ASL First FireSaturday, February 14, 2004
The eASLRB
The elusive Electronic ASL Rulebook. Talked about periodically online, and based on those comments, many players either have one or have seen one. No official eASLRB has yet been released. I've been working on mine for about two years. It's HTML-based, with hyperlinks for each rules reference, scanned images (at 120 dpi) of most of the rulebook's illustrations, and as a bonus (for me) a number of articles and play aids I've collected off the internet over the years. It's a great thing to have. I've never tried to use it in a face-to-face setting and am not sure how well that would work. However, it's nice to have when reading online rules debates, or on my laptop while traveling and playing Solitaire ASL using VASL. A nice resource to have, and working on it (scanning, formatting, etc.) is a bit of a pastime in its own right. However, I'm not posting this just to brag about my eASLRB. Indeed, one or two people have expressed annoyance online over people writing about their eASLRBs.
It appears that an official eASLRB may be a possibility in the future. MMP has mentioned this before. It was discussed in Journal 2 (released in early 2000) in which Introductory ASL was listed as "on the horizon" for 2001, complete with electronic Rulebook. However, this product has not appeared and to my knowledge has not even been discussed publicly by MMP in 2 or 3 years. In a recent thread on the ASL Forums, though, Brian Youse did mention it briefly, saying "An eASLRB is a grey area which we've discussed several times with Hasbro and finally cleared up some issues with it." This briefest of mentions seems to imply that such a product is a future possibility, and one which would be a tremendous step for ASL to take.
What form would an official eASLRB take? Obviously one of the major concerns over an eASLRB has been security. The downside to one is that it could then be endlessly duplicated and shared, greatly reducing the market for ASL's key product, the ASL Rulebook. Recent discussion has centered on PDF format, which can apparently be distributed in a secure format, limiting duplication. PDF format does allow for hyperlinks to be inserted, which would allow the same advantages to navigation that my HTML format provides. Personally I would prefer HTML or a similar format (I've seen one produced in Windows Help Format as well), which would be much more customizable by the user, but would not provide the same level of security. Also, certain formats (like PDF) could be ported to Palm Pilots and their cousins.
The advantages to an eASLRB would be many. The biggest problem in ASL right now is the fact that the two most important components, the Rulebook and Beyond Valor, are not in print and thus unavailable to new players. Without new players, ASL doesn't grow, and in fact will eventually die. However, as MMP has made clear, printing the Rulebook is by far not an inexpensive project, which is in large part the reason the reprint has not yet happened. As anyone with a CD burner knows, creating CDs with the Rulebook on them in electronic form would be frightfully cheap, say less than 50 cents per copy for the media alone. Thus, the Rulebook could be cheaply made widely available, an important step for all those (hoped for) newbies soon to be brought into the ASL world by release of the Starter Kit. Of course, MMP does not actually own ASL, so any such step would be dependent on Hasbro being willing to allow this, as Brian's quote above would seem to indicate. The advantages to the ASL player would also be many, for the reasons I've stated earlier, and based on some of the online conversations on this issue, many players would seem to be interested in this.
Certainly many ASL players would also be willing to pay for such a product. However, the security issue again trips things up. One idea that has been mentioned though is something I thought was silly initially, but am beginning to warm up to. Now admittedly, the ASL Rulebook is not mine to dispense with as I wish, but what really would be the problem in putting the Rulebook out in an electronic format that could be readily copied and distributed (assuming Hasbro was willing to do so, of course)? The Rulebook is not a cash cow for MMP/Hasbro. MMP has stated that they are deliberately keeping the price of Beyond Valor and the Rulebook low to keep them reasonable for attracting new players. Starting ASL is already a daunting task financially. However, by doing so, MMP will certainly not be making much if any profit on these products when they are released and once Hasbro's licensing fee is taken into account. If the ASL is "given away" (i.e., made available in a copy-ready format), then is there really a financial penalty to MMP/Hasbro? Many game series already have their rules in a freely available format. What's different about ASL is that the Rulebook is a major component of the game system in its own right, as opposed to simply being inserted into the gamebox itself, similar to the situation with role-playing systems. However, if the company is not going to make measurable profit on the direct sales of the Rulebook, isn't it possible that making it more readily available might stimulate sales of other ASL components to a great enough extent to far outweigh any lost revenue from sales of the Rulebook itself? A moot point if Hasbro weren't interested in this approach, but perhaps something worthy of strong consideration in the interest of future growth of the ASL community. ASL players are well known as avid collectors of just about anything with "ASL" stamped on it. While an unsecured eASLRB might well be duplicated and distributed widely, enough ASL players would probably pony up for the official package to provide profit far outweighing the revenue from the "barely break even" Rulebook planned for printing soon.
It appears that an official eASLRB may be a possibility in the future. MMP has mentioned this before. It was discussed in Journal 2 (released in early 2000) in which Introductory ASL was listed as "on the horizon" for 2001, complete with electronic Rulebook. However, this product has not appeared and to my knowledge has not even been discussed publicly by MMP in 2 or 3 years. In a recent thread on the ASL Forums, though, Brian Youse did mention it briefly, saying "An eASLRB is a grey area which we've discussed several times with Hasbro and finally cleared up some issues with it." This briefest of mentions seems to imply that such a product is a future possibility, and one which would be a tremendous step for ASL to take.
What form would an official eASLRB take? Obviously one of the major concerns over an eASLRB has been security. The downside to one is that it could then be endlessly duplicated and shared, greatly reducing the market for ASL's key product, the ASL Rulebook. Recent discussion has centered on PDF format, which can apparently be distributed in a secure format, limiting duplication. PDF format does allow for hyperlinks to be inserted, which would allow the same advantages to navigation that my HTML format provides. Personally I would prefer HTML or a similar format (I've seen one produced in Windows Help Format as well), which would be much more customizable by the user, but would not provide the same level of security. Also, certain formats (like PDF) could be ported to Palm Pilots and their cousins.
The advantages to an eASLRB would be many. The biggest problem in ASL right now is the fact that the two most important components, the Rulebook and Beyond Valor, are not in print and thus unavailable to new players. Without new players, ASL doesn't grow, and in fact will eventually die. However, as MMP has made clear, printing the Rulebook is by far not an inexpensive project, which is in large part the reason the reprint has not yet happened. As anyone with a CD burner knows, creating CDs with the Rulebook on them in electronic form would be frightfully cheap, say less than 50 cents per copy for the media alone. Thus, the Rulebook could be cheaply made widely available, an important step for all those (hoped for) newbies soon to be brought into the ASL world by release of the Starter Kit. Of course, MMP does not actually own ASL, so any such step would be dependent on Hasbro being willing to allow this, as Brian's quote above would seem to indicate. The advantages to the ASL player would also be many, for the reasons I've stated earlier, and based on some of the online conversations on this issue, many players would seem to be interested in this.
Certainly many ASL players would also be willing to pay for such a product. However, the security issue again trips things up. One idea that has been mentioned though is something I thought was silly initially, but am beginning to warm up to. Now admittedly, the ASL Rulebook is not mine to dispense with as I wish, but what really would be the problem in putting the Rulebook out in an electronic format that could be readily copied and distributed (assuming Hasbro was willing to do so, of course)? The Rulebook is not a cash cow for MMP/Hasbro. MMP has stated that they are deliberately keeping the price of Beyond Valor and the Rulebook low to keep them reasonable for attracting new players. Starting ASL is already a daunting task financially. However, by doing so, MMP will certainly not be making much if any profit on these products when they are released and once Hasbro's licensing fee is taken into account. If the ASL is "given away" (i.e., made available in a copy-ready format), then is there really a financial penalty to MMP/Hasbro? Many game series already have their rules in a freely available format. What's different about ASL is that the Rulebook is a major component of the game system in its own right, as opposed to simply being inserted into the gamebox itself, similar to the situation with role-playing systems. However, if the company is not going to make measurable profit on the direct sales of the Rulebook, isn't it possible that making it more readily available might stimulate sales of other ASL components to a great enough extent to far outweigh any lost revenue from sales of the Rulebook itself? A moot point if Hasbro weren't interested in this approach, but perhaps something worthy of strong consideration in the interest of future growth of the ASL community. ASL players are well known as avid collectors of just about anything with "ASL" stamped on it. While an unsecured eASLRB might well be duplicated and distributed widely, enough ASL players would probably pony up for the official package to provide profit far outweighing the revenue from the "barely break even" Rulebook planned for printing soon.
