Lorraine Williams did... what?

GnomeWorks · Mar 15, 2009

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

Lorraine created the company TSR...

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

Shroomy · Mar 15, 2009

GnomeWorks said:
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 · Mar 15, 2009

GnomeWorks said:
...and noticed this interesting tidbit...

JustKim · Mar 15, 2009

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

Alzrius · Mar 15, 2009

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.

M.L. Martin · Mar 15, 2009

Alzrius said:
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.

I'm A Banana · Mar 15, 2009

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 · Mar 15, 2009

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.