Dragon/WotC conspiracy article

[thundershot]

Um... oh, yeah. I prefer Dragon MUCH more than I used to in the old days. I play nothing BUT D&D, so having non-D&D stuff in there is a waste for me. With Amazing Stories coming out, I wish they'd get the fiction out too. I want true, usable, gaming material. And the comics are cute.


Chris

 

[Psion]

yes. but IIRC, White Dwarf has been a "house organ" for GW longer than Dragon has for D&D.

I would say not.

Unless you consider Dragon being a house organ the time when it ousted all non-D&D articles. But it has always been primarily concerned with TSR/WotC games.

When white dwarf first was in print, there was no such thing as Warhammer. And I remember having a White Dwarf issue of this sort in the 1980s, when Dragon was in the 100s.

 

[Turanil]

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.

That was so long ago, that I can't remember that actually it always belonged to Games Workshop. But in any case, my opinion is still the same: in the origin I enjoyed it VERY much. Then suddenly it becames a Warhammer organ, and looked like a mere catalogue of adverts. In fact, it so brutally changed, that I sincerely believed it had changed of owners.

 

[thalmin]

Just an obsevation. One big difference in the "house organ" aspect of Dragon vs White Dwarf: Dragon still runs ads for for other companies, even competitors; White Dwarf only advertises Games Workshop.

 

[d4]

I would say not.

Unless you consider Dragon being a house organ the time when it ousted all non-D&D articles. But it has always been primarily concerned with TSR/WotC games.

yes, that was the definition i was using; from the time when it went to D&D/TSR material only. sorry if i didn't make that more clear.

 

[SteelSilvershield]

I wrote the article that you all enjoyed so much. I probably erred in using the word conspiracy. I just find it odd that the Games Workshop magazine is the only other magazine that covers a specific company. Some mentioned the Nintendo magazine or Playstation magazine, and while those are two companies the articles cover games made by other companies.

The article's subject may be obvious to all D&D and RPG veterans who have been following the industry for years, but it isn't so obvious to people who are newer to the game. Dragon does not always put on its magazine that it is 100% Official D&D Material, nor does it inform us of its near-exclusive licensing deal or its terms, but they don't have to tell us anything.

I do wish that Dragon had more d20 fantasy stuff and not just d20 stuff from former WOTC staffers (though Monte is great at what he does).

It's also interesting to me that there are people out there who know so much about D&D and the d20 industry, but don't write articles about that.

-Bradford Ferguson, Silven Crossroads

 

[Numion]

It's also interesting to me that there are people out there who know so much about D&D and the d20 industry, but don't write articles about that.

It's interesting to me that so many people who know so little about D&D and the d20 industry write so many articles about it

 

[The Cyber Samurai]

Thanks to Ari

Patently untrue, the lot of it. No offense, but you heard wrong.

Ari,

A little off subject (okay, way off subject), but I am reading Gehenna right now and just wanted to say great job! Keep up the good work and I will look forward to your future novels.

Steve

 

[Glyfair]

Ares was a spin-off of Strategy and Tactics (both produced by SPI) covering Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Each of the 12 or so issues included a small board game - Barbarian Kings was about the best of these - and odd bits of creative writing and reviews.

Unless there was another Ares around in the early 80s.

Ares was indeed an SPI magazine (I assume your details are correct). When TSR ended up getting many (all?) SPI properties they carried Ares over as the science-fiction section of Dragon. It covered pure science fiction games, Marvel Superheroes, etc.

I think the belief at the time was that TSR did this so they could give Dragon subscriptions to former Ares subscribers to fufill contractual obligations (although this is probably quite suspect).

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ari,

A little off subject (okay, way off subject), but I am reading Gehenna right now and just wanted to say great job! Keep up the good work and I will look forward to your future novels.

Steve

Thank you. Seriously.

I'm also looking forward to doing more fiction. I love RPG writing, and I don't intend to leave it behind any time soon, but I'd love to branch out into doing a lot more novels/fiction. Or even finding publishers for the stuff I've already written.

(You listening, publishers? )