Azure Trance
First Post
Curiously, where's Lorraine Williams nowadays?
Can someone fill me in on the history of the late TSR/early WotC/3e period?
- Thread starter johnsemlak
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johnsemlak
First Post
Azure Trance said:
The article on the history of Dungeons and Dragons, which someone linked above in this thread IIRC, says at that time she was living in Europe (Germany I think). She had left the industry. It was written around 2000 I believe.
Last edited:
David Argall
First Post
Williams 'defense'
It has to be kept in mind that our major sources here are highly biased. Gygax of course has no love for those who replaced him, and from the view of WOTC, the worse they make TSR look, the better their own efforts seem.
We can note here GG's claim he had to change the name of his movie effort because of TSR's bad reputation. But a petty $10 mil business having a reputation in the $bill of Hollywood? Doesn't seem likely. A much more reasonable explanation is that Hollywood was completely unaware, and uninterested, of TSR, while the name Dungeons & Dragons at least got him in the door.
The picture of Williams taking over a secure business and running it into the ground also needs modification to be believed. We are told the business was about to be shut down by the bank not long before. GG would like for us to believe that he had somehow gotten it on a solid basis during a brief period he was in charge, but this seems most suspicious. He has not shown any great executive talent since then.
Far more reasonable is how many of us recall those 1st Williams years, as a period of great success for D&D and TSR. This is what put the business in good position, and unfortunately why it ended up even deeper in debt. The bank, seeing it do well, was willing to extend additional credit when the decisions started to go bad. [An unfortunate problem with executives is that they stay in power too long. One rule of management for the board of directors is that the CEO should retire in 5 years, or be fired in 6.]
And the story is told that much of TSR's trouble was tactical. Somebody got uppity with a major bookstore chain, which not only stopped selling TSR, but demanded cash for returned merchandise, lots of it. That sort of thing can put a solid business on the ropes.
It has to be kept in mind that our major sources here are highly biased. Gygax of course has no love for those who replaced him, and from the view of WOTC, the worse they make TSR look, the better their own efforts seem.
We can note here GG's claim he had to change the name of his movie effort because of TSR's bad reputation. But a petty $10 mil business having a reputation in the $bill of Hollywood? Doesn't seem likely. A much more reasonable explanation is that Hollywood was completely unaware, and uninterested, of TSR, while the name Dungeons & Dragons at least got him in the door.
The picture of Williams taking over a secure business and running it into the ground also needs modification to be believed. We are told the business was about to be shut down by the bank not long before. GG would like for us to believe that he had somehow gotten it on a solid basis during a brief period he was in charge, but this seems most suspicious. He has not shown any great executive talent since then.
Far more reasonable is how many of us recall those 1st Williams years, as a period of great success for D&D and TSR. This is what put the business in good position, and unfortunately why it ended up even deeper in debt. The bank, seeing it do well, was willing to extend additional credit when the decisions started to go bad. [An unfortunate problem with executives is that they stay in power too long. One rule of management for the board of directors is that the CEO should retire in 5 years, or be fired in 6.]
And the story is told that much of TSR's trouble was tactical. Somebody got uppity with a major bookstore chain, which not only stopped selling TSR, but demanded cash for returned merchandise, lots of it. That sort of thing can put a solid business on the ropes.
seankreynolds
Adventurer
Zappo said:
Actually, WotC just wanted all of its brands to be unified under one name and one logo: Wizards of the Coast. The TSR brand wasn't poisoned in their mind, and it wasn't done for the sake of 3e (it started January 2000, so affected all products from there onward).
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