ProfessorCirno posted:It's a pretty amazing one-two combo of ignorance and shittiness side by side, and the comment largely just boils down to Mearls desperately trying to gatehouse the hobby. I guess I've always seen Mearls as a clueless goof with no context awareness (so, a nerd) in way over his head as a voice in the hobby. Not that it really excuses lovely behavior. And it's extra ironic because there were at least a few WotC credits in the guest list that I saw.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:22 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 18:07 |
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Slimnoid posted:I'd wager that most people have him blocked for being an obnoxious rear end, as well as being an untalented hack. It's pretty difficult to call people out when you don't see their poo poo.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:26 |
Slimnoid posted:I'd wager that most people have him blocked for being an obnoxious rear end, as well as being an untalented hack. It's pretty difficult to call people out when you don't see their poo poo. It also makes me wonder why anyone would use such a wide open platform for any kind of professional PR stuff (oh wait, Mearls).
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:32 |
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Evil Mastermind posted:And Ken Hite, Emily Care Boss, Anna Kreider, and Mark Diaz Truman. You know, people who are actually involved in the industry and working with the fans and trying to get the overall hobby to not be so loving regressive. And he still has me blocked on twitter, even though my criticism of all that mess has been so mild that I feel bad for not saying more.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:33 |
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Calling out those shitheads helps to make it a discussion about them. "Making any discussion about me" is literally the only thing they are skilled at doing, and it's a frequent distraction/derail technique from whatever is currently going on.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:35 |
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Terrible Opinions posted:They'd have to be games based around one shots or at least very short campaigns otherwise your customers would have no reason to buy more than one product. If you want to fun a big RPG in the vein D&D, WoD, etc you need a constant stream of content. A fun, big RPG in the vein of D&D, WoD, etc. are not those small, specialized games with narrow scopes that a strategy of many single-sourcebook releases lends itself to. I'm thinking more like Night Witches or PATROL.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:36 |
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Evil Mastermind posted:Yeah, I saw someone on G+ posting about how Punidtowski was giving her poo poo and her reaction was basically "I thought I blocked him". Blocking just keeps people from directly talking to you. It doesn't stop them from setting up a ghost account or just signing out to see your content, unless you have everything in a private circle. It's how all those raging buffoons continue to target and harass people even when they've been blocked from contacting them. ImpactVector posted:It also makes me wonder why anyone would use such a wide open platform for any kind of professional PR stuff (oh wait, Mearls). It's immensely popular in a way that few others are, and it's very easy to talk with fans/have them contact you. It also helps you control your image in real-time, and that's one reason virtually every company and celebrity has an account (and many have people to run it for them).
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:47 |
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ProfessorCirno posted:Like, his statement boiled down to, essentially, "Oh, they're just giving a free badge and nothing else? I guess that's why no REAL developers are on there," while referring to a list that included Mike loving Pondsmith. In a comment that was talking to someone who was whining that the list was too "diverse." I know Mearls wants D&D to return to some kind of non-existant glory days where Wizards ruled the world and fighters were their willing meatshields but is also 2e at the same time. But I didn't know he also wanted the entire culture of the industry to revert to the late 80s early 90s. Halloween Jack posted:Who on the D&D team is notable besides Mearls and Crawford at this point? I think the in-house D&D team is only like, four people. The vast majority of their books are done by contract workers, and the fabled "fix to rangers" has been in a holding pattern for a year and a half because the guy who was going to work on it got Jury Duty and then only did half of it.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:49 |
moths posted:Calling out those shitheads helps to make it a discussion about them. "Making any discussion about me" is literally the only thing they are skilled at doing, and it's a frequent distraction/derail technique from whatever is currently going on. I'm kind of surprised it doesn't do that for people you've blocked. But I'm sure that would have all kinds of other ramifications.
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# ? May 13, 2016 16:52 |
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I don't know anyone on that list except Ken Hite, but Hite himself is a zillion times better designer than Mearls could ever hope to be.
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# ? May 13, 2016 17:03 |
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If we're really going to talk about diversity, what comes to mind is that almost everyone on that list are white.
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# ? May 13, 2016 17:15 |
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gradenko_2000 posted:I don't know anyone on that list except Ken Hite, but Hite himself is a zillion times better designer than Mearls could ever hope to be.
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# ? May 13, 2016 17:33 |
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Well, most game designers are white. There are stories about people not believing Mike Pondsmith is who he is because he's black, so obviously he can't be a famous game designer. I'd love somebody to jump up and disprove me on that, but Pondsmith is literally the only one I know off the top of my head, which I find rather humbling to realize. Here's a list I found, though I know it isn't complete. And that's all aside from other ethnicities, of course. The fact that there are over ten women on that list feels like a big step forward as it is, to be blunt. I'd say it's less of a problem for the panel and more a general issue the industry faces and probably will continue to face for awhile. gradenko_2000 posted:I don't know anyone on that list except Ken Hite, but Hite himself is a zillion times better designer than Mearls could ever hope to be. I always think of Hite as more a writer than a designer, but he's certainly one of the best at what he does nonetheless. RPGs could stand to differentiate "rules guys" from "setting guys", I feel, but that's a whole other tangent.
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# ? May 13, 2016 17:46 |
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I also see Jessica Price and Wes Schneider on there, and you'd think he could be assed to at the very least know the more well-known names of one of his biggest competitors.
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# ? May 13, 2016 19:52 |
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Also Eddy Webb from Onyx Path, though I think he mostly runs their web stuff.
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# ? May 13, 2016 19:55 |
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Mors Rattus posted:Also Eddy Webb from Onyx Path, though I think he mostly runs their web stuff. The job he was born to do.
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# ? May 13, 2016 20:03 |
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Lewis Pulsipher seems bound and determined to whine about being a relic. "Well, maybe they're real RPG developers, but GenCon isn't just about RPGs, therefore" https://twitter.com/lewpuls/status/731221369346740224
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:02 |
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I mean, he got caught saying he doesn't recognize them because of diversity quotas. I'm just glad social media at large is telling him and Mearls to gently caress off, albeit in far more polite tones.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:06 |
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Why an old guy mostly known for old tabletop games would complain about GenCon being focused on tabletop, I don't know. But there are video game developers and journalists on that list. Like Mike Pondsmith.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:18 |
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https://twitter.com/the_strix/status/730831122452467712 https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/730835879183319040 https://twitter.com/the_strix/status/730837602933211137 ... https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/731203211005038594 He does at least seem to have realized he hosed up.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:20 |
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I think it's too late, and people have already called him out on his excuse there. You don't get to say "oh I meant they treat their guests badly" after calling them out as "unknowns."
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:26 |
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Leperflesh posted:He does at least seem to have realized he hosed up. Yeah, after enough people breathe down his neck for being so thick-headed. ProfessorCirno posted:I think it's too late, and people have already called him out on his excuse there. You don't get to say "oh I meant they treat their guests badly" after calling them out as "unknowns." This too.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:27 |
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I think it's pretty wild that the guy in charge of the biggest name in elfgaming is free to run his mouth off on social media like this and nobody at his parent company seems to be the slightest bit concerned, that's a pretty sweet gig.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:31 |
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They would have to start caring about D&D as a brand first.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:36 |
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No, I totally get it. He felt that the reason the list was packed with unknowns is because they don't provide a reasonable reward to attract all the good important people like himself. Maybe still hasn't quite understood that this isn't just insulting to the people who were invited (because it implies they're not insiders, and worse, implies they're willing to accept a paltry reward in return for a little publicity, e.g. they're cheap), it's also highlighting his ignorance of the current state of the industry (because he didn't recognize these people, when he should have). So he knows he made a mistake, and is willing to apologize for it, but that does not change the fact that his mistake wasn't made from a mere slip of the tongue or an unintended statement that came out wrong or something; his statement revealed something ugly about his own ego and ignorance, and you can't just apologize for being ignorant and elitist, you need to stop being ignorant and elitist. All that said: it's still one thin degree better than someone who just doubles down and insists they're right and all the people reacting are just crazy. Which, unfortunately, is a depressingly common incidence in the industry.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:37 |
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Alien Rope Burn posted:They would have to start caring about D&D as a brand first. They will once the blockbuster movie gets made just you wait guys, seriously. Leperflesh posted:No, I totally get it. He felt that the reason the list was packed with unknowns is because they don't provide a reasonable reward to attract all the good important people like himself. Maybe still hasn't quite understood that this isn't just insulting to the people who were invited (because it implies they're not insiders, and worse, implies they're willing to accept a paltry reward in return for a little publicity, e.g. they're cheap), it's also highlighting his ignorance of the current state of the industry (because he didn't recognize these people, when he should have). Mearls is the kind of guy who lives, plays, and breathes D&D. I'd not be surprised if he didn't know about any of these people because any game that isn't D&D is alien to him.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:44 |
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"Look at all these no-name unknowns like Kenneth Hite, credited consultant for Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition." - Mike Mearls
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:47 |
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I really wish that someone at Hasbro would realize that just because someone is really enthusiastic about your product doesn't mean that he should be put in charge of managing it.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:48 |
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Slimnoid posted:They will once the blockbuster movie gets made just you wait guys, seriously. I think it's more likely, or at least related, that even in the everyone knows everybody professional RPG writer community that nobody feels like palling around with Mearls. He doesn't seem like a guy who's made a ton of effort to reach out and make contacts, and after the way he threw Monte Cook under the bus I doubt anyone else is eager to reach out to him. He probably does exist in a bubble of sorts but I don't think it's because he's a D&D fanboy. This Twitter exchange just lends credence to my theory.
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# ? May 13, 2016 22:51 |
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Kai Tave posted:I think it's more likely, or at least related, that even in the everyone knows everybody professional RPG writer community that nobody feels like palling around with Mearls. He doesn't seem like a guy who's made a ton of effort to reach out and make contacts, and after the way he threw Monte Cook under the bus I doubt anyone else is eager to reach out to him. He probably does exist in a bubble of sorts but I don't think it's because he's a D&D fanboy. This Twitter exchange just lends credence to my theory. You're probably closer to the truth than I am. Mearls certainly didn't make any friends by hiring those two people as consultants, that's for sure.
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# ? May 13, 2016 23:03 |
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I remember back when Next was still in "open playtest" and someone on Twitter said to Mearls "huh, there are a lot of people on RPGnet who don't seem to like what they're seeing, lot of arguments" and Mearls' response was something along the lines of "yeah, I've basically written off RPGnet, screw those guys." Now I don't think anyone should be obligated to try to placate every person on the internet with an opinion on your work, nor do I think that RPGnet is some bastion of enlightened elf game critiques that every right thinking designer should breathlessly heed, but like Leperflesh said it takes a certain blend of pricked ego and ignorance to come out and slag off one of the biggest online communities pertaining to your particular hobby-industry because they said some mean things about your baby. There were a dozen more professional ways he could have handled that but chose not to.
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# ? May 13, 2016 23:17 |
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My theory is that Mearls has bought the Games Workshop model where D&D is the Hobby. Yeah there's a lot of wanna-be pretenders out there trying to ape D&D, but they're not Real D&D and never will be. He took the 4e backlash extremely personally, and it broke him. The TRUE D&D people, the only ones who matter - the grogs and Old-Schoolers, were telling him he did bad. Consequentially, Next's "playtest" cycle was a mix of high-profile concessions to their demands and nostalgia showboating. I don't think he recognizes that he's part of a greater RPG community or industry. When he spent a year
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# ? May 13, 2016 23:37 |
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There's nothing necessarily wrong about not caring about the complaints people have about your game. It does conflict with the whole open playtest thing they were doing. And you shouldn't write off a whole group of people.
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# ? May 14, 2016 00:07 |
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Black Hat Matt did something similar with beast, anyone who was critiquing his game was obviously a Gamergater because they were sympathising with the excessively thinly veiled Gater analogues rather than the poor oppressed minorities that feed on suffering. He finally changed it once the backlash from Kickstarter Backers reached critical mass. Unless you read the DM's chapter in which case there's a sidebar that says he was kidding before and Beasts are actually born the way they are and it's okay to hate Heroes because they're scum. I know I keep harping on it but it really pisses me off how thinly veiled his contempt is for the consumers. And how token the effort to placate them was. Kurieg fucked around with this message at 00:16 on May 14, 2016 |
# ? May 14, 2016 00:13 |
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Kai Tave posted:I remember back when Next was still in "open playtest" and someone on Twitter said to Mearls "huh, there are a lot of people on RPGnet who don't seem to like what they're seeing, lot of arguments" and Mearls' response was something along the lines of "yeah, I've basically written off RPGnet, screw those guys." I remember the first time I ran across Mike Mearls - as a commenter on RPGnet (et al) who didn't like what he was seeing with the upcoming 3E and had lots of arguments about it.
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# ? May 14, 2016 00:16 |
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I always think of Hite as more a writer than a designer, but he's certainly one of the best at what he does nonetheless. RPGs could stand to differentiate "rules guys" from "setting guys", I feel, but that's a whole other tangent. I agree. For example, I think Monte Cook would have a much better relative standing as a "setting guy" than as a "rules guy". moths posted:"Look at all these no-name unknowns like Kenneth Hite, credited consultant for Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition." Maybe they need to bring in Robin Laws for yet another DMG to show people how the game should be run. Again.
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# ? May 14, 2016 00:38 |
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Jimbozig posted:There's nothing necessarily wrong about not caring about the complaints people have about your game. It does conflict with the whole open playtest thing they were doing. And you shouldn't write off a whole group of people. There's absolutely nothing wrong with deciding you don't want to listen to X forum, but there's something pretty dumb about the Head of D&D deciding to air his personal grievances with one of the biggest RPG-related websites around for the sole reason that people there were too critical of his darling, especially when he then turned around and decided to plant his flag on another RPG site (ENworld) so he could be surrounded by an echo chamber, all the while touting this "open play test" as a way to make your opinions heard (as long as they don't hurt Mike Mearls' feelings that is).
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# ? May 14, 2016 00:48 |
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Rand Brittain posted:Like many people, I find the whole "support FLGS y/n" debate perplexing and weird because I don't have a FLGS. Or you have some FLGS only they are awful. Unfriendly staff, zero play space buy something and get out... if I wanted that I would just buy it off amazon, stock only what the store owner likes, only stocks magic and nothing else is stocked, the owner smells like a mixture of bugles and feet fungus etc etc etc. My town has not had a FLGS that stayed in business for more than 3 years in almost 15 years now despite lots of stores trying to stay in business.
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# ? May 14, 2016 01:14 |
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I support my FLGS when I can but for me "Local" is 60 miles away, and they're usually pretty sparse on stocking PrivPress books since they're small and Warmahordes isn't as big in our community. So I usually end up getting them online somewhere.
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# ? May 14, 2016 01:16 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 18:07 |
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I support my LGS mostly because I get an employee discount and everything is better at slightly over cost
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# ? May 14, 2016 03:23 |