It appears to me that Evan's original question has gotten buried under a huge heap of gripes, bitches, complaints, and personal wish lists from a bunch of people who already own just about everything that's ever been published under the name of ASL, myself included.
The original question is what direction should the publishers take. Just look at all the posts in this thread. Most of the people here have been playing ASL for at least 10 years, maybe more. I'll bet I'm not the only guy here who started out with SL back in the late 70's. I've only been to 2 ASLOK's (which is inexcusable since I only live 45 minutes from where it takes place), but it's basically the same people each time, give or take a couple dozen. Yes there are new faces I'm sure, but it's mostly the same people every time, and we're not getting any younger.
The publishers (I'm referring to MMP, since they are the only ones with the LEGAL license to produce anything officially ASL) don't appear to have much of a strategy for the future of this hobby. The only direction ASL has gone since AH went tits up is down. Sure, there have been some great products released since then, but all of the products released in the past few years assume that you have the core modules and the ASLRB.
Let's say I'm a 16 year old (how old were YOU when you started?) who knows nothing of ASL (assuming you can pry the kid away from his PS2 to begin with) - I've heard of ASL but have never seen it - and I have an interest in small-unit tactical gaming of WWII, and I'm browsing the shelves of my local game store, what am I going to find? Blood Reef Tarawa, cool - anything with the word blood in it has got to be cool. What's this? It doesn't come with the rulebook, and I need to buy 2 other modules to be able to play it. Yeah, right dude. Have a nice day.
Here's what the kid should find:
Three core modules of ASL covering all of World War II. Each a stand alone module, one covering 1939-1942 (ETO), another covering 1943-1945 (ETO), and the final one covering PTO. Each module comes with a HTML rulebook on CD. Heck, who cares if people copy the CD's. MMP should be passing them out for people to use as frisbees or coasters. What is somebody going to do with the ASLRB on CD without any of the components? Play VASL you say? Heck, MMP should hire Rod Kinney or even make him a managing partner, and turn VASL into a Pay-To-Play thing. It works for half a million people with Everquest, why not a couple thousand with ASL? Better than the couple hundred out there now....
Back to the modules. If the kid wants to play PTO only, he buys the PTO module and can play all of the current official PTO scenarios out there. As a bonus, included in the module is the CG, BRT. This module probably won't be cheap, but look at what he has to buy now to play BRT. Rulebook - oh, wait - can't get that right now. But, if he could, it's $60. Gung Ho - $65. Code of Bushido - $50. Let's not forget BRT itself - $55. Grand Total: $230. Just to have all his LVT's shot up before they even reach the beach.
So, sell the kid the PTO module for $120. Comes with the ASLRB on CD (saving printing costs and a few trees), so the kid can even put it on his laptop or PDA. Also comes with all the boards and maps necessary to play the scenarios inside (unmounted to save space and cost). Yeah, that's not cheap, but mom will buy it for him if it'll get him away from the Game Cube for a few hours because now her electric bill goes down, and the TV might last another year.
Now the kid gets into this ASL thing, and goes out and picks up the other 2 modules to expand his horizons beyond the PTO.
Could it happen like that? I don't know, I have a hard time believing that many kids today would even care about gaming WWII. One thing is for sure, the kid definitely can't play right now because the ASLRB is out of print, and if our kid was into the 1939-1942 ETO, then he's really SOL because now he can't get the British or the Axis minors. So, warping back to our kid with BRT in his hands, when he sees what he needs and what he can't get, he puts it down and goes and buys another First Person Shooter.
Certainly, if something isn't done soon to modernize ASL and make it more accessible to the masses, then we're all going to be looking at the same people every year at ASLOK. There are lots of people out there that want to get into the game, but they can't. It'll have to be done by MMP, because they hold The License. TPM are great, and maybe under a newer way of thinking they would be encouraged rather than beat down by lawyers. Evan, that's why I said what I did in my original post.
We don't turn anyone away, but when they find out they can't even get key components, they want to do something else.
