I have two minds about my hobbies and the industries that make them.
I recall well the time Dave refers to and with honest reflection back that
far gaming was a quaint sub culture hobby thing.
When business folk figured out how much money there was to be made from it,
that is when it became an industry. Obviously not over night or all at once
but it did happen over a decade.
I do not begrudge anyone trying to make a buck or lots of bucks, if someone
thinks there is a market god bless go forth and try.
But in the story of WotC/TSR circles it seems that a couple of key factors
play into this. While I am an outsider to both companies I live 15 minutes
from WotC HQ in Seattle and over the years in Computer Games have worked
with designers and artists that have worked at both companies on and off.
A couple of facts about them are clear and are pretty much undisputed by
former employees. WotC would not have been the beast it was without MTG and
the Pokemon phenom that propelled CCGs into the craziness it because. This
level of widespread acceptance gave WotC the 'money' to basically curb
stomp competitors wholesale. Without the successful MGT they wouldn't be
the company they are today for good or ill.
The corporate culture at WotC as odd as it sounds is controlled by their
R&D department because they created MTG originally. Because of this they
have been stuck in a rut for over a decade, at least imo.
TSR for all its troubles simply failed to transition from a publishing
business model (making books) to a service model. Perhaps this is still a
struggle they experiencing today under WotC not so gentle 'eye of sauron".
And while it may not of been indicative of the game industry back in the
day to have a 'competitor list' to crush its pretty common in other
industries where there is a lot of variety.
And at the end of the day, business' are in it for the money otherwise they
fold. We can have all the romantic thoughts we like but this however it is
the true in today's world.
Its a sad state of affairs but its an inevitable truth of capitalism.
On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 7:46 AM, <> wrote:
> **
>
>
> 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
>
>
If the world was fair then every bad thing that has ever happened to you
would have been deserved.