Quote from: Gene Weigel;457726Its a dead site so I just removed the signature link.

I'm going to do a blog (no link yet) with the direct purpose of feeding my creativity and serving fantasy fans. Basically, to stop being a cheerleader for things out of my control.

Exactly my feelings.  For years I've hovered around ICE with an open invite to freelance for them as long as I do what they want.  The problem is I have no control over what they do with the games or my work and I'm generally unimpressed by what they're doing (going under usually). You get to the point where you have to simply seize control and do what matters to you for yourself and stop worrying about the hobby or the fan base or even the customer.

The morass of crap that has clogged up the industry for decades now is a direct result of worrying more about what will sell that about what is good.

Quote from: David Johansen;457733The morass of crap that has clogged up the industry for decades now is a direct result of worrying more about what will sell that about what is good.

This can be said of any enterprise (whether creative or not), which is highly dependent on a direct cash flow.

It's unfortunate that such enterprises frequently end up falling into the lowest common denominator.

Quote from: Gene Weigel;457711Interest in what?!? Getting e-mail saying someone is talking about me?

Let me guess, thedungeondelver e-mailed you what, five minutes or so after I had a laugh at your expense when someone else brought up your name?

QuoteThats about it. As far as games and the fan factions that have lined up over the years, I don't belong to any of them.

You have a strange way of showing it.

QuoteGary Gygax is the guy who kept insisting that I speak up on the forums.

I realize you aren't very bright, and you're more than a little unhinged, but blaming your paranoid horseshit ravings on Gary Gygax is really pathetic. I rather doubt he'd have ever wanted YOU to flack for him, and I also doubt he would have encouraged you and other grogtards to indulge in a crazed vendetta against David Cook -you know, like this one- on his behalf. And if he did egg on you and some of your fellow grogtards to try to shit all over David Cook, then your hero comes across as a petty, vindictive, passive-aggressive asshole now doesn't he?

So nice job of upholding the honor of Gary Gygax.

QuoteI never had some notion of defending my gaming group or tastes. Frankly, I'd rather just work with people but the void of mistrust is huge on the internet and its perpetuated this "quick discussion" instead of "building better things".

Maybe you should. Your periodic Two Minute Hate sessions aimed at everyone at TSR who didn't to commit ritual suicide when Gygax was ousted from the company haven't done you or anyone else much good, have they?

Quote from: Elfdart;457895I realize you aren't very bright, and you're more than a little unhinged, but blaming your paranoid horseshit ravings on Gary Gygax is really pathetic. I rather doubt he'd have ever wanted YOU to flack for him, and I also doubt he would have encouraged you and other grogtards to indulge in a crazed vendetta against David Cook -you know, like this one- on his behalf. And if he did egg on you and some of your fellow grogtards to try to shit all over David Cook, then your hero comes across as a petty, vindictive, passive-aggressive asshole now doesn't he?

"Elfdart" is describing your penis size, correct?

Dude, you've got major problems if you're this paranoid.

Elfdart's starting to creep me out.  That is some seriously stalky behavior there.

Actually, I'm kind of picturing the three of you doing a spit roast together, I just can't decide which one of you would be the pig.

I call not pig.

All nutsack references aside, I just wish that I knew the drive behind it. Is it because he's contradicting me that there is something wonderful that I'm missing? What is it? Its not like I don't have endless shelves of rpg fool's gold. Is there some lost gem that I need to be aware of that drives this endless barrage? Something by Zeb Cook perhaps?

If the answer is no and you (Elfdart) are some kind of "anti-paladin" of whatever I represent then you know what? YOU WON! Now move move on.

Quote from: ggroy;457742This can be said of any enterprise (whether creative or not), which is highly dependent on a direct cash flow.

It's unfortunate that such enterprises frequently end up falling into the lowest common denominator.

Conclusion: RPGs are at their best as a hobby, a craft, a cottage industry.

Quote from: Benoist;457964Conclusion: RPGs are at their best as a hobby, a craft, a cottage industry.

Yep.

Quote from: Aos;457948Actually, I'm kind of picturing the three of you doing a spit roast together, I just can't decide which one of you would be the pig.

I know you've got a lot of trolling to catch up on but if you feel like taking a breather you ought to start a buck rogers thread.

Quote from: Cole;457989I know you've got a lot of trolling to catch up on but if you feel like taking a breather you ought to start a buck rogers thread.

 U jelly?

Er, I mean sure.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;457941Elfdart's starting to creep me out.  That is some seriously stalky behavior there.

Quote from: Gene Weigel;457940"Elfdart" is describing your penis size, correct?

Dude, you've got major problems if you're this paranoid.

Project often? Who is peddling crank conspiracy theories? There are hobos living under overpasses huffing glue out of paper bags who are more coherent and less unbalanced than you are.

Quote from: Benoist;457964Conclusion: RPGs are at their best as a hobby, a craft, a cottage industry.

Or at least when creative decisions aren't made for business reasons.

Looking over the history of D&D it's pretty clear that the decades-long trainwreck of pumping out a new edition every few years has more often than not been motivated by attempts to grab cash, screw creators out of royalties, and not knowing when to leave well enough alone. Each edition (as far as I know -I'm not familiar with 4E) has its good and bad points, and as most gamers have discovered over the years, it's usually best to take one edition as a framework, scrape away the parts that are useless and replace them with bits and pieces from the others and/or one's own ideas. This is what probably >90% of gamers have done over the last 35 years and more power to them. It's these gamers, who turned all the sows' ears into silk purses for TSR and Hasbro, and made sure that (A)D&D wasn't just a fad like Rubik's Cube.

The grogtards' hostility (and let's be clear: most of the hostility comes from these miscreants) towards others is really just "Us vs Them" and would probably have sprung up even if there was no 2nd Edition -let alone a 3rd or a 4th. After all, when they don't have fans of other editions to piss on, they bitch and whine about Unearthed Arcana and other 1E products, including those created by Gygax himself. One prominent grogtard even suggested that if you use the rules from UA, you shouldn't be playing the game anyway because you're not really playing by the rules.

Well, maybe it made sense to him.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;457729That's likely the best way.  If I poured the time into The Delver's Dungeon that I've spent posting on forums I'd have eclipsed other websites by now.

No shit.  I have looked back at the last few months or so and have come to the same conclusion.

So, you wanna jump on the Vintage bandwagon?  

Quote from: StormBringer;458125No shit.  I have looked back at the last few months or so and have come to the same conclusion.

So, you wanna jump on the Vintage bandwagon?  

You mean the one I pioneered back in 2002?  That one?

What I'm probably going to do (no, what I am going to do) is shitcan about 90% of the front page content, keeping the modules and the interview I did with Gary back then, then start building up new content.  Likely the monsters will be tucked into a .PDF and offered like the modules.

But stuff like me bitching about the BoEF, WotC's D&D business practices?  Yeah, that's at best irrelevant and at worst shining examples of what a bad writer I used to be.  

The new 'site will be Joomla-based so me putting up content won't entail using FrontPage