For General Release (Please feel free to forward this release):

WorldWorks Refocus: Departure from RPGNow/DriveThru/OneBookShelf

Denny Unger here, founder and designer at www.worldworksgames.com , creators of leading gaming terrain products and accessories. Before the rumor mill starts up I would like to relay this message dealing with our recent departure from One Book Shelf (aka: RPGNow/DriveThruRPG) and our plans for the future.

First of all I would like to sincerely thank James Mathe and Steve Wieck for giving WorldWorks the opportunity to sell on the previous incarnations of their storefronts. I would highly recommend to any e-publisher contacting OBS for an opportunity to get your product out there in a highly democratic and secure electronic marketplace environment. On behalf of everyone at WorldWorks Games I would like to wish OBS all my best on their new path.

WorldWorks has evolved into what some might call a “self-sustaining niche” and the very nature of our business demands unique storefront and operational requirements which make selling at other e-stores with potentially limiting policies or practices impractical or simply impossible. To forge ahead while meeting both our unique needs and the requirements of the WWG community at large, WorldWorks has continued to develop our ever expanding official WorldWorks storefront http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/ . Since opening the official WorldWorks Games storefront in early 2005 our successes have afforded us the opportunity to expand our business both in terms of the number of active content creators and new product lines. We now offer an amazing catalog of over 145 products and a staff of 16 gifted creators. Nowhere on the internet will you find such a stunning range of affordable gaming terrain products covering all genres.

As we move into 2007 WorldWorks is more keenly aware than ever before of just how important and cherished our fanbase is. These are the people who have made us what we are today and without their continued support it is likely that we couldn’t keep pushing things forward. Over the past 2 years many have found their way to the official WorldWorks storefront to show their direct support for our small business and its creators. We intend to continue our longstanding tradition of actively engaging our fanbase and keeping things “human”. The enthusiasm and incredible support from our fans is both our inspiration and our reward for what we do. We intend on doing everything in our power to offer those fans outstanding levels of support in a store environment which meets the specific needs and character of this special hobby. By focusing our efforts exclusively on the official WorldWorks storefront we know that we can provide levels of service unmatched by other providers. We can do all of this while at the same time funneling much needed resources directly into the hands of our hard working content creators. This is the balance we are trying to maintain in order to help WorldWorks Games move forward with maximum growth potential for many years to come.

We have so many exciting plans for WWG in 07 and as we break new ground in the PDF industry we hope that you will join us on the journey! (Or at the very least give us a visit and say hello ) Thank you for taking the time to read this release and thank you for your direct support of WorldWorks Games.

Denny Unger
www.worldworksgames.com

You can join the conversation on this topic or become actively involved with the WorldWorks community at large by signing up to our message forum at: http://www.worldworksgames.com/forum/ and please don’t forget to browse through the official WorldWorks storefront at: http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/ . You can also join our monthly newsletter by signing up for an account at the store here (remember to opt in for the letter): https://www.worldworksgames.com/store/i ... 279b096685

Next stop: The World!


Well done Denny & Co. for everything dome and the more to come. I look forward to being a paying part of the team (sound so much cooler then "customer").


Now for you to start sell pdf books.....





Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Thanks for the heads up and well done. Looking forward to 2007 already. Twitching circuits engaged and ready...

Mr Blackhammer

And a hearty congrats to all the many talented folks who dream up such cool wonders to make our gaming just that much more enjoyable.

Here's wishing WWG a terrific new year!

A fore-warning in a newsletter of this rather abrupt action of yours would have been polite Denny.

My son had decided to pick up your Mayhem products available at RPGNow through my account there and had me set up the purchase in my cart.
Lo and behold, when he had the money to pick up the four items plus other items from RPGNow, y'all had jerked them from RPGNow's inventory.

He is now looking at buying Microtactix's Cityscape and Twilight Street series there because you do not sell product burnt onto CD's for orders of product like RPGNow does.

Denny, can I say that WWG is now offering to burn orders onto CD disc and to ship them to customers for their personal use so that he can reconsider his decision?
He does prefer the look of your product, but you are preventing him from getting the service we both very much prefer.
We nearly always buy our product on disc so that we get what should be a error proof copy of it to avoid the many possible hazards of on-line downloading.

Good move Denny.

I'm really glad the effort you, and those that work with you, have put in to the WorldWorksGames site, its store, and its forums, not to mention your great products, has paid off enough to enable you to make this move.

Once again you're communication shows your dedication to your customers as individuals and your commitment to all those you work with, even those who may be competitors or who may treat you less well than you treat them.

You deserve all possible success from this.
I'm looking forward to getting great stuff form your site for years to come.

I'm not completely familiar with what's going on at RPG or OneBookShelf, as I really prefer buying most of my downloaded products from the company, not through some distributor. It usually works better if the company offers a way to purchase the product as they have a bigger vested interest in their customers.

So I can understand where you're coming from Denny and wish you luck with the road ahead. I'll be right there with you as long as you keep offering WWG products, buying them when I can and drooling over the new ones I want! Good luck in 2007 and looking forward to what's down the road.

Skunk





Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

The new and improved Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is here! So see you in the game! .

Good luck with the move Denny. Hopefully it won't affect me as I have used your WWG store since it's inception. I much prefer the immediate release, pay, download, drool scenario. It's no problem whatsoever to back these bunnies up onto CD myself (5 mins and 10p, what's the prob ?).

You had me going with the 145 products for a while, but I'm now guessing you are including the kitbashes.

Keep up the good work.

Frank

P.S. If you can get Dinaas Fford (!) out before Xmas, I will buy it as a present for myself

I can appreciate why Rabidfox would want to have things burned to a cd. You are (hopefully) guaranteed to get the full set of files with no odd missing items (which has happened to me) and you get a "backup" copy.

The very first terrain I bought from RPGNow I too ordered the cd. However, my cardstock terrain and figure collection grew rapidly, and I wanted to keep everything together in an easy-to-reach format.

So I stopped ordering CDs and started burning my own. I also picked up an external hard drive that I ONLY turn on once a month when I backup all my files fresh. Then it's brought back down again. And once a quarter I burn my important stuff to CDs. I'm now burning to DVDs (I have 1.6 GB of Worldworks terrain alone, so I need more room on the disc).

This may seem like overkill, but I suffered a very bad crash which wiped out lots of priceless stuff, and actually had to shell out a fair bit of money to have one of those forensic reconstructions done on my drive. The good news was, they were able to get back 99% of my files. And I swore that would never happen again. So between the external hard drive full backup, and the "by manufacturer" separate CDs I burn, I think I've got all bases covered now.

So anyway, for people like Rabidfox I hope Denny can come up with something eventually.

And kudos to Denny for his willingness to burn and mail a cd so a customer isn't disappointed. Just another sample of their excellent customer service!

I am both saddened that you have found it necessary to leave RPGNow/DriveThru/Onebookshelf, and completely unsurprised.

The way this has been handled from the e-tailer end has been poor. You are not the first to leave them, nor will you be the last. I rather hope that they fall on their faces with this merger. The fact that Whitewolf (which owned DTRPG) has undergone another merger (with the company that does Eve Online) will no doubt complicate this matter further.

I suspect that the boondoggle is more of the fault of the folks from DTRPG than RPGNow, since when they first opened shop DTRPG was really trying to crowd publishers into exclusive contracts.

One thing that you may want to do, now that you are no longer dealing with these outlets is to make sure to post press releases for SF and Fantasy releases in the Publishers forum at E.N.World.

Hopefully you will have your alternate front end up and running soon for those of us who have had problems with PayPal. (They did clear it up, and even gave me a refund, but....) There are a number of kitbashes that I want to get sometime soon.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Have you had a chance to contact E-23 yet? They seem to be benefiting from the combined stupidities of DTRPG and RPGNow....

Well, phpBB does allow you to set the amount of time a session runs before it's idle. I'm not sure what they have it set at here on WWG, but it's usually about 30 minutes of no activity. I believe that's the default setting.

Skunk





Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

The new and improved Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is here! So see you in the game! .

I'm happy to say it has turned out to be a very good move leaving RPGNow and the OneBookshelf network. Although we had some minor doubts it turned out that we made the right decision. Since leaving our business has shown a number of really important gains on almost every level.

The problem is that you can only grow so much under the framework and policies of certain PDF storefronts. They may be a great place to make your start but there comes a time when competing for attention in that kind of chaotic market just isn't worth the effort. Issues of control and how one dictates the direction of their business also become paramount at this point.

With WWG nearing its 5th year in business we simply outgrew the need for that type of provider. The future looks very bright indeed