I'm arguing with someone on G+ (someone who's a big participant of the Ultra-Orthodox Wing of the OSR, so claims of ignorance about the subject seems a bit contrived, but whatever), who is questioning claims about how before starting Grognardia, James Maliszewski was actually not an Old-School gamer (not in the sense that some of the Clonemaniacs use of "you don't play purely the way play so you're not a REAL old-schooler", but in the much more LITERAL sense of "did not play old-school games") and had in fact written many things where he mocked, made fun of, criticized and insulted old-school D&D.

So being a guy who remembers stuff but doesn't keep records, I could use some help in this: point me to evidence in links to articles, forum posts, references to publications, etc./whatever that show James Maliszewski being a complete Swine about D&D before he had clued into how potentially profitable it would be to pretend to just lovey love love old-school in order to become a blogging celebrity to a group of people he considered retarded (so as to eventually embezzle them).

RPGPundit

You should hang out here more Pundit, it's quite a nice forum. :pundit:

This is like asking us to shit on your bucket so you have more shit to fling at someone.

Thanks, but no, thanks.

Do your own [strike]shitting[/strike] research.

Thank you Pundit for starting the thread.

Pundit is (probably) referring to me as the object of his first sentence ("someone who's a big participant ..."), though he mis-characterizes me. That I sometimes post & reply on K&KA is a matter of obvious truth (and I have met a fair number of other folks who post in K&KA in person, they're good guys, and I would drink and play games with them again in a heartbeat; I will post there again too, certainly). Full disclosure: I also posted on Dragonsfoot, odd74 (a bit), The Acaeum, ENWorld (mostly long, long ago), various blogs, G+, rpg.net (once or twice, I think), the Swords & Wizardry forums, and probably one or two other places. I also sell modules explicitly for use with AD&D (Chaotic Henchmen Productions).

What I want: I want to read what Pundit describes: "James Maliszewski being a complete Swine about D&D before ..."

There is no agenda. I want to read it. That is all. I keep links to various (admittedly obsessively stupid) stuff. I want links to these.

To show that this is in good faith, I will start with the "best" thing I have found, which may not be much:

In 1999 Maliszewski was critical of (dissed?) Gamma World and 80's games in a general sense:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000124101747/http://rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/sffeb99.html

In 2009 Maliszewski showed a positive view toward Gamma World:
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/retrospective-gamma-world.html

Quote from: One Horse Town;789000You should hang out here more Pundit, it's quite a nice forum. :pundit:

Gotta second OHT. :cheerleader:

Quote from: Guy Fullerton;789003https://web.archive.org/web/20000124101747/http://rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/sffeb99.html

In 2009 Maliszewski showed a positive view toward Gamma World:
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/retrospective-gamma-world.html

I dunno, he seems not to be dissing GW so much as referring to its extreme levels of gonzo (and sillyness/humour) wich according to the second text is something he actually appreciates.

So what's the narrative?

1. JMal plays D&D like everyone else as a kid.
2. At some point starts writing for gaming companies.
3. Gets involved with WW in the 90s and works on a lot of WW stuff.  Along the way he becomes a snooty elitist (or always was one).
4. During his stint at WW does 3e stuff via S&S imprint.
5. Doesn't like 3.5 and 4.
6. Starts Blog to figure out why D&D isn't D&D anymore
7. Becomes Pope of the OSR
8. Implodes spectacularly in a Perfect Storm of hype, internet hysteria, and Kickstarter malfeasance.

You have to be a political blogger's level of asshole to blog daily for 4 years and not mean a word of it, so in all likelihood, he meant a decent portion of what he wrote.  He might have been pompous and overblown, with an insufferable sense of his own geek-fanboi bolstered celebrity, but his blog could be interesting and useful at times.

Even if the worst possible interpretation of all that were true, that he was a total "swine" who "came to Gygax" only as a marketing opportunity, so what?

His bubble has burst, let the poor bastard be.

(Grunt...strain). It's no use. When it comes to this subject, I just can't seem to give a shit.😜

This isn't beating a dead horse, it's digging up the broken bones of a buried dead horse so they can be finely ground.

Too funny. This reminds me of a bit out of Vi Hart's Guide to Comments:

QuoteBy the way, just as the chauvenist assumes that everyone's secretly sexist, the narcissist assumes everyone else is also trying to fake who they are for status and attention and that's where you get the type of comment where they accuse you of not being a real.. whatever - because if they were you, they would be pretending, would desperately want people to see them that way, and being called out on it would be the most shameful thing possible.

While I learned a lot from James' blog, I find several lines in this '98 review he wrote of Alternity sadly revealing of his abrupt about face on the subject of D&D and its mechanics:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_943.phtml

I got into D&D in 1981 or '82 at age eleven. I became obsessed with it and it became a major part of my life throughout adolescence and young adulthood.

Shortly after college in the 90's I kinda went through a "Snob" phase of wanting "More" out of gaming (Hip, trendy, KEWL relevance that would get me respected as an artist or laid or something) and turned my back on D&D, which at the time seemed played out and about as cool and with-it as the Andy Griffith Show. I had nothing to do with D&D for a little less than a decade. It probably didn't help that none of the gamers around here wanted anything to do with it either. If I had suggested playing old-school D&D to them in 1996 I would have been laughed out of the room (Although their Earthdawn games were really no different... or for that matter their Vampire games, which as far as I could tell were about as gothic and psychological as Michael Bay movies, with vampires slugging it out on motorcycles with katanas and HK-MP3s. )

I got back in to D&D via third edition, which reminded me of just what I found so magical back in '81: Killing owlbears, looting old moathouses, half-orc assassins and temples of Tiamat and otyughs and githyanki ... but I soon decided the system was waaaaaaay too complex and number-crunchy (The "Paperwork" of designing characters and encounters was a crushing drag). So I got back down my old Moldvay Basic set and never looked back.  

I imagine that my experience of falling away and then coming back was not that uncommon among old-schoolers (Maybe it was even the norm, I have no idea). I don't think weird pissing contests about who is or is not a "Pure" OSR member are constructive.

Remember when Pundit laughed at the people who went through his (10+ year) old blogposts to find something to (mis)quote him over, trying to win arguments during consultantgate? Kettle black, much?

James Maliskewski was an ass for abandoning Dwimmermount. And he faltered on Petty Gods as well. Both of which had to be bailed out by other people.

The way it all went down he thoroughly burned his bridges with the larger OSR community. And he burned it by what he did.

Which is how the OSR operated from the beginning. People who have influence because they do things not by what they say or who they know. People who crash and burn do so because of their actions, like taking a lot of money and not delivering a product.

I can see this of being of interest. Possibly make the story of James Mal all the more interesting.  But whatever is uncovered it would be a side show to conduct he displayed with Dwimmermount. In my mind that what did him in.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;789016This isn't beating a dead horse, it's digging up the broken bones of a buried dead horse so they can be finely ground.

Nah, it's more like whining at your neighbours to dig up the bones and beat them for you, while gloating that you once dealt with an entire stable, on your own.

---

I'm also not fond of this internet concept that, once someone has expressed an opinion on a subject, they can never ever change their minds, or rethink something, without being accused of being a hypocrite, sellout, or whatever the commenter's current insult of choice is. This isn't a game show; we don't have to only accept one answer.

Grognardia's purist snobbery was always a big part of its appeal, no one should pretend otherwise; plenty of James's commenters obviously dug it. Hard to believe anyone's surprised that a guy used to like a lot of stuff he now despises, and vice versa -- it happens to everyone, though he was always pedantically humourless about it. But for better or worse, that last isn't a crime.

I hope he's doing alright now, and getting work done. The death of a parent is a hard thing, self-inflicted public humiliation doesn't make it any easier, and the outpouring of entitled cuntistry from the peanut gallery that followed his disappearance won't soften the blow much.