Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!cass!mips2!bbn.com From: milliken@bbn.com (Walter Milliken) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Steve Jackson Games (was Re: "Bad" backups) Message-ID: <60825@bbn.BBN.COM> Date: 13 Nov 90 19:21:53 GMT References: <3014@igloo.scum.com> Sender: news@bbn.com Reply-To: milliken@bbn.com (Walter Milliken) Organization: BBN Systems and Technologies, Cambridge, MA Lines: 37 In-reply-to: learn@igloo.scum.com (Bill HMRP Vajk) In article <3014@igloo.scum.com>, learn@igloo (Bill HMRP Vajk) writes: >It is not likely that the real damages to SJG can be ascertained. What segment >of the potential marketplace, fearing future intercession by a federal agency, >will elect to forego purchasing any games associated with a firm whose >business records potentially might bring goverment agents to their doorstep ? As a close observer of the whole SJG fiasco (I'm a customer and a frequent user on their BBS), I think this statement is probably a bit off target. As far as I know, no one has *not* bought products from SJG due to the raid (though only Steve Jackson knows for sure). Rather, as I understand it, many of SJG's distributors were very supportive through the raid and its aftermath. Also, the resulting attention on the product the Secret Service somewhat confusedly seized, GURPS Cyberpunk, probably boosted its sales somewhat -- it even proclaimed on the front cover that it had been seized by the Secret Service! The real damage the raid seems to have done to the company is somewhat different. The raid put a one or two month delay into SJG's production scehdule, as they had to rewrite and re-edit GURPS Cyberpunk pretty much from scratch. Since the company depends in large part on a steady release of new products to maintain its cash flow, that hurt them badly. In addition, they were suffering from other cash flow problems at the time, which would have been troublesome, but not severe, if the raid hadn't additionally disrupted their business by taking every copy of a major new product in final production. As it is, SJG it still reeling from the financial blow the raid dealt it, and the company's survival is still somewhat in doubt, though things appear to be improving slowly. (Most of the above information is paraphrased from news and messages posted on SJG-BBS, or from an article printed in the SJG newsletter for GURPS players, Roleplayer.) ---Walter