I would put as evil thought more in the hypocritical spent from EH.
The owner of the company goes into the whole bullshit on Twitter on how the rich have too much money and the poor not enough. The usual Capitalism= bad yet at the same time makes sure to encourage  the same people he is preaching to make sure they back EH latest kickstarter.

As well as hating HP Lovecraft while still using him and his works to make money off of him.!

WOTC

I don't know, man, Hasbro is giving Evil Hat and Varg a run for their money right now.

Quote from: Yabba on January 16, 2023, 01:03:38 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on January 16, 2023, 01:02:36 PM

Quote from: Yabba on January 16, 2023, 12:58:47 PM

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Quote from: Yabba on January 16, 2023, 12:51:38 PM
With all this Ogl crap going on, I think it's time to think about the worst Rpg Company. So In your opinion what is the worst Rpg Company, in terms of how they treat their fans, and the quality of their products. For me Wotc is a big contender of course but, I also think that Evil Hat publishing is also up their. Anyways what are Your thoughts?

IMHO:
Contenders for the first place would be WotC & GW followed closelly by Evil Hat.

Forgot about Gw but, they aren't really a rpg Company.

Really? Who publishes the Warhammer Fantasy RPG then?

It's nowhere near there main focus or what they became famous for.

Then wotc would not count either. Their main focus is mtg.

Quote from: Omega on January 25, 2023, 02:31:32 PM
Then wotc would not count either. Their main focus is mtg.

Completely different situation. WotC may focus more on MTG, but they also still produce D&D. GW doesn't produce WFRP. They haven't since partway through the 1E days, when they handed it off to Hogshead. Even during the 2E era where they used their "Black Industries" imprint for publishing it, the games were still produced by Green Ronin, and are marked as such. Then they handed it off to FFG, then from there to C7, who holds it currently.

Worst companies?

Games Workshop: They treat their store workers like disposable slaves. They treat FLGS like dirt. They gouge players on an unprecedented scale. They treat their designers and artists like slaves. I used to know some of the staff back in the 90s. They also copyright troll and have broken contracts with 3rd party developers. The list is long.

Hasbro/wotc: Treat designers like dirt. Treat their own product like dirt. Woke for 20+years now but only now revealing their agenda full bore. Self destructive like no other company.

Palladium: Great place to work for. Horrible place to work for. Totally schizo.

Chaosium: Went off the woke end and now has stepped up the game to internet bully as well. Used to be a pretty decent company. But they also jumped on the edition treadmill craze. This was honestly the last company I expected to see start threatening people. WTF.

Steve Jackson Games: Gradually becomming more and more hostile. Spies on forums. Loves to play internet bully. But there was hints of trouble as far back as the 90s. WTF happened?

Asmodee: Slowly garnering a rep for underhanded dealings.

White Wolf: Where to even begin? Mostly dead company now but that sure hasnt stopped some of its worst members from carrying the flag of wretchedness onwards.

Paizo: Seems to be hellbent on copying all of wotc's worst behaviors. With better PR.

Probably easier to list off companies that are not trouble in some manner. And this is creeping into board games too. I can not get the mane of the publisher but I keep hearing from one designer some of the most insane woke antics imaginable.

I'd divide my vote between Evil Hat and Games Workshop

Quote from: Wrath of God on January 27, 2023, 04:34:03 PM
I'd divide my vote between Evil Hat and Games Workshop

GW isn't really an RPG company these past 30 years or so, so I'd go with Evil Hat.

I'd just give all of the usual suspects a participation trophy and tell them that they are all "winners".  They'd take it as a compliment.

Quote from: Valatar on January 16, 2023, 11:54:00 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on January 16, 2023, 06:07:49 PM
what's the deal with evil hat?

They invited themselves to the culture war without being asked.  They released a Lovecraft setting and spent at least one full page of the book excoriating the man whose work they'd taken to sell for money. 

This confuses me. I mean I like Lovecrafts writings but does anybody actually think he was a lovely bloke? I don't see the massive doublethink here unless you're angry about people making money of a racist. Damn those awfule people.

Quote from: Garry G on January 29, 2023, 02:13:11 PM

Quote from: Valatar on January 16, 2023, 11:54:00 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on January 16, 2023, 06:07:49 PM
what's the deal with evil hat?

They invited themselves to the culture war without being asked.  They released a Lovecraft setting and spent at least one full page of the book excoriating the man whose work they'd taken to sell for money. 

This confuses me. I mean I like Lovecrafts writings but does anybody actually think he was a lovely bloke? I don't see the massive doublethink here unless you're angry about people making money of a racist. Damn those awfule people.

Firstly, why even mention his views? Just make a scary monster book.

If you are going to mention him, a one sentence disclaimer gives you CYA protection. Writing an extensive bit taking a dump on the man whose work you're making money from is both petty and hypocritical. It's like the people who love Harry Potter, but can't mention the series without lambasting the authoress.

If Mein Kampf could sell millions of dollars worth of games, these turds would happily produce them, while holding their snoots high in the air.

For my own personal opinion, H.P.L. was a disturbed man, whose father was institutionalized, leaving him to be raised by a neurotic mother (who was later institutionalized.) He wasn't a racist so much as he was raised to think everyone but a Rhode Island WASP was some kind of sub-human mud-person. It went well beyond race, he thought the Welsh were Untermensch for Christ sakes. 

He was a pitiable basket case, but the demons running around in his head resulted in works of fiction that have influenced ALL 20th century horror to a small or greater degree. If someone is too baby-brained to separate art from artist, maybe they shouldn't make a buck off of said artist?

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Quote from: Brad on January 16, 2023, 04:13:01 PM
What's wrong with Palladium? Kevin Siembieda might have issues running a business, but he doesn't actively despise anyone who buys his games.

No, he just hates his writers. Because they all suffer from the crime of "Not being Kevin Seimbieda" as far as I can tell.

I hate going through the older books and seeing Kevin talk about "This book started as a great idea by <X> but when I got the manuscript, I had to tell <X> it wasn't up to Palladium Standards(tm), so I cracked my knuckles and wrote it myself. And finally, with great fanfare... HERE IT IS!"

Additionally he sued #WotC for publishing a compatible product called The Primal Order, which forced the latter to form a separate LLC and create an entirely new product called Magic: The Gathering.

Palladium books.  It's been described as seeing CEO Kevin Seimbeida and wanting to run up to him to give him a big hug for his great games, then punching him for how he writes his confusing rules. 

For example.  Fantasy.  People like knights or soldiers use arm shields.  His book has a section in it for equipment.  Where do you find the stats & costs for big and small wood or iron shields?   That's right, it's in the description of the shield proficiency skill in the skills section of the book.  Oh, and this is 1st edition, so 2nd edition fixes that, right?   Nope.  It's a tradition now, so 2nd edition also lists shield stats in the skill to use shields, and nowhere in the book's equipment section are shield costs or stats mentioned. 

And that's not even saying things like how Palladium combat rules are always slightly different depending on how old or new each core rulebook is.  It's like they play test new combat rules with each game that comes out.

That's annoying, but in reality I still say go buy those games.  They're great fun.  Just don't be afraid to come to this forum and ask for help clarifying rules.   We all have been there.  We will help. 

Better to just mine the books for ideas, then use... practically any other system. If it's good enough for Kevin, it's good enough for me, right?

(The joke being, for those that don't know: Kevin famously barely uses his own system when he runs games at cons or for friends. His own personal system is basically unrecognizable as the published Palladium system)

Quote from: Garry G on January 29, 2023, 02:13:11 PM

Quote from: Valatar on January 16, 2023, 11:54:00 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on January 16, 2023, 06:07:49 PM
what's the deal with evil hat?

They invited themselves to the culture war without being asked.  They released a Lovecraft setting and spent at least one full page of the book excoriating the man whose work they'd taken to sell for money. 

This confuses me. I mean I like Lovecrafts writings but does anybody actually think he was a lovely bloke? I don't see the massive doublethink here unless you're angry about people making money of a racist. Damn those awfule people.

It's a little thing called hypocrisy.  It obviously doesn't bother you, but most people take a dim view of it.  This Evil Hat asshole had choices; he didn't have to use Lovecraft's work to make a game.  If he wanted to make a horror game he could have made a generic one, like Chill.  Or if he just HAD to use some IP, he could have based a game on the horror writings of his fellow libtard Stephen King.  But that would have required expensive licensing fees, whereas Lovecraft's work is in the public domain, so this cheap motherfucker just decided to steal somebody else's ideas and then act like his hand was forced or something.  Like all his loathesome ilk, what few principles he may have end where his wallet begins.