Quote from: thedungeondelver;387920"Cease your ingress!  I am operating the telephonograph quite efficiently!"

What? You dare mock me? Smithers, release the hounds!

Please enter continent of birth:

P-A-N-G-E-A

Quote from: RandallS;387589According to this, Trion Renews Legal Assault Over Rifts, Trion has sued Palladium in California to get a court to say there is no trademark infringement in the video game area.

I think its funny that they are going after his trademarks.  Good for them, I doubt it will teach that idiot any humility, but it could.

Or it could put Palladium out of business.  Win, Win either way

Quote from: Daedalus;388818I think its funny that they are going after his trademarks.  Good for them, I doubt it will teach that idiot any humility, but it could.

Or it could put Palladium out of business.  Win, Win either way

I'm not sure it's right to wish for a long time game company dating back to the early 80's to go under.

Why not?  Lots of people want to see MS out of business, Steve Jobs first of all.  I don't share their sentiments, but I don't think they are somehow bad sentiments.

If Palladium went out of business, it would be a Tragedy. Of course, the way Palladium is currently doing is already a Farce.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Cylonophile;388859I'm not sure it's right to wish for a long time game company dating back to the early 80's to go under.

Why not?  Bad companies should not stay in business.  A very successful businessman one said "the moment you are through changing in business, your are through"

Kevin is a poor businessman, he runs his company the same way he did in the 80's.

He is only still in business after the "Crisis of Tretchery" because he begged his fans to donate.  He should have gone out of business after that.   First, the majority of the stuff that was stolen was his and didnt effect the business (that could be learned by just reading his posts), his bad management practices of not getting product out and concentrating on the video game (for a system people told him was going to fail and did) and trying to get the rifts movie made).  Not to mention his micromanagement.

Even if you believe (and I don't) that the Crisis of Tretchery caused Palladiums problems KEVIN IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY AND THE BUCK STOPS WITH HIM

If he was too stupid to watch what was going on then he deserves to fail.

Quote from: RPGPundit;389010If Palladium went out of business, it would be a Tragedy. Of course, the way Palladium is currently doing is already a Farce.

RPGPundit

I am not sure if it would be a tragedy.   But it's like my FLGS game store manager said "Palladium's games are for a certain type of gamer".

I used to have Palladiums games when I was just starting out but I outgrew the low quality games and moved on to better things.

Quote from: Daedalus;389619I am not sure if it would be a tragedy.   But it's like my FLGS game store manager said "Palladium's games are for a certain type of gamer".

I used to have Palladiums games when I was just starting out but I outgrew the low quality games and moved on to better things.

Back in the day, I owned Rifts, Palladium Fantasy and Ninjas & Superspies. I loved Rifts to death, and used the two other games mostly as supplements to Rifts.

Nowadays, I've come to better appreciate the latter two -- Palladium Fantasy for getting old school pulp fantasy just right, and Ninjas & Superspies for being this unique mashup of Hong Kong martial arts flicks, men's adventure paperbacks and Cold War spy thrillers, which casts aside any preocupation with bloated settings or baroque metaplots in favor of letting the players' and the GM's imagination run wild. It's a thing of beauty to see dedicated martial artists, commando mercenaries, wired agents, gadgeteers and thieves come together to fight the Yakuza, the Al Qaida or whatever.

I still love Rifts, but the cross-genre setting IMHO places too much stress on the generally wonky-but-functional Palladium Megaversal system, generating undue complexity which generally turns me off. I wonder whether a more abstract system might fare better; one of these days I might still try my hand at running a FATE-based Rifts game.

While Kevin Siembeda may be indeed responsible for many, if not all of Palladium's woes (yes, including the much-vaunted "Crisis of Treachery" as Daedalus points out), it's still sad. He's a great creator, and Palladium is a meaningful chapter in our hobby's history.

Quote from: The Butcher;389651While Kevin Siembeda may be indeed responsible for many, if not all of Palladium's woes (yes, including the much-vaunted "Crisis of Treachery" as Daedalus points out), it's still sad. He's a great creator, and Palladium is a meaningful chapter in our hobby's history.

Key word: history. By consistantly refusing to enter the 21st century, he has all but guaranteed that his company will be just that: a part of history. At almost every turn he has refused to improve upon past product as well as production practices. I can't say it enough, very creative guy as far as fluff; complete shit business man. Yeah, the guy has managed to keep the company going for years, but with smoke and mirrors (and the every-other year cryout to his "family" of fans to donate to save him from his shitty business practices). And, no, I'm not saying I hate the man, or he is a bad person. Just a shit business man. It is sad, but it has also been a long time coming.

Quote from: Daedalus;389619I am not sure if it would be a tragedy.   But it's like my FLGS game store manager said "Palladium's games are for a certain type of gamer".

I used to have Palladiums games when I was just starting out but I outgrew the low quality games and moved on to better things.

Dude, to paraphrase another great thinker: "When you tire of Palladium, you tire of Gaming".
But then, you're admittedly choosing to become a bitter non-gamer.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;389874Dude, to paraphrase another great thinker: "When you tire of Palladium, you tire of Gaming".
But then, you're admittedly choosing to become a bitter non-gamer.

RPGPundit

Again you speak and are full of shit.

I have a weekly group, we play D&D 3.5 weekly (we are going to start alternating between D&D 3.5 and Deadlands).

So I am still a gamer.  and you are still full of shit

One thing I like about this board is that you can say what was said above to anyone, even a mod, and not be banned.

As to the whole "KS is a dick!" meme, it may very well be true, however I don't think it's karma or anything that's giving him so many problems. if being a dick, or even a complete asshole, got your game company in trouble then I know a couple game designers who'd be way ahead of KS in line for ye olde karmic shithammer.

 There are a couple major game personalities that may be more competent than KS but are much, much worse in terms of being major league assholes, so I kind of feel a little sympathy for KS as he's not as deserving of trouble as some other game figures are.

That, and I still think that a lot of KS's ideas make good gaming fuel, they just need converted to a system that doesn't make gamer's heads explode.

Quote from: RPGPundit;389874Dude, to paraphrase another great thinker: "When you tire of Palladium, you tire of Gaming".
But then, you're admittedly choosing to become a bitter non-gamer.

RPGPundit

See, I never ever played a Palladium game, ever.  I owned Robotech but it was more for the artwork than the game system itself.  I just don't feel I missed anything.

Quote from: RPGPundit;389874Dude, to paraphrase another great thinker: "When you tire of Palladium, you tire of Gaming".

RPGPundit

Actually its when you tire of Palladium you move on to better games.  But then again no one who is a fan of Palladium's games is welcome in my group anyway, so if people want to play them they are free to do so.

They dont effect my hobby