Blatantly ripping off a thread from another forum; who are the biggest Villains of the industry, the ones who have done the most harm to it in the past, and/or are doing the most damage to it now?


RPGPundit

I think that Shipman fellow, with the whole Outlaw Press thing, would be an obvious choice.

Lesser evils would include the suits at WotC.

There's the whole personal/company funds snafu at Catalyst, but I still don't know who did what there.

Also, Steve Sheiring (of the Palladium embezzlement/theft crisis).

Hmm. At times I think that some of the people who just create the sickest, darkest, most repugnant game settings imaginable might fall into this category, but then they don't make anyone play their dark, depressing, fatalistic stuff. I'm not crazy about them and I don't like the uberdark stuff, but calling them villains might be going to far.

 I really think it's kinda pathetic to put what amounts to softcore porn on the cover of game products as it makes gamers look like drooling adolescent geeks buying stuff because there's a near naked woman on the cover. Avalanche press does this shit a lot and it makes some gamers look bad. I don't even touch their stuff.

 Those are my peeves about the rpg biz, if that makes them villains then so be it.

Quote from: Zachary The First;398492I think that Shipman fellow, with the whole Outlaw Press thing, would be an obvious choice.

Lesser evils would include the suits at WotC.

There's the whole personal/company funds snafu at Catalyst, but I still don't know who did what there.

Also, Steve Sheiring (of the Palladium embezzlement/theft crisis).

How about the bastich who ripped off catalyst games, putting battletech and shadowrun in jeopardy, along with eclipse phase? I'd say he deserves this "honor".

Though there are probably better examples i'd say Decipher Games screwing themselves over at the time they started getting into rpg's and Last Unicorn Games (though this might well be the fault of those hacks Anderson and Herbert jr) for the Dune rpg mess. Games Workshop for abandoning anything not Warhammer for Warhammer in the late 80's.

1) Whoever came up with 4e's design principles
2) Loren Coleman
3) The unspeakable Robert S.

Lorraine Williams

The Blumes, like I said over there.

Also, Byron Hall.

Today? The misery peddlers.

Well, there is Kevin Siembieda who fucks his customers and writers over again and again and who milks the death of his friend for all it is worth. That is simply despiccable.

There are all the grognards, who think anything not D&D is not worth playing and who are simply fucking bad ambassadors for our hobby because they give the impression that only overly oppinonated middle aged men engage in our hobby.

I am actually tempted to add RPG pundit to the list whose years of rpg one true wayism trench warfare have probably hurt the hobby quite a bit. Then I would of course have to add Ron Edwards to the list, too, who actually started the shit by calling people who liked certain games braindead.

Ryan Delancy, but I'm conflicted, he helped usher in the d20 revolution and pushed to give us the OGL. But then again, he helped usher in the d20 revolution and pushed to give us the OGL.

Then there was his inglorius exit from the industry followed up by his new role with CCP and sounding the death knell of WW as a print publisher (oh wait, imprint)...followed up by those on that side of the company doing months of damage control. With mixed results.

But if I had any serious ire, I'd direct it towards Mark C. MacKinnon of Guardians of Order and the horrible self destruction of a company/brand/ip that happened there.

I've love to point a finger at 4chan /tg/ crowd. But..eh, it's 4chan. It's like calling Snidely Whiplash a bad guy. A duh. Chan will be chan.

Channers are rude because the site lets them be, but I wouldn't call them evil or villains.  They're not actively damaging the hobby, and most of their interests (aside from the random porn threads) align with your average joe gamer (D&D, Warhammer, Battletech, occassionally WoD, etc.).

Quote from: Peregrin;398569Channers are rude because the site lets them be, but I wouldn't call them evil or villains.  They're not actively damaging the hobby, and most of their interests (aside from the random porn threads) align with your average joe gamer (D&D, Warhammer, Battletech, occassionally WoD, etc.).

This is true, but they do support a lot of the fileshare community that destorys the smaller publishers. (Or at leasts cuts into their bottom line.) I'm less worried about what the channers do the larger developers. But the small 1-2 people companies that are in the indy side of the business it's not a nice thing.

Than again, most channers wouldn't know an indy game if it came up and bit them on the ass...so. Ya. Channers folks.

Probably gamers and fans for stepping on their own fun...

Seanchai

Quote from: Saphim;398527I am actually tempted to add RPG pundit to the list whose years of rpg one true wayism trench warfare have probably hurt the hobby quite a bit. Then I would of course have to add Ron Edwards to the list, too, who actually started the shit by calling people who liked certain games braindead.

I don't think that Ron Edwards or pundit have that kind of exposure or influence.