Stormprince
First Post
Okay, I'm thinking that all of this is getting more than a little bit out of hand.
First of all, Tracy's correlation between "terrorism" was not just out from left field. He opened his mail box on September 11th, when you could not avoid thinking about terrorism (it was on just about every television station, in every newspaper, on every radio station). He saw something that offended him. He has the right to be offended. He also has the right to state his opinion in his own newsletter. Tracy has a very strong sense of what is good and evil, right and wrong, a strong sense of morality. His sense of morality was offended by seeing an entire magazine that is mailed to a wide-audience dedicated to "evil." A magazine where there are subscribers who are kids. A magazine with a "sealed" section to supposedly prevent children from reading it. Come on now, a sealed section? Who do you know didn't unseal that section? Do you think any of these same people who may not be able to get into an R-rated movie without being escorted by an adult asked permission from their parents before they unsealed that section?
I've read through the magazine. To me, it's a pure marketing ploy. It's shouting, "Look, we can be just as gritty and edgy as White Wolf! We're naughty! BUY OUR PRODUCTS!" Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Personally, I don't need any product to tell me how to "make evil really evil." I have plenty of resources in real life, as Tsyr pointed out. The fact that they're putting out only the Book of Vile Darkness, and not a companion "Good" book, just goes to show that it's one of those pure marketing manuscripts. Oh yeah, it was written by Monte Cook. How could I forget? How "dare" Tracy disagree with someone Monte or another writer put out. Shame on him. Grow up. Tracy and Laura Hickman worked for TSR to create the same worlds that still exist today. They created Ravenloft.
Tracy has never made it a secret how he feels about morality. He didn't agree with having a character just be a thief, so he envisioned a race of innocent kleptomaniacs. Tracy and Margaret have dealt with and created some of the most memorable "evil" characters in modern fantasy. Lord Soth. Count Strahd. Raistlin. Mina. Dalamar, and now Prince Dagnarus in the Sovereign Stone trilogy. Need I go on? What makes them interesting characters, however, isn't the fact that they are evil, but despite the fact that they are evil.
Just as you had the right to post how you view Tracy's comments, Tracy had the right to post his view on the editors and writers of Dragon Magazine. Is he upset? Yes, and perhaps rightfully so. Was he a bit extreme? Yeah, probably. But to be fair to him, you're only seeing a message that he typed up in the heat of the moment. You haven't read some of his responses to the Dragonlance fans on the mailing lists. You haven't sitten down and talked to him about his viewpoints. Just as you loudly proclaimed "I am boycotting all his Sovereign Stone and Dragonlance stuff," he has the right to "boycott" this one particular issue of Dragon Magazine.
Christopher Coyle
First of all, Tracy's correlation between "terrorism" was not just out from left field. He opened his mail box on September 11th, when you could not avoid thinking about terrorism (it was on just about every television station, in every newspaper, on every radio station). He saw something that offended him. He has the right to be offended. He also has the right to state his opinion in his own newsletter. Tracy has a very strong sense of what is good and evil, right and wrong, a strong sense of morality. His sense of morality was offended by seeing an entire magazine that is mailed to a wide-audience dedicated to "evil." A magazine where there are subscribers who are kids. A magazine with a "sealed" section to supposedly prevent children from reading it. Come on now, a sealed section? Who do you know didn't unseal that section? Do you think any of these same people who may not be able to get into an R-rated movie without being escorted by an adult asked permission from their parents before they unsealed that section?
I've read through the magazine. To me, it's a pure marketing ploy. It's shouting, "Look, we can be just as gritty and edgy as White Wolf! We're naughty! BUY OUR PRODUCTS!" Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Personally, I don't need any product to tell me how to "make evil really evil." I have plenty of resources in real life, as Tsyr pointed out. The fact that they're putting out only the Book of Vile Darkness, and not a companion "Good" book, just goes to show that it's one of those pure marketing manuscripts. Oh yeah, it was written by Monte Cook. How could I forget? How "dare" Tracy disagree with someone Monte or another writer put out. Shame on him. Grow up. Tracy and Laura Hickman worked for TSR to create the same worlds that still exist today. They created Ravenloft.
Tracy has never made it a secret how he feels about morality. He didn't agree with having a character just be a thief, so he envisioned a race of innocent kleptomaniacs. Tracy and Margaret have dealt with and created some of the most memorable "evil" characters in modern fantasy. Lord Soth. Count Strahd. Raistlin. Mina. Dalamar, and now Prince Dagnarus in the Sovereign Stone trilogy. Need I go on? What makes them interesting characters, however, isn't the fact that they are evil, but despite the fact that they are evil.
Just as you had the right to post how you view Tracy's comments, Tracy had the right to post his view on the editors and writers of Dragon Magazine. Is he upset? Yes, and perhaps rightfully so. Was he a bit extreme? Yeah, probably. But to be fair to him, you're only seeing a message that he typed up in the heat of the moment. You haven't read some of his responses to the Dragonlance fans on the mailing lists. You haven't sitten down and talked to him about his viewpoints. Just as you loudly proclaimed "I am boycotting all his Sovereign Stone and Dragonlance stuff," he has the right to "boycott" this one particular issue of Dragon Magazine.
Christopher Coyle
