Topic: AGS: The book?

[KodiakBehr]

Just discovered this.  http://www.amazon.ca/Adventure-Game-Studio-Including-Interactive/dp/1242542868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320100016&sr=8-1

Does anyone know anything about this and can provide comments?

[Corby]

What a terrible cover!


Now this is a good cover


Looks like someone's trying to make some money off Wikipedia?

[Mods]

I'm not sure if it's one of them, but as Corby says - there is a new feature on Wikipedia "Turn this into a book" which I've recently seen people compiling and selling. This looks similar, so I'd assume it's just a compilation of wikipedia articles? The cover looks similar to the other ones I've seen, & frankly the description seems useless enough for it to be one.

"allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books."

What does that mean? To me it means, allowing you to copy and paste web pages into a book (for profit).

PS: This is the "book" I'm reffering to, which apparently I'm in, but it's clearly just wikipedia entries compiled into a (loosest sense of the word) "publication".
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Video_Game_Composers.html?id=kGyfSQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
(the google search)

I only found this a couple of weeks ago, you've only found this AGS book now... Is this the new age internet scam? Paying for a book of free wikipedia entries? Hrmm  

[Baron]

Ha!

            Usually ships within 1 to 3 months.

3 new from CDN$ 12.77                2 used from CDN$ 46.23

Send me the..... used one, please.

[kaputtnik]

Oh, that's one of those Wikipedia leeching pseudo publishers, there are millions of books like that out there - they generate books, covers and titles automatically with an algorithm that takes it all from Wikipedia...

I first noticed one of those quality companies, Books LLC, when I was doing research for a paper and found some incredibly, unrealistically specialised stuff on exactly what I was looking for, although the cover said "High quality content from Wikipedia" or something similar.

[kconan]

"allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books."

What does that mean? To me it means, allowing you to copy and paste web pages into a book (for profit).

The usage of the word "curated" in that context is more than a stretch.  Yea, someone gave the scammer a thesarus.  I think anyone with a half a brain can decipher that nonsense into what it really means.

[Corby]

Doesn't Amazon have higher standards, or can anything be sold there?

[kconan]

Doesn't Amazon have higher standards, or can anything be published there?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/amazon-removes-pedophilia-book-store/story?id=12119035

I think anything goes unless they can potentially lose business from bad press.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Doesn't Amazon have higher standards, or can anything be sold there?

As long as it's legal.
And it IS legal to re-package stuff from Wikipedia.
However it's not clear if the book contains license-protected stuff from AGs or AGS-based games.

[Technocrat]

Let's sue them to add to the Bake Sale income!

[RickJ]

Doesn't Amazon have higher standards, or can anything be sold there?

As long as it's legal.
And it IS legal to re-package stuff from Wikipedia.
However it's not clear if the book contains license-protected stuff from AGs or AGS-based games.

AGS Wiki - "Content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives"

I don't think a $17.95 book on sale through a retailer such as Amazon qualifies as non-commercial. 

[Stee]

I cant find a report button on amazon.

Would probably be better if the owner of americangirlscouts.org (Hajo/DasJoe ) filed a Cease and Desist.

If AGS were a paid product they'd be really stupid to do this. At the moment I think they just winging it because they think they can get away with it.

My concern is that something like this harms the community. Whilst the wiki is a great resource, it's not material that's money worthy unless it is heavily edited (which I assume it is not).

Maybe the bake sale can go towards prosecuting them 

[poc301]

If they wanted to make mad crazy monies, they'd go through the forums and package up tech questions/replies, articles, etc.  That would be the REAL money maker

But that would require effort on their part to compile it into a useable format.  Nevermind.

-Bill