TSR Giantlands

[darjr]

In my professional life, I long ago made a conscious decision to practice and offer unqualified, true apologies for my shortcomings and mistakes (which are inevitable, given my job depended upon making important decisions based upon limited information and probabililties).

It's an essential life skill, for being a responsible person.

These guys do not know how to apologize.

I'm sure they see it as a weakness. Which is the actual weakness. An inability to take a good look at themselves and have the courage to try and understand and accept responsibility and that they could be wrong. It can be very painful and in their selfishness they won't take on the work.

 

[Faolyn]

Ok so I've been through a lot of pages of this thread WAITING for one of you, any of you, to explain much about Giantlands, and why it's boring/dumb. But we're all going over Ward and that idiot commentator and so on, yeah, like bigots gonna bigot, but I want the "Bigot with bad ideas" details.

But no-one has given out those juicy details! And I'm not finding them easily on the internet!

What little they've released has suggested that they don't actually have much that's new, and that what they do have isn't a particularly interesting way of reusing old stuff.

Maybe it'll turn out to be great, but so far all of their selling points have been "this thing that's been around forever, but with a different name."

Professions, Species, Spirit-Keeper. The renames for Class/Race/DM.

To be fair, lots of games rename class/race/DM. It's just that most other games have stuff other than old things renamed and don't rely on hokey gimmicks like wearing masks or whatever it is Giantlands is doing.

 

[Steampunkette]

What little they've released has suggested that they don't actually have much that's new, and that what they do have isn't a particularly interesting way of reusing old stuff.

Maybe it'll turn out to be great, but so far all of their selling points have been "this thing that's been around forever, but with a different name."


To be fair, lots of games rename class/race/DM. It's just that most other games have stuff other than old things renamed and don't rely on hokey gimmicks like wearing masks or whatever it is Giantlands is doing.

A lot of games do change the names. Very few try to present it as a marketing advertisement.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

To be fair, lots of games rename class/race/DM. It's just that most other games have stuff other than old things renamed and don't rely on hokey gimmicks like wearing masks or whatever it is Giantlands is doing.

That's not fair! They have all sorts of different things.

Like, um, it uses percentile dice "to hit."

I haven't seen an innovation like that since RuneQuest! Or, um, Boot Hill. Look, percentiles definitely weren't used in D&D. Much.

 

[Yora]

Silly names for Game Masters is always the cringiest thing I encounter in games.

 

[pukunui]

Also, ducks don't deserve this treatment.

I used to think ducks were all right, but I now live in a house with a little creek behind it, and so I've learned a lot about ducks. They are pure evil. And I don't just mean because they wake me up in the middle of the night with their annoyingly repetitive quacking.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh please, what apology could these guys ever give that any of you would actually accept?

If they use thier own words - as Ernie has clumsily done twice now - you'll knit pick it & claim it's false.
He didn't specifically mention x. He didn't say y. He didn't phrase it like this. Or like that. "I would've phrased it like ______". He didn't follow this formula.... etc.
Because you can't accept that this is about as good as your going to get from this clod.

If the formula is followed?
Then you'll just write it off as reading a script.

And no matter what form an opology takes you wont believe they mean it.

So why is having an apology so important to any of you?

I have said with my own words that:

1) the apology should specifically mention the groups most directly attacked

2) it should at least appear to be sincere

That’s the basic formula. That’s what I’d expect. I would NOT fault them for following that script. It exists and endures because it works.

HOWEVER…

An apology is just the first step. If it is followed by (in)action that makes the apology ring falsely, then it is perfectly acceptable to call them in their lack os sincerity.

The Catholic in me thinks of it this way: when I go to confession, I must admit to my wrongdoings AND do my penance to receive absolution. If I confess to my sins but do not do my penance, my confession was ineffectual and invalid.

 

[CleverNickName]

I used to think ducks were all right, but I now live in a house with a little creek behind it, and so I've learned a lot about ducks. They are pure evil. And I don't just mean because they wake me up in the middle of the night with their annoyingly repetitive quacking.

I was speaking from a more culinary perspective.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A note on dogpiling: the Nietzchean admonition about hunting monsters applies; the aphorism about the power of dehumanizing words to lead to death applies; the parable about casting the first stone applies.

So it is always a good thing to keep in mind that, however vile we may find another human, they’re still human. And it is the truly rare human who is 100% good or evil.

That said, it’s apparent to me that those whose words touched off this powderkeg haven’t “gotten it” yet.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

A note on dogpiling: the Nietzchean admonition about hunting monsters applies; the aphorism about the power of dehumanizing words to lead to death applies; the parable about casting the first stone applies.

So it is always a good thing to keep in mind that, however vile we may find another human, they’re still human. And it is the truly rare human who is 100% good or evil.

That said, it’s apparent to me that those whose words touched off this powderkeg haven’t “gotten it” yet.

Weirdly, I saw this posted this morning-

Why is it so hard to forgive?

Elizabeth Bruenig on forgiveness and the performative cruelty of the digital age.

www.vox.com

Which dovetails into some of the things you've been saying.