D&D with "alt film" stars: the WotC interview

[AllisterH]

I was suggesting that the average age of the designers at WotC is a hefty bit above their target audience age, and also a bit above that of the guys making Robot Chicken for instance, and mine.

Interesting...I could've sworn most of the D&D designers were in their mid 30s. Early 40s at the latest.

Didn't know they were older.

 

[Jack99]

Interesting...I could've sworn most of the D&D designers were in their mid 30s. Early 40s at the latest.

Didn't know they were older.

They aren't afaik.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This is actually the second time on the WotC site that Death Frost Doom has been mentioned. It was talked about in the podcast just before the holidays in their "What to buy for gamers" podcast. They mentioned how great the adventure was. I went and bought the PDF of it just because of it.

This is actually part of a series of interviews by WotC of them talking to bloggers in the D&D community. They are actually branching out and talking to the people that are popular in the community and highlighting what they are doing. Everything we'd actually want them to do to start engaging the community more.

Plus it actually mentioned and talks about the fact that they aren't playing 4E, I think that alone would make the naysayers cream their pants.

I feel the News page might simply not visible enough for people to notice. I kinda understand it, since there are new Dragon and Dungeon articles up all week, but it is easily overlooked. I often see it only by "accident".

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

It would take a week to unpack all the nested irony in this thread.

/popcorn

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, as noted, this is just one of a number news items linked to the broader community.

And it was interesting, and this thread has gotten pretty interesting.

 

[Shemeska]

They aren't afaik.

I would have guessed that the main guys on the 4e team like Wyatt, Slavicsek, Baker, Collins, Mearls, etc were 40ish, which is to say a decade in advance of myself, and 15-25 ahead of any prospective target audience for 4e.

I would have guessed the Robot Chicken and Penny Arcade guys to be in their 30s (Green and Senreich appear to both be 35, and Holkins and Krahulik 33 and 32).

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

articles?

OK, am I hearing this right? a bunch of D&D PLAYERS are debating whether it's a good thing to be associated with porn stars?

Guys, they are higher on the coolness hierarchy than us, that's for sure.

And these are not just average porn stars. They are porn stars who can step into a crazily obscure niche hobby like RPGs and write a blog as insightful and funny as anything we've manage to come with. In other words, they've taken the major stereotype regarding porn stars and completely demolished it.

Ken

 

[Windjammer]

And these are not just average porn stars.

Damn right you are. This is Zak Smith, Yale graduate and punk artist who as part of his work took the brave step of actually getting involved in the porn industry and then write an insightful, perceptive book about it. This is Zak Smith who's a talented enough artist to receive monetary and other support by an arts agency in NYC. This is someone who's illustrated Pynchon's novels. This is someone with a Wikipedia article all to himself.

In short, this is an outstandingly creative person with a spade of accomplishments - who just happens to have befriended porn stars and happens to play D&D.

And this happens to be a thread with some oustandingly craptastic judgements of Zak's person and his work. Not meaning the person I quoted but e.g. the person who got the red ink on page 2 for something utterly nonrelated to this.

Me, I'm just like the next guy following Zak's blog, if less frequently than I'd like.

But I certainly make a higher effort to inform myself about someone before passing personal judgements on them.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I like the dude. I would give him a high five, and buy him a beer.

I like the blog. There's a post in there about generating random dungeons by drawing tarot cards that I fully plan on appropriating using Magic cards.

I like his game. It sounds pretty fun.

I like that WotC is giving this the thumbs-up. It's kind of a bold step considering "the target audience."

It might be in line with the whole Robot Chicken/Penny Arcade marketing arm, but it's a really good idea regardless. Those are really good ideas, too. Finding cool D&D players and having them play D&D is a good way to tell people: "These are the kinds of folks who play the game."

 

[Dire Bare]

And this happens to be a thread with some oustandingly craptastic judgements of Zak's person and his work. Not meaning the person I quoted but e.g. the person who got the red ink on page 2 for something utterly nonrelated to this.

Heh, I had skipped that post because it was too long and I kind of knew what to expect. But wow! Anypost that can be parsed as, "I don't mean to be a jerk, but . . ." or "What? You think that was negative, don't get me started!" deserves its just punishments.

The title of the blog and part of the reason for the interview are certainly a bit provocative to gather attention . . . but neither the blog nor the interview really have anything to do with sex or porn or "T&A" beyond the fact that most of the players do porn for their dayjobs. Maybe I'll have to take another look (*grin*), but I don't remember any boobies or anything else "nasty", just an interesting gamer's blog with a provocative title and the quirky fact of the player's profession.

Now when WotC links to the next porn parody, "This Ain't D&D XXX", we might have a problem!