Since doing the Mad Science the Card Game Kickstarter and putting this supremely awesome card game out in the world, I get a whole new variety of spam. Not just the weight loss pill and credit score nonsense or the buy Avira Business Security Suite now type thing. I also get requests from all over the world. Random gamers, gaming groups, gaming blogs, gaming pseudo-publications all contact me in search of free copies.

In theory this could help me out if they have a wide enough reach and enough of those they actually reach choose to buy my game. But if you’re a half dozen guys in Brooklyn who get together every couple of months to play games asking for a player copy… is anybody really going to step up and buy one. I mean, these things cost real money to produce. I have to sell between 3 and 4 games just to break even on the cost of mailing one out for free.

Now I didn’t get into this to get rich. I did it for the fun of producing a game, and enjoying it with people all over the world. That’s why I happily offer games at cost to people in the business, or to gaming groups. Do you know that I’ve had some people get angry with me when I suggested that? Even though that’s better than any other independent game company I’ve contacted. Sure, they’ll give copies out for review in publications, and they will offer steep discounts to verified retailers for use as in store demo models, but the only discounts most places give gamers is on volume.