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miércoles, 22 de febrero de 2012

The Challenge of High Level Play - Monte Cook

Fuente:

http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120220

Información:


The Challenge
of High Level Play
Legends and Lore
Monte Cook


n every single edition, when you start talking about high-level play, someone invariably says that the game breaks down after about 12th level. (Sometimes they say 10th, sometimes 8th, sometimes 15th, and so on—the point is the same.) This "truism" of D&D is so ingrained that it doesn't matter what edition you are talking about. So, despite the fact that high-level 4th Edition play is quite different than high-level 1st Edition play, the general commentary about how high-level play breaks down remains the same.


As a fan of high-level play across the editions, I've never agreed fully with the idea that the game breaks down. I think, however, there's some validity to it, but only if you look at it a certain way. What people are recognizing is that, at a certain level, play changes. As I see it, there are three such break points in the game—low level, mid level, and high level. Fourth Edition does a nice job of recognizing these changes, I think, and the changes don't focus on how the characters become more powerful and how the challenges they face grow more difficult. Instead, the very game changes. The three tiers of the game, along with the commensurate change in character power, influence, and potential foes, makes a lot of sense.


A game where characters run around in a dungeon and hit things with swords is arguably a completely different game than one in which they teleport from place to place and disintegrate vast hordes of enemies with artifacts. In fact, they should be different games. I think that players who appreciate the different levels of play want them to be different. (The people who say that the game breaks down at such-and-such a level are self-defining themselves as people who don't care for that style of high-level play, which is fine, of course!)

Some players like low-level, gritty, "where am I going to get two more silver pieces to afford to eat today" kinds of games. Others want to fight basilisks and save the whole town from an invasion of troglodytes. And still others want to create their own plane of existence and lay waste to planets. (And plenty want to do two or all three of these things.) Recognizing these different desires and needs allows game designers to tailor gameplay to suit them.
This means that, perhaps, certain activities, conditions, and effects could and should be level-based. Perhaps teleportation of any kind should be a mid- or high-level effect. Energy drain or ability damaging effects could be medium. Planar travel should be high-level. And so on.

What I am really getting at here is that the level of the game affects the complexity both of the story and the mechanics. (That's not to say that a low-level story can't be deep and meaningful, but it probably doesn't involve multiple levels of reality or the nature of deities.) The level drives expectations, and I think that it behooves a designer to meet those expectations.

How do books get discovered? A guide for publishers and authors who want their books to find an audience

Fuente:

http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/343-how-do-books-get-discovered-a-guide-for-publishers-and-authors-who-want

Información:


How do books get discovered? A guide for publishers and authors who want their books to find an audience

Posted by Patrick on February 17, 2012 175283

We've all fallen under the spell of a truly great book. But where did we originally hear about it? How did we come to choose that particular book from among the literally millions of books in the world? Did a friend hand it to us and say, "You have to read this!" Or did we hear about it on NPR's "Fresh Air"? Or was it a Goodreads Recommendation that convinced us to give it a try?

From the publisher's perspective, discovery has always been shrouded in mystery, a sort of alchemical process through which readers find books they love. With a community of more than 7 million people and 250 million books shelved, Goodreads is uniquely equipped to shed some light on this eternal question. On Wednesday, our CEO Otis Chandler gave a talk at the Tools of Changeconference in New York City presenting some data that helps get at one of the most pressing questions facing the publishing industry today—how do readers discover books?

What we found is that readers discover books in several different ways. While this may not seem surprising, it should serve as a reminder to authors and publishers that no one promotion or marketing technique is enough. To successfully promote a book, you have to reach out to readers in a variety of ways.

Below is a pie chart of the various methods Goodreads members use to find books on the site:



One of the biggest things we learned—or should we say confirmed—is the power of word of mouth. Searching for titles on Goodreads is the top way people find books for their to-read shelves. That means they first heard of it elsewhere—likely from friends or the media. Search represented the method of discovery with the widest distribution of titles, from the very popular to the very obscure.



Some of the methods for finding books, such as the registration process for Goodreads, favor very popular books. We want to make sure you see something familiar when signing up, so we show books that many readers have liked. But other methods of discovery, such as updates from your friends and searching for specific books and authors, are better for finding more obscure books.

Our Goodreads Recommendation Engine has been incredibly successful since we launched it last September. It was designed to show you interesting mid-list books (books that are neither best-sellers nor completely unknown titles) that you may not have heard of. As shown in the graph below, we succeeded. This makes sense, as nobody needs an algorithm to tell them about a best-seller. It's also worth pointing out that on the lower end our recommendation engine has a minimum threshold of several hundred ratings so we know enough about a book to be statistically comfortable recommending it. So authors, if you know of a strong comparable title to your book and you are able to market your book to those readers—and they respond by adding your book to their Goodreads account—our recommendation engine will notice this correlation and be even more likely to suggest your book to the right readers.



To find out more about where people initially hear about the books they read, we ran a survey of more than 3,200 Goodreads members, asking them how they discovered books. The results were somewhat surprising.



As you can see, most Goodreads members get book recommendations from their friends, either on Goodreads or off. Conversely, very few Goodreads members rely on Twitter and Facebook to hear about new books.



And, as we've shown previously, an appearance on a popular NPR program or The Daily Show can give any book a "pop" on Goodreads. It's worth noting, though, that maintaining that level of interest in the book relies on word of mouth. (In the graph below, the blue line shows the number of times A Slave in the White House was added after a member searched for it, and the brown curve shows the number of times the book was added because a member had seen a mention of the book in a friend's update.)



Discovery happens in a multitude of ways, and a successful marketing campaign should take that into account. But there are a few strategies that seem to work well.

Our best advice is to work hard to establish your core fan base. The more momentum on Goodreads you get, the more it will build. Encourage your readers to rate and review your book on Goodreads. This will not only help generate word-of-mouth buzz, which is essential for a sustained promotion, but also help get your books onto the appropriate book lists and onto the Goodreads Recommendation engine. Our Listopia lists are a great source of discovery for our members, including lots of mid-list titles. They tend to be specific, such as World War II Fiction or Pacific Northwest Books, so having your book on the right list can make a huge difference.



If you're an author who already has a following, be sure to promote your book heavily to your existing fans and fans of similar authors. Add a Goodreads badge or widget to your Web site or blog and encourage your readers to add your books and become your fan. If you're just starting out, reach the right readers with an advance giveaway.

For more interesting data on how readers discover their books, be sure to explore the full slideshow below. We look forward to bringing you more of this kind of in-depth information that could only come from the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations.

Happy reading!
Otis, Kyusik, and Patrick





Comments (showing 1-11 of 11) (11 new)

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message 1: by Trina (new)
TrinaNice article. So glad I found this site.
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message 2: by James (new)
James JacksonFantastic read !!!
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message 3: by Emelie (new)
EmelieReally interesting! But I was surprised about the best-sellers doesn't get recommended. People can miss those books too!
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message 4: by Alexie (new)
Alexie AaronBrilliant! Lots of great information. Spurred on a lively debate in my living room this morning.
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message 5: by Margayle65 (new)
Margayle65I read quite a few book blogs and reviews by people whose choice I respect (especially on NPR, where I've discovered some of my favorite authors). Book club friends' recommendations and reviews are another great source, as well as my sister's book club choices.
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message 6: by Emmly (new)
Emmly JaneVery informative article. Thank you for sharing.

I admit I still judge a book by its cover. Even being a 95-98% digital reader only, if the cover and/or title does not grab me, I will not even click on the description. I scan covers and titles in Amazon's top 100 lists (both paid and free). If it is someone I have never heard of, I will get the free sample before making a purchase though.

Many blessings,
ej (emmlyjane.wordpress.com)
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message 7: by Bridget (new)
Bridget BowersVery cool. Thanks for sharing the information. I know that I often get my next book by friends or family recommendations. It is nice to see how other people find their next read.
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message 8: by Nancy (new)
NancyIf I'm in the mood for a particular type of book, I'll look at the 4 and 5 star books on the appropriate shelves of my goodreads friends. I search out friends on goodreads with similar tastes (love that compare books feature) who have read a lot of books and have a lot of personalized shelves.
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message 9: by Hope (new)
HopeI agree that this is an interesting article(!), but I wish there had been more emphasis on the role that librarians and public libraries play in promoting both individual books and reading in general. According to the bar graph in this presentation, 54% of people discover books at their library. I know from working in a public library that people of all ages discover books via library displays and booklists, and through in-person conversations with library staff and with each other at the library. Also, many people's only access to the Internet (i.e., to GoodReads, to authors' websites, and to online stores) is at their public library. I love what someone told me recently: "Libraries don't milk the publishing industry, they fuel it."
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message 10: by Anne (new)
AnneI think you left an important source for discovery off your list: book reviews. I read newspaper reviews, NYTimes Book Review, Booklist, and others for my main source of information about new books and titles I might like to read. I rarely like any recommendations from friends (or online recommendations) as reading tastes vary widely.
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message 11: by Petra X (last edited 21 de Feb 13:01) (new)
Petra XThe (very enjoyable) article should be renamed, "How do books get discovered? A guide for publishers and authors who want their books to find an audience with Goodreads members" for accuracy. Surveying your own audience and applying the conclusions across the board really isn't cricket.

I know very many older people who do not use computers for much, if at all, who mostly find books from their libraries and from newspaper and public radio reviews. Perhaps with the push towards electronic media this audience just isn't sexy enough and is difficult to survey, but they are a market increasingly important to publishers as they actually buy print books on a regular basis.

Again, not fitting in with the push towards electronic media, there is the Luddite breed of independent bookseller. Last year 9% of all the books sold in my shop were hand-sold, recommended by my staff or myself to customers we had got to know. Its all very well pushing electronic media to people, but a recommendation engine that doesn't recommend books unless they have had hundreds of ratings isn't going to find
Bronze Age Economics: The First Political Economies or
A Society Without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China or the absolutely amazing
Civilizations : Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature, all of which books I hand-sold this morning.

The comment from tourists I hear most in my bookshop after, "Do you sell postcards?" (no) and "Do you have a bathroom? (yes but only for customers), is that I have an amazing selection of unusual books and they'd never expected to find a place like this in the Caribbean. These are the people I hand-sell books to, books they've never heard of but that are, after a few minutes chat, ones I can see they would be interested in.

Your article doesn't consider these at all, because you are are an online company, but libraries, bookshops, print books and niche authors deserve some consideration, no? Or perhaps no, perhaps the view that if the public doesn't buy something then they don't want it (even if they didn't know about it and might have wanted it if they had known) that the market will decide is the only view that counts in a society where the most important economic activity is online companies selling data to companies that place ads. and the more homogenous, the more mid-range the audience, the easier it is to market to them.

Rant over!
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¿Cómo descubren los lectores los libros? - Actualidad Editorial

Vía Dorsai Shai.

Fuente:

http://www.actualidadeditorial.com/%C2%BFcomo-descubren-los-lectores-los-libros/

Información:


¿Cómo descubren los lectores los libros?

Por Arantxa Mellado el 22.02.2012
0 Comentarios
Qué hace que un lector compre un libro. Para los editores siempre ha sido un misterio por qué los lectores escogen los libros: ¿por recomendación de amigos y familiares?, ¿por la de los libreros?, ¿por la cubierta o la información de contra?, ¿por las reseñas o críticas leídas?
En la ultima conferencia TOC en Nueva York, Otis Chandler, director de Goodreads, una comunidad de lectores de 7 millones de usuarios y 250 millones de libros reseñados, explicó que son varias las formas por las que los lectores de Goodreads acceden a los libros y que esto, aunque parezca una obviedad, indica a los editores que deberían llevar a cabo más de una forma de promoción.



Del hecho de que el 19% de los libros se encuentren mediante búsquedas internas puede deducirse que la principal motivación para la lectura de un libro es la recomendación. Los usuarios buscan libros determinados, cuyos títulos ya conocen, y eso indica un conocimiento previo que llega de algún tipo de recomendación. Así pues, la búsqueda es el método de descubrimiento del más amplio abanico de títulos, de los más populares a los más desconocidos.
Otro 19% de los libros se encuentran en el momento de registro en Goodreads. Es entonces cuando la web muestra al recién llegado los libros más populares y más recomendados por los demás usuarios, algunos de los cuales el usuario acaba añadiendo a su estantería.



Sin embargo, otros métodos de detección, tales como actualizaciones de los amigos y la busca de libros y autores específicos y autores, son mejores para encontrar los libros más desconocidos.
El motor de recomendación Goodreads, puesto en marcha en septiembre pasado, ha resultado un éxito entre los usuarios de la web, como se puede ver en el gráfico inferior. Fue diseñado para mostrar “libros intermedios” que pudieran resultar interesantes (los libros que no son ni los más vendidos ni títulos completamente desconocidos), pero de los que era posible que los usuarios no hubieran oído hablar.
De estos libros intermedios se tiene la suficiente información —los que menos tienen varios cientos de evaluaciones— como para que estadísticamente sea fiable recomendarlos. De este dato, Otis Chandler extrae un consejo para los autores: es aconsejable que busquen títulos parecidos a los suyos y que contacten con los lectores de estos para recomendarles el suyo. Si los lectores responden añadiendo el libro a su estantería en Goodreads, el motor de recomendación se dará cuenta de esta correlación y probablemente sugerirá el libro a los lectores adecuados.



Para obtener más información acerca de dónde las personas oyen inicialmente hablar de los libros que leen, se hizo una encuesta a más de 3.200 miembros de Goodreads, preguntándoles cómo descubrieron los libros. Los resultados fueron un tanto sorprendentes.

Como puede observarse, la mayoría de los miembros de Goodreads reciben las recomendaciones de libros de sus amigos, tanto en Goodreads como en otros sitios. Paradójicamente, pocos usuarios de Goodreads confían en Twitter y Facebook como lugares donde leer sobre nuevos libros, aunque dicen que son buenos sitios para conectar con el autor.
Otra de las observaciones del equipo de Goodreads es que cuando un libro aparece, por ejemplo, en un programa de televisión, las búsquedas se disparan, pero sólo momentaneamente, y que mantener ese nivel de interés depende del boca a boca. A modo de ejemplo: en el gráfico inferior, la línea azul muestra el número de veces que el libro A Slave in the White House fue añadido a la estantería de un usuario después de ser buscado; la línea marrón muestra el número de veces que el libro fue añadido por un miembro que había visto una mención del libro en la actualización de un amigo.


El descubrimiento del libro se produce de múltiples formas, y una campaña de marketing sólo encontrará el éxito si tiene en cuenta esta variedad. Sin embargo, hay algunas estrategias que parecen funcionar mejor que otras.
El consejo de Goodreads es orientar el trabajo a conseguir una base de seguidores. Es importante animar a los lectores para valorar y comentar el libro, esto no sólo ayudará a generar el boca a boca, que es esencial para una promoción sostenida, sino que también ayudará a conseguir que los títulos estén en las correspondientes listas de libros y en el motor de recomendación (de Goodreads, obviamente).
Si estáis interesados en el tema de la descubribilidad de los libros, vale la pena que veáis la presentación completa que se hizo en TOC y que encontraréis en esteenlace.



Vía: blog de Goodreads