History Lorraine Williams did... what?

GnomeWorks · 15th March 2009, 04:58 AM

I'm not exactly sure how relevant or pertinent this is, but I was here and noticed this interesting tidbit...

Quote:

Lorraine created the company TSR...

Which made me say, "Um... what?"

Shroomy · 15th March 2009, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GnomeWorks

I'm not exactly sure how relevant or pertinent this is, but I was here and noticed this interesting tidbit...

Which made me say, "Um... what?"

Well, "destroying" a company sounds a lot worse when you're trying to license out a property nobody cares about anymore.

**Henry** · 15th March 2009, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GnomeWorks

...and noticed this interesting tidbit...

JustKim · 15th March 2009, 05:21 AM

Oh wow, I never knew that! I will make room in my brain for this fact.

Alzrius · 15th March 2009, 05:22 AM

All accounts agree that she was a lying, evil witch back in the days of TSR (which she certainly did not create); this just proves the leopards don't change their spots.

Matthew L. Martin · 15th March 2009, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alzrius

All accounts agree that she was a lying, evil witch back in the days of TSR (which she certainly did not create); this just proves the leopards don't change their spots.

You know, I'm not entirely convinced that she was quite as bad or as hostile to gaming as gaming culture makes her out to be. William W. Connors reported that she was very understanding when he was a new designer and his wife was hospitalized (see here) and the Thirty Years of Adventure book includes an interview in which Troy Denning gives her credit for the idea of the "Dragon Cards" from the 1991 D&D Basic Set.

And there's no evidence she's directly responsible for that blurb. Probable, yes, but it could be her brother or an overzealous employee overstating matters.

Kamikaze Midget · 15th March 2009, 05:44 AM

Quote:

You know, I'm not entirely convinced that she was quite as bad or as hostile to gaming as gaming culture makes her out to be. William W. Connors reported that she was very understanding when he was a new designer and his wife was hospitalized (see here) and the Thirty Years of Adventure book includes an interview in which Troy Denning gives her credit for the idea of the "Dragon Cards" from the 1991 D&D Basic Set.

Hey, no one is ALL bad.

But bad blood is easy to earn in the D&D community, and strangling the game isn't going to earn you many brownie points.

ProfessorCirno · 15th March 2009, 05:47 AM

Accounts paint two very different pictures of her depending of who you were. She was apparently very dismissive and perhaps "haughty" of and towards her customers, yes. At the same time, she was also apparently very kind and caring towards her employees. While certainly TSR did not, well, flourish" under her guidance, I can't help but wonder if perhaps tabletop gamers at times deserve the dismissiveness.

Mark · 15th March 2009, 05:55 AM

When she was a baby, she ate my dingo.

doctorhook · 15th March 2009, 06:20 AM

We should email the address listed on the page, politely asking them to voluntarily correct themselves.

Sammael · 15th March 2009, 11:46 AM

Oh wow. I had no idea Flint Dille was Lorraine Williams' brother.

wingsandsword · 15th March 2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sammael

Oh wow. I had no idea Flint Dille was Lorraine Williams' brother.

Yeah, Ms. Williams being part of the Dille family is why TSR kept trying to push Buck Rogers games on the public back in The Bad Old Days: The family owned the license so it was a dirt-cheap way to make a licensed RPG.

Now, that there is minimal interest in the license (it's a number of decades past it's glory days), and the game itself wasn't exceptional kind of doomed the project though.

D'karr · 15th March 2009, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wingsandsword

Yeah, Ms. Williams being part of the Dille family is why TSR kept trying to push Buck Rogers games on the public back in The Bad Old Days: The family owned the license so it was a dirt-cheap way to make a licensed RPG.

Now, that there is minimal interest in the license (it's a number of decades past it's glory days), and the game itself wasn't exceptional kind of doomed the project though.

I think a Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 century would make an excellent game.

Indubidubidubitably Sir!

JohnRTroy · 15th March 2009, 04:20 PM

Actually, there IS renewed interest in the property, since the whole reason that site is up there is because there's a new comic coming out and Frank Miller is doing a Buck Rogers movie. (Although good luck with that, after the Spirit has flopped I don't believe Miller's take on old properties should be followed, assuming Flint's looking at doing a "Sin City" type file).

However, you are correct about the property's current state. Buck Rogers is sort of a relic from the past. Since it came from the pulp-era and also was showing the future as imagined then, it comes off as dated. Science Fiction from the past tends to not age well. I think the 1970s series was the last successful attempt at this. I think the Dille family is pushing it as "retro-future".

I am appalled by that puffing of Lorraine's resume. TSR was incorporated years before she came on board, and I would be very careful saying that on a public web site, considering enough history has been written about the company so it's an obvious untruth.

I believe Ryan Dancey said there was tons of the Buck Roger's XXV game in warehouses when he had to inventory the company. I believe the trust got paid royalties from wholesale print copies. Whatever else you can say about Ms. William's, I believe that strategy was self-interest and really hurt the company, and if TSR had been a larger company and under public scrutiny she would have been raked over the coals for that.

amaril · 15th March 2009, 04:34 PM

Savage Worlds players of the Slipstream RPG might certainly find the Buck Rogers stuff interesting now.

DreadPirateMurphy · 15th March 2009, 09:29 PM

I don't think "lack of interest in the property" matters much. The '79 TV series followed a decades-long hiatus on film for Buck Rogers, and it was relatively successful for a sci-fi series. The trigger event was probably the unexpected success of Star Wars, which also led to Battlestar Galactica and a number of other lesser-known "tributes."

Buck Rogers is a known property, like Flash Gordon. The right treatment could easily turn it into something very cool. How does a 500-year-old man deal with culture shock and displacement? What kind of different perspectives does he bring? Where can he find a Nintendo Wii?

Silver Moon · 15th March 2009, 10:34 PM

Lorraine created the company TSR...

Well sure, of course she did, right after she ~edited~

Emirikol · 15th March 2009, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GnomeWorks

I'm not exactly sure how relevant or pertinent this is, but I was here and noticed this interesting tidbit...
Which made me say, "Um... what?"Lorraine is credited here as creating the company TSR

I bet the Gygax family trust would like to review that for "accuracy."

jh
(mod edit: not appropriate)

Dausuul · 15th March 2009, 11:09 PM

Hmm. I too have heard conflicting accounts of Lorraine Williams' tenure; although it's pretty clear she was a lousy CEO, since the company went from highly profitable to massive indebtedness and near collapse on her watch.

The fact that this flat-out lie is being posted on a website presumably representing her does not incline me toward the sympathetic view. Whoever currently owns the rights to the name "TSR" (probably WotC) might want to have a word with that site...

Xyxox · 16th March 2009, 12:32 AM

All I can say is, I'll never have anything to do with anything connected to Buck Rogers.

Buck Rogers is a big part of why TSR went belly up.