Author: Gareth

Looking for the Coming Thing…

It’s pretty obvious to any fan of “genre” television that the Nielsen Ratings System is an archaic, tyrannical hold-over from the 1950s that has no relevance to the way today’s entertainment media work, but still inexplicably holds a disproportionate influence over programming.

Programming decisions are made based on the viewing habits of a ridiculously skewed minority–for example: through a deal struck with the networks, 40% of Nielsen Families are broadcast-only homes, despite the fact that all but 22% of households in this country have cable or satellite service. Yet, these are the people who provide the numbers that are used by all channels to determine the worth of their programming.

As long as this remains the method of record (and there is no reason for TV execs to change, being creatures of comfort and habit, after all), no SF, Fantasy or other “geek-interest” show will have a reasonable chance of success.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this, seeing fandom screwed time and again. It occurs to me that what is needed is the importation of yet another facet of Japanese pop culture–the OVA (original video animation).

The US has a direct-to-video market, but it is almost entirely given over to Z-grade films…not serialized content. In Japan, direct-to-market OVAs are a significant part of a nearly one billion dollar industry. This is significant, when you compare it to the fact that, as reported in this article at ICV2.com, the 2002 sales (not including rentals) of DVDs and VHS tapes reached a total of $12.4 billion, some 25% more than the year’s box office total.  More than 50 million American homes have DVD players and that number is still expected to grow considerably during 2003.  By 2004, next year DVD sales alone will bury box office revenues.

Think about it. Shows, animated or live-action, produced direct-to-DVD, and released in serialized form– say a DVD with 4 1-hour episodes shipping monthly. No Nielsen ratings. Money from sales going directly back to the providers of the content. Sales=continued production. Fans can vote with their wallets, and not have to worry about something like Farscape being doomed because it doesn’t appeal to Ma and Pa Kettle in Lower Stumblefuck, Iowa.

Hell….the DVDs could be packed with extra content, too. Making-of documentaries, commentary tracks, sure…but the discs could also feature DVD-ROM goodies like PDFs of RPG rules or adventures, links to forum web sites, etc. A cornucopia of geeky goodness, targeted directly at the people who want the stuff.

Hmmm. Something to work on, perhaps.

GMS

Since posting my last update, I’ve gotten a bunch of email, which I suppose I should’ve expected. A bunch of it was encouragement, of the “Woo-hoo!” variety, but a depressing percentage of it was bitching from the usual suspects: “You’ll ruin it, ’cause you’re an asshole.” “I’d prefer that the game be handled by someone who doesn’t HATE me because I’m a gamer.” Etc. Etc., ad nauseam. Kinda puts things into perfect perspective.

Still…it’s hard to turn your back on a dream you’ve had for 19 years. So, I’m going to go ahead with the formal proposal, since I might as well strike while the iron is hot….and I don’t have to make the final decision until the contract is in front of me, which gives me more time to mull it over.

In other news, the Mirror in the UK has run a story about the evidence that Flight 93 was shot down–a rumor that I’ve heard since 9/11 from folks from PA, and folks in the military. It’s always seemed evident to me that the whole “Let’s Roll” nonsense was nothing but an ego-salve for a nation that didn’t want to face the fact that planeloads of our citizens would sit like sheep and not resist hijackers…not to mention a nation that wasn’t at all ready to hear that our military was forced to shoot down one of our own jetliners and kill everyone aboard.

Interesting article.

GMS

No Matter Where You Go….

Three day weekend due to the MLK holiday on Monday. Wish I could relax more, but it looks as though this weekend is going to be spent largely with wrestling with a fairly large decision.

This week, the rights-holders to the Buckaroo Banzai property contacted me regarding a query that I had sent out some time ago regarding the license to produce a BB role-playing game. Apparently, they’re interested, and want to hear a full, formal proposal.

Normally, this would be a no-brainer for me. However, in the time since I first sent out the query, my disillusionment with the games industry has come to a head, and now I’m not sure whether or not it’s worth getting back into it again, even for the opportunity to produce a game that I’ve wanted to do for ages.

A lot to think about. I’ve got to decide if it’s worth taking this idea further, spending the money for the license, the production, the distribution…if it’s worth the aggravation of dealing with the industry as it is….if it’s worth dealing with the gamers. At this point, I just don’t know.

GMS