Kingofpain89 wrote:
I'm curious....do you actually own a copy of either of the books?

I have them all, they are not to bad really.  

mbassoc2003 wrote:UUCG is absolute sh!te.

Agree do you own a copy of any of them?
While I agree the single copy I have is not AWESOME, sh!te is not the wording I would use at all.

And yes, I am one of those Acaeum members who contributed some scans.

Nope, Not shite...  not that my opinion matters.
Especially as some members of the Acaeum feel I do not contribute here.

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:Just for the record, when I wrote that, "The "Ultimate Unofficial" guides seem to simply collect info from sites like the Acaeum and regurgitate it...", I was merely echoing (hence the "seem", bad word choice on my part) what I'd gathered here about them from those who had presumably read them.

Thank you for clarifying that. I may be somewhat overreacting, but that sort of statement has been made more than once, and as it is patently NOT true, and I have defended against it before, it becomes a bit of a sore spot.


Debbie

The issue is that you are trying to sell information that we are providing for free.

If you were compiling information from here and elsewhere to make a more complete FREE work, then I think you'd get more support.

The issue I see is that they are trying to capitalise on translating the internet into printed form for the people who can't or don't use the web. And they value their effort way above what anyone would pay, so you end up with a very small market of completist and people fitting a tight demographic, and there is no effort or intent to sell to the whole gamer community.

We are a very small niche market on this forum, incredibly focussed on information to the point of being anal about it, and yet it doesn't even address the needs or wants of such a small community of dedicated collectors. I'd suggest there was a greater take-up of HoD and greater satisfaction with the product than with UUCG.

If UUCG wanted to succeed, it had a predecessor to follow, one of good repute and a truely unique work of it's time, and it had an endless supply of information, most of which is neither difficult to find, nor difficulat to filter and desseminte. So what they needed to do was identify their market, get to know that market's needs and wants, and then address those needs with a polished and valued product.

AEG identified the need for a Megadungeon in an under-represented market, realised there was an opportunity and went for it. They published The World's Worst Dungeon, a truely epic work of horriific toilet paperness. All because the product was wrong and they didn't understand what was needed and wanted by the buyer. Rappan Athuck hit it right on the money, and there are still gaps that offer opportunity for success in today's marketplace.

UUCG just didn't get it right is all. It was an alsoran. But getting published is an accomplishment in and of itself for a lot of people. Maybe not now Lulu is here, but certainly pre-Lulu. Ironicly, it may be more collectable and more valuable for it. The King Lout of the last decade.

I haven't actually seen a copy of Hunters of Dragons, but I can comment on writing the chapter about Judges Guild.

The chapter includes a large amount of material not on the Acaeum.  It also includes information that is on the Acaeum, but known by me from other research.  But, the fact is, the Acaeum was such a key source that I made sure that Plaag was also credited for the chapter.

Frankly, it's hard not to use information that is on the Acaeum because this website is such an exhaustive resource.

FormCritic wrote:I haven't actually seen a copy of Hunters of Dragons, but I can comment on writing the chapter about Judges Guild.

You didnt get a free copy for contributing to the book?  That's just sad.  

Zenopus wrote:

I'm sure the "Foreign Editions" information for B1 is swiped from here. There are two entries, UK & Netherlands, and the Netherlands even says "brown cover, different art", which is shown on the Acaeum B1 foreign page.

This was based on a single spot check from the sample on their promo page, which is still up. I don't see any credit for the Acaeum. While the Acaeum does not "own" this factual information, it's hard to convince members here that this type of research wasn't take from this site. This is what has generated the negative impression among members here.

This isn't the only place I found that information, although the other sources may have quoted the Acaeum without crediting the site. But... the Acaeum is most DEFINITELY listed in the bibliography.

The Steve Perrin extended interview we conducted on the Acaeum has been used by at least one researcher and is cited elsewhere on the web for information about Chaosium and Glorantha.  Those of us participating in the Q&A with Perrin were aware of the resource we were creating while we were doing it.

In the spots I have found this information used, the Acaeum thread was specifically credited and/or linked.

I started the Sorting Out Elric and D20 Collecting strands with exactly the same idea in mind...to create a resource.

The Acaeum data base ought to be a book.  Its more extensive than most books.

One  thing that happened here that puzzled me was the time a guy turned up with a first-rate MERP data base.  People were not gung-ho to make it a part of the Acaeum site because it wasn't D&D.  With all the talk we do about other games and non-TSR publications, I would have expected people to regard the guy's great research as a fortuitous add-on to the site.  But no.