Quote from: Haffrung;1095138Received wisdom holds that this approach would handicap the profile of the company and its products. That generating goodwill and enthusiasm with active, personality-driven engagement with potential customers is vital to fostering a positive profile in the market. But I really have my doubts. What tangible negative consequences would we have really seen if, for instance, Pelgrane had simply ignored the Twitter mob calling for denunciation of Tweet instead of throwing him under the bus? Some culture warriors complain about Pelgrane in their echo chamber for a few days? So what. What reason is there to believe that results in fewer copies of their next game being sold five months from now?

There has been a practical demonstration of this strategy with the recent Steve Jackson Games/Frog God Games hysteria. Both companies doubled down on their cooperation (and FGG lawyered up), didn't communicate about the "scandals" on Twitter, and made bank on their subsequent Kickstarters. There are still bitter psychos baying for their blood on Twitter and RPGNet (and I guess Something Awful), but they remain in business with no sign of slowing down. It turns out most of the fans simply don't care, and most of the people who do, are not paying customers.

You can also look at Mearls, who is a constant target of Twitter haters (look at the feed, it is fairly educational). He has simply disengaged from the platform, and isn't giving the haters a target. Mearls is probably more at risk than SJG/FGG, because WotC is not creator-owned, and if the haters are smart, they can dislodge Mike through the corporate structures which can be the soft underbelly of capitalism (HR and Marketing are often hotbeds of rainbow-haired activism). Still, Mike is doing the smart thing by focusing on areas where D&D is succeeding - actual gaming and selling the hobby to non-hobbyists.

There would probably be much worse damage to a publisher whose livelihood hinged on ideological content, or who was an active Twitter warrior. The damage to Pelgrane is higher than the damage to WotC, because they have aggressively gone after the woke sales, and they are exposed to a fan backlash. LotFP was practically almost sunk by the anti-Raggi hysteria (since so many of his contributors and active buyers were themselves ideological militants), and then Zakespierre's downfall. They are alive and slowly starting up again, but that must have cost them some business. Notably, ever since, James Raggi has been fairly withdrawn and silent, with barely any open communication. Which proves your point further - no fuel, no fire.

Quote from: Zirunel;1095228I know what you mean, his novellas from the 50s seem different from his series from the 80s, and yet not. The sharp prose and the wit are there all along. He seems to have found his voice very early. Dang I could go all fanboy about Vance, I'll try to restrain myself.

I would say Vance was actually a late bloomer. The Dying Earth (1950) was great right out of the gate, but most of his mid-50s output was less polished. His first great novel, To Live Forever, is from 1956, when he was 40. Most of his novels are the writings of an old man from another era, an eye witness of Depression and the Jazz Age (and someone who has had to work a lot of odd jobs to get by). I think you can see the influence of that experience in his works. Outside Cugel, his heroes are typically the kind of hard-working everymen who were somehow the personification of mid-century America - industrious, a bit parsimonious (they are all compulsive hagglers), physically and mentally active. It is a very different outlook compared to 60s-70s science fiction, which had a completely different zeitgeist.

Just for the sake of documentation, this is what happens to you when you pay the Danegeld:

Spoiler

It goes on basically forever.

Poor Mike. He only wanted to play some D&D, and now he is a sewer fire of a human being who must be driven out of town and set on fire.

Quote from: Melan;1095274Just for the sake of documentation, this is what happens to you when you pay the Danegeld:

Spoiler

It goes on basically forever.

Poor Mike. He only wanted to play some D&D, and now he is a sewer fire of a human being who must be driven out of town and set on fire.

Why does anyone go on Twitter? It's bizarre trans wolf-sheep musical chairs and it's only a matter of time before you're the one standing as the sitting wolves decide what's for dinner.

That Twitter thread is hysterical!!

Except for the calls to violence against Mearls. That's expected by SJWs, but needs to be dickstomped on social media.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1095280Why does anyone go on Twitter? It's bizarre trans wolf-sheep musical chairs and it's only a matter of time before you're the one standing as the sitting wolves decide what's for dinner.

Wolves are mighty predators deserving of respect who have an important function and value in Nature.

SJWs have no function, no value and deserve no respect.

https://youtu.be/aurOLo0r7VQ

More to add to woke WotC.