Reviewer accuses WotC of Espionage! <Put Dramatic Chord Here>

The only believable answer is that the RPG industry is a fraught with espionage as any other major corporation. How else can you explain similar products being released within a few months of each other? It seems only a few weeks ago that I picked up a copy of Frost and Fur (see my review of that product here) from Monkey God Enterprises, and now here I am doing another review of an artic survival manual.

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Yeah, right. Obviously this guy did not follow the dev cycles of these respective books. Must be a conspiracy on the part of WotC. WATCH OUT, your IP is in danger!

How about this: Frost and Fur was in development for a long time AND IT WAS NOT A SECRET. People waited and waited. Finally WotC got thier out of the pipline and yes it was about the same time.

Oh Evil Evil WotC. CAll Austin Powers! Evil is running WotC!

Aaron.

jester47 said:

Oh Evil Evil WotC. CAll Austin Powers! Evil is running WotC!

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Somewhere in WotC HQ there is a person holding their pinky finger to their mouth and proclaiming "We'll demand 35 BILLION dollars for Frostburn, or at leat 35 dollars for the PDF!"

Evil! Evil none the less!

Yeah, a full $35 PDF is sort of bogus.

But the whole "it must be a conspiracy" thing without a hint of sarcasm or humor makes me think the reviewer really believes that.

As I recall Frost and Fur was announced enough in advance and was delayed enough that WotC had plenty of time to do their own project and start it way after Frost and Fur started. I think one of the monkey god guys came out and stated as much. The indicator of espionage would be if the start date for Frost and Fur was a week ahead of the start date for Frostburn. Which we know they were very far appart. If anything WotC probably wanted to wait and see what came out in the region department, collect some reaction and then make their product accordingly. Coincidence does not indicate cause. Occams razor and all that. Can it still happen without the espionage, sure and it makes the situation much more simple.

Aaron.

The reviewer is not only uninformed but also lacks the resourcefulness to investigate his own outlandish fabrications.

This review should be yanked for such unsupported disparaging remarks and the offending reviewer should apologize. A pledge to be a responsible reviewer wouldn't hurt either.

- Ed

Ya, that';s a pretty stupid and boneheaded accusation and I imagine if anyone actually cared about his review this might be seen as a controversy.

I've asked them to look into it.

Why am I not surprised this reviewer turns out to be John Grigsby?

To be fair, it is a decent review and he did mark Frostburn highly. I think the only flaw in the review is the one acusatory paragraph and I have a suspicion he was trying to be funny by pointing out the coinkidink in a "oh so paranoid" sort of way.

Aaron.

Wulf Ratbane said:

Why am I not surprised this reviewer turns out to be John Grigsby?

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Why do you say that? I'm not familiar with him.

jester47 said:

How about this: Frost and Fur was in development for a long time AND IT WAS NOT A SECRET. People waited and waited. Finally WotC got thier out of the pipline and yes it was about the same time.

Oh Evil Evil WotC. CAll Austin Powers! Evil is running WotC!

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Meh. Who cares?

In the end, all I care about is the final product. Just as there will be many naval/ocean adventuring sourcebooks, many mass combat books, so will there be environmental sourcebooks.

To claim espionage on Gone with the Wind, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."