Dragon/WotC conspiracy article

[Ranger REG]

Piles of money they don't have, and even if they do, they got overhead expenses to deal with, otherwise they're running a "sweatshop" and paying game designers a slice of bread and a glass of water per day.

 

[d4]

i miss Wormy

Wormy was pretty much the only comic in Dragon i've ever liked.

(Snarfquest? bleeeh...)

 

[Erik Mona]

Bah! The entire article is just a cover up by Erik Mona to keep people from complaining about Polyhedron being in Dungeon.

Was it really that transparent? I was pleased to be noted among industry luminaries I remember looking up to as a kid, but I thought it was kind of funny how his list of my "insider" credits didn't include the fact that I'm editor-in-chief of Dungeon! I think that may have helped him increase the sense of conspiracy.

--Conspirator Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

 

[d4]

--Conspirator Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dungeon Magazine

so Erik, are your finally ready to admit that the Bavarian Illuminati is pulling Paizo's strings? don't try to deny it; i've seen the Fnords in Dungeon!!

 

[Altalazar]

I've got every issue of Dragon. They are sitting on the shelf behind me. No wait.... shhhh...... be quiet!

(............. I THINK THEY ARE WATCHING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )


*thump*


(sound of static)

 

[Maggan]

However, did you read White Dwarf? It's crap. It's mainly full of adds and photos for miniatures. In the origin, White Dwarf was really good, and I loved it. However, as soon as it was bought by Games Workshop it instantly became a crap of advertising near-only catalogue.

Wow, I didn't know White Dwarf originated as a non-GW publication! Care to let us all in on who published it before GW did?

M.

 

[Samothdm]

According to this article, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone had another magazine called "Owl & Weasel" but they scrapped it after 25 issues to start up "White Dwarf" in order to help promote their new store, Games Workshop.

So, it seems that it's always been published by Games Workshop.

 

[SemperJase]

What??!! Paizo is merely a willing pawn for WotC? I'm glad someone finally exposed this conspiracy for what it really is. Please, call you congressman and demand an investigation.

Meanwhile, I'm headed for the news scoop submission page. People must know!!
[/selfrighteous indignation] [/irony]

 

[jeffh]

Yes, but you have to remember that back in the day, Dragon DID discuss non D&D rpgs. That was before d20 cornered the market.

The more pressing issue is that I had heard that d20 threatened to take away a publisher's d20 liscence if they continued to publish non d20 material. Hence 7th Sea turning into Swashbuckling adventures. I don't know how true this is, however, because I think the company that makes Ravenloft d20 is under the auspices of White Wolf.

Maybe what it meant was that they could not publish a d20 system version of a game and still publish a non d20 system version of the SAME Game, i.e. that is why there is no Vampire: d20 Masquerade, and the 7th Sea roll n' Keep system is gone.

Are you, by any chance, the author of the article that launched this thread?

There are tons of companies producing both D20 and non-D20 material; no offence or anything, but the theory you "heard" wouldn't have survived ten minutes of research on this very site. White Wolf, Steve Jackson, Mongoose, AEG (who are still making L5R products that use the very same roll-and-keep system you claim no longer exists), Atlas, to name just a few of the best-known examples...

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm not particularly bothered by Dragon's house organ nature. I'm probably in the minority here, but I actually prefer the current 3E-focused Dragon to the old days when the magazine covered a lot of games. I only want D&D content, myself; I used to hate the Ares section for sucking up page content that could have been D&D material.

Now, I could gripe about the quality of the cover art, or the cover blurbs, or the comics ... but what point would that serve?