Hi Dark,
Hmmmm....I see your point, and its one of those catch 22 situations.
From an access point of view it sucks when a gamebook etc is published
in print but not in an electronic format forcing us to try and scan it
so we can have access to it. Obviously, it effects us more than the
general public as we don't have immediate access to the material.
However, being formally sighted I see the other side of the argument too.
From a sighted point of view its more portable to just grab a book and
stuff it in a backpack and go rather than fiddle with downloading it
onto a laptop, iPhone, iPad, etc although hand-held devices like iPhones
and iPads can be arguably just as portable. Which brings up the second
issue.
As someone who use to read print books electronic devices like iPhones,
iPads, etc are less personal than a book. When reading a good book the
cover is made too look attractive. There might be some stylish writing
on the binding and on the front cover, plus a large picture on the
front, and it personalizes the book. Plus there is the smell of the
paper, the smell of the ink, etc you miss out on with an electronic
device. Its difficult to explain to people who read books electronically
all the time how the sensation of actually holding a physical book is
for avid book readers, and to be honest if I could still see I'd be more
likely to buy the hard cover print version than buy an electronic
version for my iPhone.
That said, there actually is a trend towards electronic publication, and
it happens a lot more than you think. In fact, it is so common now that
many of the libraries in the United States are discussing the
possibility of closing their doors, because people are using public
libraries less and less and as a result many of them can't get funding
to stay open. Research libraries are being hit the hardest because
instead of walking into a research library college students are now
going online to Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg,and other free websites for
the same research material. A lot of new books are now being published
in e-book formats and can be purchased and downloaded from Amazon, Barns
and Nobel, and pretty much any online book store. As a result the number
of hard cover and paperback sales have dramatically declined the last
five years or so so I'm actually surprised that the gamebooks aren't
being published electronically as well. Although, perhaps the company
hopes to keep the print going to stem the tide to electronic only media,
or feels collectors would prefer actual books over e-books.
Cheers!
On 5/11/2012 2:17 AM, dark wrote:
Agreed tom, though judging from what is happening with current
publications I don't think it's the case that people are forgetting
about actual paper books.
it's actually slightly annoying from an access perspective, sinse
currently all of the lone wolf books with extra content are being
republished, as are the original fighting fantasy series, however the
companies involved aren't making electronic (or accessible), versions
available, and those are really the land mark series.
On the Iphone however, a lot of newer gamebook authors are starting up
series as applications, not associated with the originals. Hopefully
in the future this might lead flying buffalow or mongoose publishing
to the idea of electronic versions of the classic books, but possibly
not (not with the way the current publishing industry is desperate to
keep publishing off the internet).
Either way though, it's extremely good gamebooks are coming back in,
and I fully intend to explore options when i get an Iphone.
In the mean time of course, there are still the extremely good stuff
on the net such as chronicles of arborell, the ff project and project
aon.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
