As you note, Marvin was in a difficult position, albeit one largely of his own making. With SA only available for 3rd, 4th had a difficult time competing, at least among a certain segment of the market. Fourth really needed its own computer assistant to make it viable, a fact that Marvin admitted at some point, but ultimately he also admitted that he did not have the time or skills to program it, and couldn't afford to pay anyone to do it.
What he really should have done was get you (Steve) or someone like you on board during the development of 4th to modify SA for 4th and release as an "Official" supplement. Unfortunately, he was too focused on the release of 4th itself, and subsequent to the release, when it became clear how popular SA was, his relationship with you was too bad to make it work. Also, by that time, Marvin was distracted by the online gaming issue, which he believed to be the future of Starfire.
That was really the crux of Marvin's problem. When 4th first came out, I was excited to see a new edition and before I had really gone through the rules, I posted on the list that I would start work on a Galactic Starfire Assistant (for free of course). That idea was quickly shot down by Cralis, who was part of the SDS at the time and insisted that new software would be created in-house by the SDS and they didn't want me to work on any 4th software. I am not sure how much effect that really had on the lack of 4th edition software. Although it obviously annoyed me, once I had gone through the rules properly there were a lot of things about 4th I didn't like (which I won't rehash here) so I probably wouldn't have created a new program anyway.
The problem for Marvin, which I don't think he or Cralis really ever appreciated, was that I had put a LOT of work into Starfire Assistant over perhaps ten years and it was a very large and complex program. The two things that kept me going through all that time were how much I enjoyed playing 3rd edition Starfire and how much I enjoyed being part of the community that had grown up around 3rdR and SA. There is no way that Marvin could realistically have paid me (or anyone else) for that amount of work. Starfire just doesn't generate that kind of money. The reality is that a program with the depth of Starfire Assistant will never be commercially written for a game as niche as Starfire because it is not even close to a commercially viable proposition.
When you looked at the other products produced by Digigamers, such as Fish Pond, Dominoes, Cribbage, etc., it seemed blindingly obvious that neither they nor Marvin/Cralis had any real appreciation of the amount of work involved in a Starfire program, or at least a Starfire program that bore any resemblance to the boardgame. Digigamers underestimated the task because they presumably didn't understand the depth of the rules and Marvin/Cralis underestimated it because they aren't programmers. However, I assume none of this was apparent to them at the time, which is why they kept insisting that Digigamers would produce something.
What Marvin needed was someone similar to me who liked 4th edition and would put the same amount of free effort into an SA equivalent for 4th. However, that person had to have the necessary programming skills, the necessary design skills (which are very different to programming skills), an obsessive-compulsive personality
, lots of free time, a willingness to put in hundreds, probably thousands, of development hours for free and provide free on-going support. They would also need an enjoyment of playing 4th edition Starfire that would continue to motivate them for several years at least. Although there must be 4th edition players with some of those qualifiers, finding someone with all of them was extremely unlikely. Will Gore was probably his best bet and I think he did start some early work on a 4th assistant.
It really must have been a difficult dilemma for Marvin. The existence of Starfire Assistant was probably a major factor (although my no means the only one) in making it difficult for 4th edition to gain real momentum but he had got himself into the situation with some bad decisions, which unfortunately would not have been obvious based on his subjective knowledge of the situation at the time. However, even if he had realised the problem in time, he was still stuck with the existence of SA, my dislike of 4th edition, a lack of suitable people to build a 4th assistant and no viable commercial path out of the situation.
If I was in his situation at the time, then banning further updates to SA and stopping the sale of 3rdR might have looked like a good way out of the mess, because that would take away what he believed was the main reason players were sticking with 3rd. However, because of the game play issues I don't think he was ever going to drag a majority of the 3rdR players into playing fourth. Now I am looking back without any of the emotion of the time, I can see Marvin was in a very difficult situation and I can even have a little sympathy for him.
However, I believe two different decisions might have made things easier. Firstly, it might have been worth finding out from Starfire players what they liked about 3rd edition and what they didn't like before creating 4th edition. He effectively created a new game in secret based on his own views of the deficiencies in 3rdR and his vision of how Starfire should be played and then released it. While that was certainly his perogative as owner and designer of Starfire, a little market research would have gone a long way toward making 4th edition more commercially successful. Secondly, he should have actively encouraged player participation in creating software and other play aids instead of discouraging it. While large companies that produce lots of add-ons for their game systems might discourage competition from players, a small company should gladly accept all the help it can get, especially if that help is provided for free by willing fans.
All this talk of Starfire made me visit the web page for nostalgia. I wish I hadn't bothered. It appears that Marvin no longer sells countersheets or accepts credit card orders (although he does accept Paypal) and the order page of the web site stopped working in February (based on the last update date). It may be that the list issues are not an isolated problem. Whatever my general antipathy for Marvin, it would be a great shame if a game with the long history of Starfire faded into obscurity.
Steve
BTW, if anyone wants to discuss the reasons why I prefered 3rd to GSF then please mail me direct. As Kurt said, the flame wars around 3rd vs 4th were damaging to everyone and I don't want them on the Aurora forums