome - but they do other things. So you can succeed but roll a Drawback which delays you enough that the Watch realizes something is up. Or you can fail your roll, but get a Boon (you aren't able to pick the lock, but your being shadowed by the doorway means that the Watch patrol that is strolling by doesn't notice you).
So what got me to write about this one?
It was the packaging. I have a fear that RPG folk will see a board game when they look at the box (despite the words "Role-Playing Game" on the lid), and might overlook it.
I think that this has potential to be a good gateway game. I think that people who have never role-played before will be able to jump into this one with almost no problem(s). It'd be better to have an experienced GM behind the screen, but it's not necessary for this one.
All in all, I think that this game looks fantastic, and I hope to run (or play in) a one-shot sometime in the very near future.
Wherein Eric discusses Games, the Game Industry, Gamer Culture and anything else which catches his eye.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Hugo Nominators: Get Those Nominations In Soon!
Not game-related, but I know a bunch of you that I know in the real world are eligible to nominate (and/or vote) for the Hugo Awards. Since my online life tends to mirror my meatspace life pretty closely, it's likely that people who read this are also Hugo nominators.
The deadline to submit your nominations is in two days. This upcoming Friday.
And no, I don't know what time. So get your nominations in soon.
Wednesday, March 07, 2018
Slash Game Store
Until the last few years, I've not been a fan of what I call "Slash Game Stores." That is, "It's a hobby-slash-game store." Which is really odd, because "pure" game stores are so much rarer than slash game stores are. But more and more, I'm learning that there are definite advantages to some of the slashes, and here are a few of the more common ones:
- Hobby/Game Store - These stores are really really good for miniatures gamers. They have a variety of paints, and most of them have model railroad supplies that can be used for minis terrain. As a bonus, model railroad terrain is frequently less expensive than minis terrain that was designed and built specifically to be minis terrain, too.
- Comic/Game Store - These shops are fantastic at special orders. There are new comics coming out every week, and so the Comic/Game store is likely to be placing weekly orders with their distributor. A good comic shop is also able to create "pull" lists for their customers, so they are already well familiar with the ability to do special orders quickly and in an organized manner.
- Book/Game Store - These shops are generally similar to Comic/Game stores in a lot of ways. Interestingly, even the big book stores (Barnes & Noble, I'm looking at you, here) are starting to carry more tabletop games - and not just mass-market ones, either.
- Computer Parts/Game Store - I only bring this one up because of the late, lamented Nybbles & Bytes in Tacoma. Because that's what this place was. The game section was mostly a typical gamer Clutter Hole, but they were very enthusiastic and passionate about that section of the store.
And then Phoenix closed, and I was forced to change game stores. I'm near Tacoma, so there are a few to choose from. I spent my time checking them out. I visited all of them - and there was a wide variety. Several stores just ignored me until I approached the counter with product in hand. A couple of stores were clutter holes (and I've grown intolerant of those stores over the years). Some stores didn't do special orders. One or two stores had crew who stared at Steph because apparently they'd never seen a woman who games. A bunch of them didn't host a regular board game night or do in-store demos of board games (one store even had a sign on its tables that they were for scheduled events only).
These, by the way, may be local game stores, but they're not stores I'd be willing to support. If that's all I had, I'd throw my game money at Amazon and not feel the slightest bit guilty.
But we ended up settling in at a local comic/game store. It's the closest store to the house. The staff recognized me (by name) within a few visits. Steph feels comfortable there. It's clean and well-lit with a few demos. Their special orders are quick and painless. They host regular gaming events.
In short: I think I've gotten over myself. I think there is definitely a place for /game stores in the market (and they are sometimes going to be the best choice, even in a crowded market).
Wednesday, February 07, 2018
Hitting The ... Tablet. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game
Most of my boardgaming lately has been solo - on my Kindle Fire tablet. It helps that there are a number of really good digital versions of some fantastic board games.
A couple of years back, Steph backed The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (DFCO) on Kickstarter. It delivered in a reasonable amount of time - late, but not obscenely so. And the game itself ... sat. The physical version has only hit our table in solo play as I read the rules and figured it out.
It's good. It really is. And if the digital version weren't such a ridiculously faithful recreation of the physical game, I'd be doing two posts on the game - one for the physical, and one for the digital.
Because the app version was released earlier this month. It's in the Google Play Store, it's in the Apple App Store, and - relevant for me, it's in the Amazon App Store as well.
Gameplay is simple.
Here's the thing with cooperative games: They're pretty much all either crazy-random or they're puzzles that can be solved. If they can be solved, their replay value is usually low. DFCO has a random element, but that randomness is entirely at game setup.
You'll be playing a book. One of the Dresden Files books. Each book is 12 cards. A mix of cases, foes, obstacles, and advantages. Different books have different mixes - Storm Front is 4 cases, 4 foes, 2 obstacles, and 2 advantages. Some of these have interdependencies - "When you solve this case, inflict 2 hits on this foe." "You cannot take this Advantage until that case is solved."
These cards are shuffled and laid out in two rows of six. This order matters, and is the first random element in this game.
Then each player gets a character. Someone must be Harry Dresden. Each character has two cards listing their specials and another deck of cards. This other deck is shuffled and each player draws a hand of cards. The size of this hand depends on the number of players. This is the second random element in the game.
Harry chooses which character gets the first turn, and play begins. At this point, it becomes a puzzle more than a game. Players have cards that deal with the game's cards. Attacks put damage onto Foes, Investigation cards put clues into Cases. There are other cards that deal with Obstacles or take the Advantages. Player cards all have costs associated with them, and have a set range.
To win, you need to solve more cases than there are foes remaining on the board. Which means that Attacks tend to be more important than Investigations, but you need to solve _at least_ one case.
Players can't openly discuss the contents of their hand. You can say, "I can inflict some hurt on that foe," but you can't say, "I have Pyrofuego!"
There's another random element, too. Player cards list a cost, and a range, and a number of hits (or clues). Mostly, they're just a number. Sometimes, they're a number with another number in a box next to it. So, for example, a card might list its range as 3[2]. What that means is "3 plus 2 Fudge dice." Fudge dice, of course, have two blank faces, two faces with plus signs, and two faces with minus signs. So 3[2] is usually going to be 3, but it could be anywhere between 1 and 5.
The game is ... good. It's a different puzzle every time you play it, which is not to everyone's liking. I like occasional puzzles, but this isn't a game I can play with other people very often. Which makes the tablet version all the better for me.
A couple of years back, Steph backed The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game (DFCO) on Kickstarter. It delivered in a reasonable amount of time - late, but not obscenely so. And the game itself ... sat. The physical version has only hit our table in solo play as I read the rules and figured it out.
It's good. It really is. And if the digital version weren't such a ridiculously faithful recreation of the physical game, I'd be doing two posts on the game - one for the physical, and one for the digital.
Because the app version was released earlier this month. It's in the Google Play Store, it's in the Apple App Store, and - relevant for me, it's in the Amazon App Store as well.
Gameplay is simple.
Here's the thing with cooperative games: They're pretty much all either crazy-random or they're puzzles that can be solved. If they can be solved, their replay value is usually low. DFCO has a random element, but that randomness is entirely at game setup.
You'll be playing a book. One of the Dresden Files books. Each book is 12 cards. A mix of cases, foes, obstacles, and advantages. Different books have different mixes - Storm Front is 4 cases, 4 foes, 2 obstacles, and 2 advantages. Some of these have interdependencies - "When you solve this case, inflict 2 hits on this foe." "You cannot take this Advantage until that case is solved."
These cards are shuffled and laid out in two rows of six. This order matters, and is the first random element in this game.
Then each player gets a character. Someone must be Harry Dresden. Each character has two cards listing their specials and another deck of cards. This other deck is shuffled and each player draws a hand of cards. The size of this hand depends on the number of players. This is the second random element in the game.
Harry chooses which character gets the first turn, and play begins. At this point, it becomes a puzzle more than a game. Players have cards that deal with the game's cards. Attacks put damage onto Foes, Investigation cards put clues into Cases. There are other cards that deal with Obstacles or take the Advantages. Player cards all have costs associated with them, and have a set range.
To win, you need to solve more cases than there are foes remaining on the board. Which means that Attacks tend to be more important than Investigations, but you need to solve _at least_ one case.
Players can't openly discuss the contents of their hand. You can say, "I can inflict some hurt on that foe," but you can't say, "I have Pyrofuego!"
There's another random element, too. Player cards list a cost, and a range, and a number of hits (or clues). Mostly, they're just a number. Sometimes, they're a number with another number in a box next to it. So, for example, a card might list its range as 3[2]. What that means is "3 plus 2 Fudge dice." Fudge dice, of course, have two blank faces, two faces with plus signs, and two faces with minus signs. So 3[2] is usually going to be 3, but it could be anywhere between 1 and 5.
The game is ... good. It's a different puzzle every time you play it, which is not to everyone's liking. I like occasional puzzles, but this isn't a game I can play with other people very often. Which makes the tablet version all the better for me.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Kickstarter Update
It's been a while since I updated folks on the status of the delayed gaming Kickstarters I'm a backer of
A few months ago, I wrote about how most of you don't need to worry about mis-packed/defective game copies, because I'm the one who seems to get most of them.
It happened again.
You all should know by now that I'm a huge fan of Rory's Story Cubes. Last year, they Kickstarted an RPG. It's called Untold: Adventures Await. And it's good. It's more co-operative storytelling than role-playing, though. As written, it's GM-less.
My copy, however, was mis-packed.
See, the game includes five decks of tiles that are used to guide the storytelling. Each deck has six tiles, and there should be no duplicate tiles. I had a duplicate set of tiles.
I contacted them, and they (promptly) sent out replacement tiles (after figuring out which one(s) I needed). No hassles, no hoop-jumping, just ... sent.
It's worth mentioning that the Story Cubes IP was sold to Asmodee in between the Kickstarter and its fulfillment, but the customer service I dealt with was the Creativity Hub customer service, not Asmodee Customer Service. And - again - their customer service was fantastic.
The game itself hasn't hit the table, yet. In fact, over the holidays, I played fewer games than usual because of weather and illness.
Either way: Check that off the arrived list.
Also on the long-delayed but showing progress:
Alas, Vegas arrived. Alas, Vegas was funded in February of 2013, and it arrived the day after Christmas. I'd never had any fear that it wouldn't arrive - James Wallis has always been late (but he also always comes through). All the way back to when he ran Hogshead and was the publisher behind Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. The best example of this is Realms of Sorcery. If I remember correctly, it was the last product that Hogshead published for WHFRP. It came out in 2001 or so. after its having been promised for something like five or six years.
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, Alas, Vegas arrived.
Remember Powerchords? Funded in late 2010, and then there was a looooong radio silence. We got the PDF in September, and it looks like I may have this one by the end of the month. Powerchords my longest-outstanding project, by the way.
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, Powerchords arrived.
Far West, meanwhile, continues to not appear. And there's been no update since May. We're well past the Statue of Limitations for fraud (I don't think Skarka deliberately defrauded his backers, but that's definitely the apparent end result). I'm glad I got most of my money back for this one, and I feel bad for backers who acted too late or who had to deal with attorneys general that either don't understand Kickstarter or just plain don't care.
Fae Nightmares has seen some recent activity. I received the PDF for this in September of 2014, for reference. 13th Age in Glorantha is slowly chugging away. Tales from the Floating Vagabond is still not updating often enough - but I have faith that it's coming.
Ironclaw: the Book of Horn and Ivory has shipped but (as of this writing) not arrived, yet. Ironclaw is one of those guilty pleasure games. If I'm being completely honest with myself, it's not a good game, but I still like it. Mechanically, it actually reminds me quite a bit of Cortex Plus, where you'll roll mixed pools of dice when attempting tasks. Somewhere, I've got a post about furry games that needs some polish - I could probably summarize it here to save myself from having to edit it up and post it: "Nearly every furry game I've seen did something mechanically that I thought was fantastic."
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, The Book of Horn and Ivory arrived. I'm not 100% complete on this project, yet (I'm still waiting for a different book, but it's shipped and I have tracking).
A few months ago, I wrote about how most of you don't need to worry about mis-packed/defective game copies, because I'm the one who seems to get most of them.
It happened again.
You all should know by now that I'm a huge fan of Rory's Story Cubes. Last year, they Kickstarted an RPG. It's called Untold: Adventures Await. And it's good. It's more co-operative storytelling than role-playing, though. As written, it's GM-less.
My copy, however, was mis-packed.
See, the game includes five decks of tiles that are used to guide the storytelling. Each deck has six tiles, and there should be no duplicate tiles. I had a duplicate set of tiles.
I contacted them, and they (promptly) sent out replacement tiles (after figuring out which one(s) I needed). No hassles, no hoop-jumping, just ... sent.
It's worth mentioning that the Story Cubes IP was sold to Asmodee in between the Kickstarter and its fulfillment, but the customer service I dealt with was the Creativity Hub customer service, not Asmodee Customer Service. And - again - their customer service was fantastic.
The game itself hasn't hit the table, yet. In fact, over the holidays, I played fewer games than usual because of weather and illness.
Either way: Check that off the arrived list.
Also on the long-delayed but showing progress:
Alas, Vegas arrived. Alas, Vegas was funded in February of 2013, and it arrived the day after Christmas. I'd never had any fear that it wouldn't arrive - James Wallis has always been late (but he also always comes through). All the way back to when he ran Hogshead and was the publisher behind Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. The best example of this is Realms of Sorcery. If I remember correctly, it was the last product that Hogshead published for WHFRP. It came out in 2001 or so. after its having been promised for something like five or six years.
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, Alas, Vegas arrived.
Remember Powerchords? Funded in late 2010, and then there was a looooong radio silence. We got the PDF in September, and it looks like I may have this one by the end of the month. Powerchords my longest-outstanding project, by the way.
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, Powerchords arrived.
Far West, meanwhile, continues to not appear. And there's been no update since May. We're well past the Statue of Limitations for fraud (I don't think Skarka deliberately defrauded his backers, but that's definitely the apparent end result). I'm glad I got most of my money back for this one, and I feel bad for backers who acted too late or who had to deal with attorneys general that either don't understand Kickstarter or just plain don't care.
Fae Nightmares has seen some recent activity. I received the PDF for this in September of 2014, for reference. 13th Age in Glorantha is slowly chugging away. Tales from the Floating Vagabond is still not updating often enough - but I have faith that it's coming.
Ironclaw: the Book of Horn and Ivory has shipped but (as of this writing) not arrived, yet. Ironclaw is one of those guilty pleasure games. If I'm being completely honest with myself, it's not a good game, but I still like it. Mechanically, it actually reminds me quite a bit of Cortex Plus, where you'll roll mixed pools of dice when attempting tasks. Somewhere, I've got a post about furry games that needs some polish - I could probably summarize it here to save myself from having to edit it up and post it: "Nearly every furry game I've seen did something mechanically that I thought was fantastic."
UPDATE: Between the time this post was written and the time it went live, The Book of Horn and Ivory arrived. I'm not 100% complete on this project, yet (I'm still waiting for a different book, but it's shipped and I have tracking).
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Hitting The Table: Mistborn: House War
A while ago, I backed Mistborn: House War on Kickstarter. I'm both a fan of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn universe and I generally like what Crafty Games produces, so it was a no-brainer for me.
The active player can choose to pass, which gains them one resource of choice from the (limited) pool. Or they can choose to tackle a problem.
I'm really glad I backed. This game is awesome.
Players take the role of Great Houses, trying to hold the Final Empire together. It's semi-cooperative, but there is only one winner.
Each turn, the active player starts their turn by collecting income. Each Great House has a different income. This income is made up of a couple of types of resources, taken from a (limited) pool (or from other players if that pool is empty) and one or more Personality Cards.
The next step is escalating existing Problems. The active player chooses the order in which they worsen, which can cause things to get dramatically worse. If a problem pushes past a certain point on the board, it "erupts." Most Problems have an eruption effect - some of them will destroy resources (removing them from play forever), some of them will give negative victory points to players, some of them will ruin resource production, and so on. A few of them do have beneficial eruption effects, but not many.
Once existing problems have escalated, a new Problem is added to the board.
And then we hit the meat of the turn: Solving a problem.
The active player can choose to pass, which gains them one resource of choice from the (limited) pool. Or they can choose to tackle a problem.
Each problem has a cost to defeat printed across the bottom of its card. The cost (of course) varies. Most problems require more resources to defeat than players are likely to have in their stash. Because of this, players who want to defeat problems need to negotiate with other player. Personality cards can increase or decrease the cost to defeating the problems.
If you can gather the resources to defeat a problem, then you will score victory points. Most of the negotiations with other players are for a share of these victory points, but you can also give or trade resources.
An important rule: You can't start negotiations until the active player decides which problem they're going to tackle. This means that if you want to negotiate deals over which problem to tackle, then you need to do it one or more turns in advance - which is important because deals made for future turns are non-binding (unless certain characters enter play).
Remember those Personality Cards? Some of them give you bonus victory points. Some of them make problems easier to solve. Some of them make problems harder to solve. There are characters who increase your income, and there are characters who can make those "next turn" deals binding.
Most of the time, your best option is clear. There will be three or four problems in play, and you can only solve one of them (even with help), or else there are problems whose eruptions won't hurt you but which will hurt your opponents. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you'll know that this is (for me) a serious strike against the game. I like games where there are difficult decisions that need to be made. Unfortunately, that means that every play of this game feels like every other play of this game.
Because so much of the game is negotiation, this game is very dependent on the group you're playing it with. For some groups, that's good. For some groups, that's bad. It's fine for my group, but it means that I, personally, am pretty screwed because my friends have played too many games with me to be able to trust me.
There's also a strong luck factor. The Problems that come up are randomly drawn from a deck, as are players' hands and their Houses. Several times, now, we've had Problems pop up that no-one produced the resources to solve. Yes, you can do a two-for-one trade, but that gets expensive quickly.
Many of the reviews I'm seeing complain that players are the "bad guys" from the books. They want to be the resistance. Allies of Vin and Kelsier. They also want a very different game. This game is what it is - it's a semi-cooperative resource management game with some light backstabbing. Players are trying to preserve the Final Empire.
The art is great. The components are great (I don't have the super-deluxe version with foil cards and pennygem resources, either). There's an expansion coming, probably next year. Maybe that'll fix some or all of the complaints I have.
Until then, this will still hit the table occasionally - it's a solid and playable game, even if it's not especially inspiring. There are people out there who will really like this one.
An important rule: You can't start negotiations until the active player decides which problem they're going to tackle. This means that if you want to negotiate deals over which problem to tackle, then you need to do it one or more turns in advance - which is important because deals made for future turns are non-binding (unless certain characters enter play).
Remember those Personality Cards? Some of them give you bonus victory points. Some of them make problems easier to solve. Some of them make problems harder to solve. There are characters who increase your income, and there are characters who can make those "next turn" deals binding.
Most of the time, your best option is clear. There will be three or four problems in play, and you can only solve one of them (even with help), or else there are problems whose eruptions won't hurt you but which will hurt your opponents. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you'll know that this is (for me) a serious strike against the game. I like games where there are difficult decisions that need to be made. Unfortunately, that means that every play of this game feels like every other play of this game.
Because so much of the game is negotiation, this game is very dependent on the group you're playing it with. For some groups, that's good. For some groups, that's bad. It's fine for my group, but it means that I, personally, am pretty screwed because my friends have played too many games with me to be able to trust me.
There's also a strong luck factor. The Problems that come up are randomly drawn from a deck, as are players' hands and their Houses. Several times, now, we've had Problems pop up that no-one produced the resources to solve. Yes, you can do a two-for-one trade, but that gets expensive quickly.
Many of the reviews I'm seeing complain that players are the "bad guys" from the books. They want to be the resistance. Allies of Vin and Kelsier. They also want a very different game. This game is what it is - it's a semi-cooperative resource management game with some light backstabbing. Players are trying to preserve the Final Empire.
The art is great. The components are great (I don't have the super-deluxe version with foil cards and pennygem resources, either). There's an expansion coming, probably next year. Maybe that'll fix some or all of the complaints I have.
Until then, this will still hit the table occasionally - it's a solid and playable game, even if it's not especially inspiring. There are people out there who will really like this one.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
More on Kindle Pricing
So yesterday, I posted about Games Workshop's Kindle pricing.
It was pointed out that I never actually stated what I feel is reasonable pricing for Kindle books:
I'm of the opinion that Kindle Book pricing should be comparable to physical book pricing. If a book is only available in hardcover, then the Kindle book should be similarly priced. If a book is available in mass-market paperback, then the Kindle should - again - be similarly priced.
If I think a book is worth $15, then I'll spend $15 on it.
And yes, I know that physical books are often sold below MSRP online. I think that Kindle books should be similarly priced to the actual price not the MSRP.
But that only works for in-print books.
I think that, once the physical book is out of print, the Kindle price should drop. $5 is not an unreasonable price for an out-of-print book. As I said yesterday: It's not like that book is taking up actual space anymore. By the time it goes out-of-print, it's either made its money back (and is profitable for the publisher) or it isn't ever going to (at which point the electronic book isn't going to make much money either way). Every electronic book sold after the physical book is out-of-print is (or should be) either pure profit for the publisher or will partially offset losses taken from the physical version..
It was pointed out that I never actually stated what I feel is reasonable pricing for Kindle books:
I'm of the opinion that Kindle Book pricing should be comparable to physical book pricing. If a book is only available in hardcover, then the Kindle book should be similarly priced. If a book is available in mass-market paperback, then the Kindle should - again - be similarly priced.
If I think a book is worth $15, then I'll spend $15 on it.
And yes, I know that physical books are often sold below MSRP online. I think that Kindle books should be similarly priced to the actual price not the MSRP.
But that only works for in-print books.
I think that, once the physical book is out of print, the Kindle price should drop. $5 is not an unreasonable price for an out-of-print book. As I said yesterday: It's not like that book is taking up actual space anymore. By the time it goes out-of-print, it's either made its money back (and is profitable for the publisher) or it isn't ever going to (at which point the electronic book isn't going to make much money either way). Every electronic book sold after the physical book is out-of-print is (or should be) either pure profit for the publisher or will partially offset losses taken from the physical version..
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