Mat Smith's Writing is Unpleasant [RANT]

[Feliath]

I think the tone of the column is essentially all Marketing's fault. I also believe their reasoning goes about like this, except filled with buzzwords:

*Our surveys show that the average player is around 30. Ergo, let us placate them with the content of our product; as long as it's acceptable to them, they will buy.
*30-year-olds are well and good, because they mostly have money. However, children are good at nagging, and are generally given more christmas presents. Ergo, aiming ads at 30-year-olds is not optimally effective. Let us try to catch the Pokémon market. (This will also annoy Phil and Jack down the hall, who market those product lines.)
*Mat Smith, you shall write inane commercials targeted at 12-year-olds! No buts! We have layoffs like others have lunch! Make with the "concealed" ads!

/Feliath

Disclaimer: This post is intended to be perhaps a trifle less than serious, but I stand by the core argument.

 

[barsoomcore]

Count me in the Marvel Bullpen camp. And I always loved Marvel Bullpen.

So I kinda like In The Works. Cheesy? Yeah. More or less useless? Certainly. But I like that in my promotional ad copy. Advertising writing is universally horrific, so lame-brained efforts at "injecting" personality into what is essentially a list of "Buy This" statements get wild and enthusiastic applause from me. The lamer and more pathetic the more entertaining, says I. But then I really really liked the Dungeons and Dragons movie. For much the same reasons, come to think of it.

I just like watching people try. Success or failure is beside the point, a lot of the time.

Besides, lame ad copy serves a crucial purpose in our society -- it makes the rest of us feel clever when we see through it.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Sounds like TrizzlWizzl is going for the "Managing Editor" job opening that was posted on WotC's site a while ago.

I think Mat's a genuinelly good guy who's been tasked with writing a breezy preview column targeted to unsophisticated WotC customers. And apparently he's doing an okay job at that task. He's not talking to TrizzlWizzl, or you, or me--he's talking to your kid brother, or Bob the brand-new gamer, or Larry the guy who "just got the Internet" thanks to AOL.

You, me, and TrizzlWizzl are the type of gamers that want detailed product info. We can get such product info here, or on other boards, or through gaming contacts. WotC knows about customers like us, and knows that we not only *can* find new product info through such backchannel means, we *enjoy* finding product info through such backchannel means. To us, it's just another way we participate in the hobby.

So, why would WotC provide detailed product info to us? Doing so would ruin our fun.

Instead, WotC will tease and pander to the unsophisticated gamer that browses the WotC site. That's what a corporate site is for. WotC (and Mat) is doing what he should.

I mean, c'mon, doesn't everyone here agree that ENWorld (or Nutkinland, or wherever) is for the hardcore gamers, and WotC boards are for the unsophisticated kids? WotC knows this, owns this, writes for this. And slips the juicy tidbits to us, the hardcore, through backchannel means.

-z, who isn't surprised when he discovers that something that should be fluff is in fact fluff

 

[Olive]

just remembered another thing i've seen re: official monsters...

people complaining that they can't use bullywugs in their homebrew or greyhawk campaigns anymore, cos they're just for Faerun...

 

[barsoomcore]

-z, who isn't surprised when he discovers that something that should be fluff is in fact fluff

Likewise,

-b, who is in fact genuinely delighted when he discovers that something that should be fluff is not just fluff but extra-sproingy downy fluff.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Bonus points for writing "sproingy".

 

[Roland Delacroix]

WotC is selling you their books, not their website. Their website is a freebie, a perk, an extra. You may not like their website, or the content found there in, but you are not paying for it either. Just like eratta, WotC doesn't have to do these things. When you buy a book, you buy the content that is contained between the covers, nothing more.

You just keep believing that.

Can i rate this thread 5 stars? It's a rant, against a guys work, so what? It's not a personal attack at all, its a response, blown outta proportion, to a professional work. A rant IS juvenile, if this was a mature discussion it woulda been a 'review'..........

Headbangers Ball: Cool show, Rikki was like a loser dressed up as a bad-ass. The music sucked about 1/2 the time though.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I think the comments about how Matt Smith is writing for my kid brothers is pretty accurate. I have 2 younger brothers and 1 brother in-law that are into gaming. One is into CoC & D&D, another is into Star Wars, and the third is into D&D. The oldest one of the group just turned 21. Articles like the ones written by Matt Smith may have some appeal to people of their age because the writing isn't completely dry. We also should bear in mind that even Gygax has said that the hobby needs an infusion of new blood. If most of the people buying RPG products are males around 30 years old, where's the future of the hobby? We need 13 - 20 year olds to be playing these games in order for the hobby to stay healthy. I'm not convinced that Matt Smith's articles will necessarily do that, but if it helps support those customers, then it succeeds.

I personally read that column just so I can find out which products are now officially public knowledge. Slipping up and divulging unannounced projects at WotC is considered to be "a very bad thing" tm.

As for Ricky Rachtman, there was a time when I listened to heavy metal and watched that show. I hated that guy!

 

[Oni]

You just keep believing that.

Would you mind explaining what you've said, because you've totally lost me.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think the comments about how Matt Smith is writing for my kid brothers is pretty accurate. I have 2 younger brothers and 1 brother in-law that are into gaming. One is into CoC & D&D, another is into Star Wars, and the third is into D&D. The oldest one of the group just turned 21. Articles like the ones written by Matt Smith may have some appeal to people of their age because the writing isn't completely dry.

Dude, can I be insulted by this?

Having just turned 21 myself, and finding the thing still being insipid and ad-y, I can say that if they're targeting anyone, it's the segment of the gaming population that can see through bad advertising...because that's basically what this boils down to.