IS this still avallable?

[neil]

NOt sure where to buy it from

[Duke Bushido]

It's hard to find.  

 

I'm going to run through a brief summary of events; take it as you will, because it gets weird reactions.  The first time I did this, I was accused of being a conspiracy fanatic.  Since then, two other people have done the research and found the same conclusions, but were not conspiracy fanatics, so...   this seems to affect moods, as near as I can tell.  

 

First and foremost:  I'm not a conspiracy nut.  This story is nothing buy my own frustration, and what I suspect was an inventory error that happened to get corrected during all this, adding to my frustration and leading to my being branded a conspiracy whacko.  (Yeah; I'm still a bit tweaked about that: I was simply venting a bit of frustration.... Bam!  Nutjob!  Wow!)

 

 

This game was incredibly anticipated, and from what I heard, sold extremely well.  The store was prepared for this to go huge, and evidently a great many copies were carried to some con or other.

 

Then the author of the books made some political comment.  You know just what a bad idea that is in the day of the internet!     (turns out he's pro gun, too.  Shocking how many people were surprised by that     ).   Anyway, there was a huge backlash against the public, and in what is becoming pretty normal for internet activists, everything with his name on it was anathema.  You know: because the surest way to punish an author is to not by the books that feature his ideas--- ideas that the publishers had already bought and paid for and then sunk a huge amount of money into printing.   Yeah: that'll teach that guy that already got paid before these things were printed!

 

 

I didn't know the game existed (I'd been away from the internet for a couple of years), and by the time I'd heard about it, the blow-up and boycott had already happened and people were stuck with whatever Corea stuff they had.   When I finally did hear about this game, I wanted to snag a couple-- one because one of my brothers is a huge fan of the books (I'm not) and another for myself to support the idea of "one thin book" with a complete game in it.  (book wasn't that thin, by the way.)  I bought one for my brother and noticed the store showed a few hundred on hand.  I decided to wait till I could better-afford the expense before I bought another.  I kept an eye on it, almost by accident:  every time I was ready to buy, something would come up, and I'd have to wait again.

 

The stock showing in the store never actually changed (this, I suspect, was an inventory or computer error  or some sort).  At any rate, it was almost two months before I was ready to buy "my" copy.  I logged in, went to the store--

 

zero.   Just a couple of days prior, a few hundred.  Then zero.

 

 

IT SUCKED!!!!  Not the game; the frustration.  The frustration sucked.  

 

 

At any rate, I combed through used book stores, e-bay, Amazon, and online book-sellers (beware of book pirates, by the way).   I finally did manage to snag myself a copy, but I won't like when I say I'd like to have a better one-- the previous owner filled my current copy with highlighter and margin notes, etc, etc....  It's been my experience that no two people will ever want the same bits highlighted or want to make notes of the same thing.

 

 

The book was released in two versions: there was a softcover (the type called "Perfect bound" and a hardcover.  I'm not sure if the hardcover was ever available through the store (not that it matters at this point) or if it was a preorder or kickstarter or convention thing of what.   There's a copy on Amazon that's been there for over a year with the knot head trying to sell it for something in the area of three-hundred and forty bucks.  I can't be _certain_ I know why it hasn't sold yet, but I've got some solid suspicions.  

 

I don't know if it was the boycott preventing the bulk of the printed books from being sold or just what it was  (I can tell it's not because the game is so amazing that no one wants to sell it-- I mean, it's a solid game, obviously-- it has solid legs after all, but it's not like there's anything there a fan of the source material couldn't put together on the fly using HERO Basic and some pointers on making equipment), but whatever the reason, there aren't that many in the resale market.  It took me _months_ to find one for myself.

 

Good luck to you!

 

 

(and I wish a lot of the out-of-print stuff would be, if not reprinted, at least made available as Print-on-Demand!!!!!)

 

 

[grandmastergm]

On 3/4/2020 at 6:54 PM, neil said:

NOt sure where to buy it from

You can buy the PDF.  I have a hardcover copy of the book signed by Larry, and it was pretty reasonable, $50 or so.  I see that it's climbed up now to $550+! Woah!

[grandmastergm]

On 3/4/2020 at 8:02 PM, Duke Bushido said:

This game was incredibly anticipated, and from what I heard, sold extremely well.  The store was prepared for this to go huge, and evidently a great many copies were carried to some con or other.

 

Then the author of the books made some political comment.  You know just what a bad idea that is in the day of the internet!     (turns out he's pro gun, too.  Shocking how many people were surprised by that     ).   Anyway, there was a huge backlash against the public, and in what is becoming pretty normal for internet activists, everything with his name on it was anathema.  You know: because the surest way to punish an author is to not by the books that feature his ideas--- ideas that the publishers had already bought and paid for and then sunk a huge amount of money into printing.   Yeah: that'll teach that guy that already got paid before these things were printed!

 

 

I didn't know the game existed (I'd been away from the internet for a couple of years), and by the time I'd heard about it, the blow-up and boycott had already happened and people were stuck with whatever Corea stuff they had.   When I finally did hear about this game, I wanted to snag a couple-- one because one of my brothers is a huge fan of the books (I'm not) and another for myself to support the idea of "one thin book" with a complete game in it.  (book wasn't that thin, by the way.)  I bought one for my brother and noticed the store showed a few hundred on hand.  I decided to wait till I could better-afford the expense before I bought another.  I kept an eye on it, almost by accident:  every time I was ready to buy, something would come up, and I'd have to wait again.

 

 

 

What boycott?  Are you talking about him getting disinvited from Origins in 2018?  Or was this something earlier?

[Duke Bushido]

This was earlier (and a disaster: no one actually stopped buying the books (the novels) as far as I know.  There was massive outcry against him on social media, and a call for boycott, and you know slactivism:  the people who hung out online and patrolled each other's moral fiber and behavior boycotted.  No one else cared.  But for a period, he was a hated person, and those people who invested in his products were, for reasons I don't fathom, made to suffer for it.

 

I don't think people stop to consider who _actually_ suffers when someone is boycotted or shunned or anything like that.  As an example, should I chose to boycott all of ....  Damn.  I can't think of any actor by name.  Show how important they are to me, doesn't it?     Okay, let's say I choose to boycott that guy who made the last batman movie.  Do you think he gives a _crap_?  He's already got it made.  The only people suffering are those who worked their butts of to make the film:  five years from now, some guy says "pull together a film crew for this movie!" is going to follow it with "But not these guys; people hated the last movie they did."

 

 

[Brian Stanfield]

Well, at the very least, there are still nearly 2,000 sets of MHI dice available in the store!

[mattingly]

I'd forgotten about the dice. Thanks!

 

I've been in an MHI campaign now for 2 years or so. Tons of fun.

 

And the author Larry is a hoot. I only see him in person these days a couple times a year, but he's a great guy.

 

[BigJackBrass]

17 hours ago, grandmastergm said:

 

What boycott?  Are you talking about him getting disinvited from Origins in 2018?  Or was this something earlier?

 

I imagine this was due to his actions as part of the "Sad Puppies" fiasco targeting the Hugo Awards in 2014. 

[Brian Stanfield]

34 minutes ago, BigJackBrass said:

 

I imagine this was due to his actions as part of the "Sad Puppies" fiasco targeting the Hugo Awards in 2014. 

That's exactly it. 

[grandmastergm]

6 hours ago, mattingly said:

I'd forgotten about the dice. Thanks!

 

I've been in an MHI campaign now for 2 years or so. Tons of fun.

 

And the author Larry is a hoot. I only see him in person these days a couple times a year, but he's a great guy.

 

 

That's awesome!  Yeah, I'd love to meet that gun-toting, hulking Portuguese Mormon.Where do you see him?

[mattingly]

Gen Con, DragonCon, LibertyCon.

[Tywyll]

On 3/5/2020 at 1:02 AM, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Then the author of the books made some political comment.  

 

Gotta stop you there. He did a lot more than 'make a political comment'. Besides making numerous conspiracy theories himself about the 'lefties' being 'out to get him' and other tripe, he also organize the Sad Puppies. 

 

People's dislike for him wasn't because he 'made a comment'. 

 

 

[Duke Bushido]

Forgive my lack of interest; I am going to chalk it up to having retold this enough times that I just lost the interest completely.  If I still had it, I would likely have poured out all the intricate details yet again, and in proper chronological order.

 

And the Sad Puppies thing was what set all this rolling.  Frankly, I thought it was hilarious.

[Duke Bushido]

On March 21, 2020 at 10:18 AM, Brian Stanfield said:

Well, at the very least, there are still nearly 2,000 sets of MHI dice available in the store!

 

 

I'd have snapped up a bunch of those, but I got bit by the HERO dice.  They are just a cumbersomely-large size, so I expect those MHI dice are the same.

[grandmastergm]

On 3/22/2020 at 4:59 PM, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

I'd have snapped up a bunch of those, but I got bit by the HERO dice.  They are just a cumbersomely-large size, so I expect those MHI dice are the same.

 

You are correct.  They are the same size. I enjoy rolling them, but they are a little cumbersome.

[Tasha]

Corea made an ass out of himself on his website way before he started playing games with the Hugos.

Last I checked Both Game Kastle in Fremont CA, and Gator Games in San Mateo had the Hardcover in stock. They usually get stocked with other games because there's nothing on the spine to ID it as being Hero System compatable,

The MHI dice are just big D6's with the MHI Logo on one face. They are nowhere near as functional as the Blue and Black Hero System dice. Also the MHI dice are this shitty looking white and green speckle. UGLY. Probably should have sold my book to Half Price books. I don't think I opened it to look at it after I bought it. So Hero Games got my cash on that one, but I have never bought another book by Corea.

[Duke Bushido]

Rather than suffer owning it, the OP may be willing to take it off your hands. 

[Tasha]

It's fine where it's at. thanks for pointing out that I COULD sell it.

[Jeffrey Davis]

Well I am sadden by what I have read here.  I am actually reading the books now.   Book three was really good and it appears that book five is going to be in the same ranking.  The others so far have been decent but not great.   As with most authors, he gets better as the series goes on.  My favorite is still book 3 though.  I am going to get a copy of MHI after reading through these posts.  I don't get on social media much because people are really dumb when they can hid behind the internet.   I have heard from many people that Larry is actually a pretty good guy.  He has his beliefs and his off moments, that is fair because everyone does.  His world is pretty creative and characters for the most part have some good depth to them.  I am a little disappointed in Owen Pitt, the main character of the first couple of books because I think he lacks the same depth of Larry's other characters but Owen is far from the worst main character I have encountered in my readings.  Books 3 and 5 are about the other characters.  I would challenge anyone who is not a fan of the books but likes supernatural thrillers to give book 3 Alphas a go.  It is definitely in another league.

[phydaux]

Monster Hunter: Memoirs are three books co-authored by John Ringo, and IMO are the best in the series.  And well separate from his "Everyone is a Chosen One" series, taking place ~20 years before the events in Minster Hunter: International.  So feel free to dive right in without worry of spoilers.

 

And yeah, 3 & 5 were the best because they WEREN'T about Owen.  

 

Also, check out Bubba the Monster Hunter by John G. Hartness.  Books 1 & 2 are good.  Book 3 starts to go off the rails, and book 4 is a head first dive into a privy trench.  But 1 & 2 are good.

[Jeffrey Davis]

thanks Phydaux,  I will look into both series.

[pawsplay]

On 3/22/2020 at 2:57 PM, Duke Bushido said:

Forgive my lack of interest; I am going to chalk it up to having retold this enough times that I just lost the interest completely.  If I still had it, I would likely have poured out all the intricate details yet again, and in proper chronological order.

 

And the Sad Puppies thing was what set all this rolling.  Frankly, I thought it was hilarious.

 Sad Puppies was not hilarious, it was reprehensible, and the furor certainly took away from the time of energy of people on all sides of the issue.

[Duke Bushido]

Much like this once-dead conversation, which someone went to the time anf energy to resurrect, it took nothing that the participants weren't willing to put into it.

 

Just like trying to look legitimate in an alley between a crematorium and a sex shop, considerable effort poured into fanning the flames of a dumptster fire will always be hillarious to anyone outside the situation.

 

 

[BigJackBrass]

On 11/11/2020 at 4:52 PM, Duke Bushido said:

… like trying to look legitimate in an alley between a crematorium and a sex shop… 

I feel so seen! 😳

[Tjack]

  If it doesn’t set off anybody’s hot button issues, what is the Sad Puppies thing?

  Or at least point me to some where I can read the story someplace else.