Well if you want to assign blame...from most to least:
1. GDW - They developed the wrong products like Dangerous Journeys, they were to slow to try to go digital, they had a collectable card game based on Traveller handed to them and turned it down, they started screwing their long time freelancers, the list is long.
2. The Rise of Magic: The Gathering - It was a craze that killed many game stores and distributors, not just game companies.
3. Fantasy MMOs and other computer games - They hurt more than RPGs, they also hurt tabletop wargaming in a major way, GDW's other main product line.
4. Decisions made regarding the Traveller storyline - I still have this picture of old time Traveller players doing their Charlton Heston impersonations pounding the sand and curses GDW for blowing everything up. The Rebellion came out of no where, wasn't sufficiently justified in subsequent publications, wasn't compelling nor realistic. Let's face it, if the Rebellion had to take place, it should have wrapped up in a few sourcebooks (at most) covering several years in which the various factions within the Imperium dwindled down through warfare and diplomacy to just a couple and then in the final shootout someone gets iced at Capital and then we move on. Mind you, the move to the House System should have still eventually taken place, since it makes a heck of a lot more sense for Traveller and Twilight/Merc: 2000 to share a common RPG system and have the staff concentrate on developing stuff based off that than keep two totally different sets of
mechanics going. Therefore TNE sourcebooks would start out with a revitalized Third Imperium, and then the Empress Wave comes with a bit of havoc in the Spinward Marches, and perhaps the rumblings of a Second Solomani Rim War.
5. The players - The "old guard" players didn't like the storyline choices, but in a world where they were a given, you roll with them and do what you want with the game on your own time. That was my approach and I found that I enjoyed writing for TNE very much and eventually ran my own TNE campaigns with friends--we gave it a chance and liked it. Unfortunately you had a large faction that did everything they could to sabotage the Traveller product line by withholding their support, and bad mouthing TNE, ranting about how they were never going to buy TNE sourcebooks and how other people shouldn't either. In effect, they were rooting for GDW to fail. While they weren't the biggest reason that GDW shut down, they sure as heck didn't help.
Oh and...locally here the game store as we knew it almost died. There are more game stores here in 2014 however than there were 10 years ago, but things have not nor will they ever be like they were c. 1994.
1. GDW - They developed the wrong products like Dangerous Journeys, they were to slow to try to go digital, they had a collectable card game based on Traveller handed to them and turned it down, they started screwing their long time freelancers, the list is long.
2. The Rise of Magic: The Gathering - It was a craze that killed many game stores and distributors, not just game companies.
3. Fantasy MMOs and other computer games - They hurt more than RPGs, they also hurt tabletop wargaming in a major way, GDW's other main product line.
4. Decisions made regarding the Traveller storyline - I still have this picture of old time Traveller players doing their Charlton Heston impersonations pounding the sand and curses GDW for blowing everything up. The Rebellion came out of no where, wasn't sufficiently justified in subsequent publications, wasn't compelling nor realistic. Let's face it, if the Rebellion had to take place, it should have wrapped up in a few sourcebooks (at most) covering several years in which the various factions within the Imperium dwindled down through warfare and diplomacy to just a couple and then in the final shootout someone gets iced at Capital and then we move on. Mind you, the move to the House System should have still eventually taken place, since it makes a heck of a lot more sense for Traveller and Twilight/Merc: 2000 to share a common RPG system and have the staff concentrate on developing stuff based off that than keep two totally different sets of
mechanics going. Therefore TNE sourcebooks would start out with a revitalized Third Imperium, and then the Empress Wave comes with a bit of havoc in the Spinward Marches, and perhaps the rumblings of a Second Solomani Rim War.
5. The players - The "old guard" players didn't like the storyline choices, but in a world where they were a given, you roll with them and do what you want with the game on your own time. That was my approach and I found that I enjoyed writing for TNE very much and eventually ran my own TNE campaigns with friends--we gave it a chance and liked it. Unfortunately you had a large faction that did everything they could to sabotage the Traveller product line by withholding their support, and bad mouthing TNE, ranting about how they were never going to buy TNE sourcebooks and how other people shouldn't either. In effect, they were rooting for GDW to fail. While they weren't the biggest reason that GDW shut down, they sure as heck didn't help.
Oh and...locally here the game store as we knew it almost died. There are more game stores here in 2014 however than there were 10 years ago, but things have not nor will they ever be like they were c. 1994.