Charles Ryan (and others) out at WotC?

[Kanegrundar]

As a Kid, I wasn't bothered by such inconvenient notions as 'reality'. I don't think I dreamed too much of being a RPG designer but I'm sure back then I would have thought it would be awesome. I do remember wanting to responed to an open call for adventure submissions in the old Polyhedron mag but I never got around to it.

As a kid, sure. I never wanted to be an RPG designer, I wanted to draw comic books, and be a cowboy, and be a pro baseball player, and so on. However, those notions faded as I got into high school and had to think a bit more seriously about where I was headed in life. (Although I initally entered college as a Commercial Art major with every intention of drawing comics for a living...that died off pretty quick though.) There are people I've ran into in their 20's and 30's that still think it would be awesome to work for WotC or own their own game design studio as a full time job. If you can do it great, but very VERY few people can do that. There are some extremely talented designers that are still working a 9 to 5 because the game industry isn't where you typically find the money to live off of.

 

[francisca]

While I would daydream about a job designing and playing games for a living, I always came back to Diaglo's point very quickly.

Ayup. One look at the bitching and moaning from people here about how everything is broken and how they'd fix it*, and I say to myself: Hell no, I wouldn't want to be the guy writing the core system. Now writing adventures utilizing a ruleset, I'd enjoy that.

*I am, in fact, the pot in this case.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Ayup. One look at the bitching and moaning from people here about how everything is broken and how they'd fix it*, and I say to myself: Hell no, I wouldn't want to be the guy writing the core system. Now writing adventures utilizing a ruleset, I'd enjoy that.

*I am, in fact, the pot in this case.

Yep. Same here. The other aspect is that I couldn't do it full time and live as comfortably as I am now. I'd have to work my regular job and then basically work another job just to try and break into the industry and still would have to afterwards. That leaves very little time for actually playing and enjoying the hobby.

 

[StupidSmurf]

Nothing illustrates the point of just how low-end the gaming industry is in terms of payment, than this:

Dragon Magazine pay rate: .04 a word (that is, if I recall correctly...at least it was that a about ten years back)

Inc. Magazine pay rate: $1.00 a word. (ten years back) When the editor told me the rate I'd be getting for the article I wrote for them, it blew my mind.

Face it...freelance writing in the RP industry will only get you some pocket cash unless you hit it really big, and even then, financial security is not a given. Witness this entire thread. Most of the time, it's a labor of love. Even those writers who've gone off to do D&D novels (which I've always always always wanted to do....) don't have it easy all the time. I've talked with a few that have told me that writing D&D novels is a freaking nightmare.

Now, I'm not dissing the RP writing gig completely here. I'm glad I've done what I've done, and my ego enjoys the little dribs and drabs of recognition that pop up every so often. And I certainly look forward to doing more. But Mister Reality visited me once and said "You'll never earn a good living doing this...aim for the bigger stuff."

Tangent: Recently, I had occasion to use our friend the Internet to look up some stuff about the old Torg game. I did a bunch of TORG stuff, including the module that ended the entire campaign, and the only two gaming novels I've ever written! Well, one of the search results yielded an old bulletin board discussion, easily about 8 years ago, that seemed to imply that a group of gamers out there actually had banded together to actively hate me, for the stuff I did for (and supposedly TO) TORG. Never mind that what I did wrote precisely what the editors told me to (yes, it's the old "I was just following orders" explanation that I used to defend my participation in the reviled-by-many Castle Greyhawk adventure anthology! Hey, go with what works, no?). It was at that moment, reading a bulletin board that ceased to be relevant almost a decade ago, that I realized that I had truly arrived as a game writer...it's when you get a group of people who actually take out the time to hate you, then, yeah, you're complete

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Makes me think of all the "Game Design Colleges" I see advertised on heavy rotation on G4 when I watch Call for Help in the AM. There has to be at least half a dozen, and I know of half a dozen more, and they're constantly portraying "hawt girls" who love games and guys who are sitting around playing playstation "for homework" and "getting paid for it!".

I foresee so ... so so many out of work "Game Designers" graduating from those colleges ... and that industry is a billion times larger than RPGs.

I like to see my stuff "in print" and whatnot, but I don't harbor any illusions that even if I were the best game designer in the world, I'd be able to hook my family's future to the hobby. It's too cyclical. I foresee Hasbro slicing off everything about D&D other than a core few people in R&D and a pool of freelancers ... everything else from marketing to brand management to copyedit will be people entirely uninterested in the hobby. And that's probably the most profitable way to run it.

--fje

 

[Jdvn1]

I am relieved to say that StupidSmurf is not my real name!

I'm glad! I was hoping parents wouldn't be that cruel...

Ok, you got a deal. I'll form my own d20 gaming company called "What the...? Games", and its two flagship products will be the abovementioned pony adventure, and Bo-Bo-Bo BoBo BoBo: The Roleplaying Game. Naturally, I'll have my own line of limited edition miniatures, each one a faithful, exact rendition of a shapeless blob. No two alike! Collect 'em all! If they really take off, I'll released "Shapeless Blob Combat: The Tabletop Tactical Rules". Rounding out my product line will be..."Collectible Card Game: The Collectible Card Game."

You may be on to something here. "Straightforward rules, no frills." I'd buy some of this just because it'd end up being collectors items and interesting conversation pieces. "Remember that weird company way back when that decided it just didn't care anymore...?"

 

[WizarDru]

Dragon Magazine pay rate: .04 a word (that is, if I recall correctly...at least it was that a about ten years back)

Inc. Magazine pay rate: $1.00 a word. (ten years back) When the editor told me the rate I'd be getting for the article I wrote for them, it blew my mind.

And the irony is that those rates have actually gone WAY DOWN since the 60s. According the National Writers Union, they recommend you make AT LEAST $1 a word to make a living of about $40,000/year. In the 60s, most magazines were paying at least $1/word....and they still are (which is a massive drop in pay, once you correct for inflation). In 1966, Good Housekeeping actually paid $5 a word. They guesstimate that most staff writers make about $1.60-2.00 a word, including benefits. That's making the assumption they write something on the odds of 22,000-30,000 words a year. That data was from 2002, though, so it may have changed. But I doubt for the better.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Yea. Writing is one of those things that's shrunk to a niche profession.



--fje

 

[Reynard]

And the irony is that those rates have actually gone WAY DOWN since the 60s. According the National Writers Union, they recommend you make AT LEAST $1 a word to make a living of about $40,000/year. In the 60s, most magazines were paying at least $1/word....and they still are (which is a massive drop in pay, once you correct for inflation). In 1966, Good Housekeeping actually paid $5 a word. They guesstimate that most staff writers make about $1.60-2.00 a word, including benefits. That's making the assumption they write something on the odds of 22,000-30,000 words a year. That data was from 2002, though, so it may have changed. But I doubt for the better.

Pardon me while I go kill myself.

 

[tonym]

Pardon me while I go kill myself.

In 1966, Good Housekeeping would've paid $35 for that sentence.

Tony M