D&D General GenCon TV: Celebrating D&D

[UngainlyTitan]

I've seen many systems developed by "consultants". They're not pretty, unless you have someone really competent in charge who knows how to code it's some of the worst code I've ever seen because they just don't care. They just want to get the job done as fast as possible and they know they get paid whether it's a massive clusterf*** or not, after all they won't have to maintain it.

To be honest, as someone who has been a consultant, that can also be management. I have often told management what it would take to do it right and be told that was too expensive, do this instead.

 

[Oofta]

It's obvious that whoever was in charge of the Gleemax project didn't know what they were doing or how to build an application of that complexity. There are some consulting companies that do a decent job, but for something of the complexity of Gleemax and their other goals. But they needed a small internal team of developers who really knew what they were doing that were willing and able to push back on unrealistic management goals. Unfortunately most companies don't understand that.

 

[Oofta]

To be honest, as someone who has been a consultant, that can also be management. I have often told management what it would take to do it right and be told that was too expensive, do this instead.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of time it's not the consultant's fault. It's understandable that when you're told time and again that quality doesn't matter it just needs to get it done that the results aren't good. Most companies don't understand the time and effort it takes to make a system that actually works. Put together a nonfunctional interface that looks cool and they think you're almost done because they once figured out how to do a formula in Excel.

 

[TiQuinn]

It's obvious that whoever was in charge of the Gleemax project didn't know what they were doing or how to build an application of that complexity. There are some consulting companies that do a decent job, but for something of the complexity of Gleemax and their other goals. But they needed a small internal team of developers who really knew what they were doing that were willing and able to push back on unrealistic management goals. Unfortunately most companies don't understand that.

They wanted to emulate the success that software companies in the MMO space had seen, but did I hear them say they had already sold off their in house studio to Atari well before then? Which obviously left them with no one experienced to lead the project and apparently unwilling to actually spend the money required to do the job right.

Typical thoughtless management - we want what the other guy has but we want it for a fraction of the cost in a short amount of time.

 

[Clint_L]

I’m watching the first episode right now and it is really captivating to hear how so many threads came together in just the right way. You can make a case that D&D happened because Gary Gygax went to the trouble and expense of building a sand table in his basement, thus getting wargamers to congregate in Lake Geneva, of all places.

Also, I didn’t exactly know what a sand table was. I mean, I had an idea, given the name, but learning precisely how they used it and why they needed it, especially given the poor quality of their miniatures, is fascinating to me. That thing must’ve weighed a ton when in use!

 

[Mannahnin]

I’m watching the first episode right now and it is really captivating to hear how so many threads came together in just the right way. You can make a case that D&D happened because Gary Gygax went to the trouble and expense of building a sand table in his basement, thus getting wargamers to congregate in Lake Geneva, of all places.

That part I think under-sells his prolific correspondence. The guy wrote tons of letters and articles in the Diplomacy zines and wargames periodicals, and in the player directory/classified in Avalon Hill's The General (to my recollection the largest wargaming periodical) he also specifically noted "will collaborate on game design" in his ad.

The sand table and him getting GenCon 1 organized definitely helped get more gamers to come to him to hang out and play and talk in person, though. Which was especially important since he never learned to drive!

 

[Clint_L]

That part I think under-sells his prolific correspondence. The guy wrote tons of letters and articles in the Diplomacy zines and wargames periodicals, and in the player directory/classified in Avalon Hill's The General (to my recollection the largest wargaming periodical) he also specifically noted "will collaborate on game design" in his ad.

The sand table and him getting GenCon 1 organized definitely helped get more gamers to come to him to hang out and play and talk in person, though. Which was especially important since he never learned to drive!

Gygax couldn’t drive? No wonder he organized Gen Con to be a block from his house!

The guy was a hustler, in the positive sense. He made stuff happen. Now I’m fascinated that he never learned to drive, and how that impacted the history of our hobby.

 

[Mannahnin]

Gygax couldn’t drive? No wonder he organized Gen Con to be a block from his house!

The guy was a hustler, in the positive sense. He made stuff happen. Now I’m fascinated that he never learned to drive, and how that impacted the history of our hobby.

I'm not sure how directly it did, but to my recollection he worked on gaming correspondence while commuting by train to and from Chicago while he still had his insurance adjustor job, as well as actually AT the job, which may have been part of why they eventually fired him. Later, once TSR was making money, he hired a personal driver/assistant.

 

[Mark Hope]

I just watched the AD&D round table. It was good. Mostly people reminiscing about their experiences playing AD&D, how they got into the hobby, a bit about the Satanic Panic, etc. Nothing much about design (as to be expected). One thing that stuck out was the comments on the "incomplete" nature of the rules and prevalence and/or necessity of house rules. I'll always think of house rules as a feature not a bug. Always. It was great to see them commenting on how that made the game theirs and how needing to fill in those blanks started a generation of game designers. There's something to be said for making the audience work a little bit for their meal.

I was really struck by Peter Adkinson's take on house rules, which he mentions a couple of times across the episodes - namely that he loves them because they tell you what the DM wants their game to be like and set their game apart creatively.

I love this. The idea that houserules are a mode of creative expression as much as a manifestation of mechanical preference really speaks to me. I houserule all the time and while somtimes it's because, for example, I think a class or a mechanic needs a nudge for better play, it's more often because I'm trying to capture some aspect of how I feel the gameworld would actually be, as a place to inhabit. Very cool attitude to hear explained

 

[DarkCrisis]

the things players want end up ruining the game, such as too much power, too many hit points, too many magic items, etc.

HUH.