We got independent accounts from a number of people in the gaming
"industry" that the WOTC staff were keeping a list of the other gaming
companies they hoped to put out of business, and GDW was on it.
If true, that sort of thinking was so foreign to the way the gaming
"industry" ran it was ridiculous. We were all each other's biggest fans.
One of the best things about the cons was getting together, seeing each
other, trading copies of our newest games to each other, etc. The last
thing any of us ever wanted was to put any one of us out of business. We
did grate a little bit under "the 800 pound gorilla" of TSR, living in the
shadow of their castle at the cons, but we all had friends working there.
One of the reasons I took the "putting out of business list" seriously,
aside from the fact that so many reputable people came to us with it
(Mayfair, for example) is that it was so foreign to the thinking in the
game "industry" that how would anyone even think to make that up?
And that's when the game "industry" became the game industry. Might as
well be working for Lockheed-Martin.ill
"Brilliant Lances" was nominated for best SF boardgame of the year, but
lost to MTG. The next year they had a new category for CCGs so they
wouldn't beat boardgames in the boardgame category, but by then, MTGs and
CCGs were beating down entire companies. And they eventually bought out
the TSR castle.
I may have said that before here, but I'm talking to lots of people, so
I'm not sure.
Dave
> Still in Japan, teaching English for my sins.
>
> Yes, the WOTC style 'big business' approach certainly was a victory of
> greed over morals. There's a good Con in Southern Ireland - Warpcon in
> Cork. I went down in 94, and had an amazing time in a Merc 2000 game set
> in Sevastopol - GM had Maps of the whole area, and had obviously studied
> both them, and the politico-judicial set-up in the area. Amazing. Some
> people were playing a new card game of some kind. Next year the GM was
> toting a bag filled with cards and coloured pebbles...
>
> Eamon
>
>
> ________________________________
Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2012, 1:28
Subject: Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: Question for the group
>
>
> Â
> What did you do in Japan?
>
> And re: your "customer focused" remark, thank you. I genuinely appreciate
> that.
>
> The summer of 94 was the year that the game industry began its slide into
> corporatization. The WOTC booth, and the words coming out of their
> salespeople, "product," and all kinds of compound words with "customer" in
> them were just like being at the big defense trade shows. And I mean that
> in a not-good way.
>
>> Sad to say (proud to say!?), I've a pretty good memory when it comes to
>> TNE stuff I've read. The main books were one of the few things I took to
>> Japan when I moved there in '03.
>>
>> Getting the new data and corrections out quick was one of the endearing
>> things about GDW, at least in the time I experienced it - customer
>> focused
>> before 'customer focused' became a standard - and thus meaningless -
>> phrase.
>>
>>
>> Eamon
>
>
>