Lorraine Williams did... what?

[amethal]

All I can say is, I'll never have anything to do with anything connected to Buck Rogers.

Buck Rogers is a big part of why TSR went belly up.

Buck Rogers was part of the reason TSR didn't get the Star Wars license.

Personally, I really liked what West End Games did with Star Wars, and so I'm glad TSR lost out on that one. As a result, I have a soft spot for Buck Rogers.

 

[Tewligan]

Ha, an interesting "mistake"! I just sent an email to the site (flintdille@earthlink.net) pointing out the error. I would suggest others do the same, keeping the courtesy level high and the nerdrage level low in your message. Despite a bit of Googling, I was unable to find exactly what year Ms. Williams joined TSR, beyond joining sometime after Gary went to Hollywood in '82. So, yeah - somehow she started TSR at least 7 years after it was incorporated in 1975.

 

[Xyxox]

Buck Rogers was part of the reason TSR didn't get the Star Wars license.

Personally, I really liked what West End Games did with Star Wars, and so I'm glad TSR lost out on that one. As a result, I have a soft spot for Buck Rogers.

Buck Rogers was the vehicle through which Lorraine Williams exported tons of cash from TSR Inc. into her family's personal trust fund, nearly destroying Dungeons and Dragons forever.

I never much cared for MAgic the Gathering as a game, but I love it because it put Peter Adkison into a postion to save the game from ruin. For that reason, I'll always despise Buck Rogers.

Besides, the Flash gordon serials were way better than Buck Rogers any way.

 

[jaerdaph]

I read it teh interwebs so it must be true.

Like Rev's coma.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I think this is the most informative part of the quote from Jose Freitas from the older thread.

Link to full post:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archiv...ludes-opinions-gygax-et-al-6.html#post3971894

And just a few posts beneath that:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archiv...ludes-opinions-gygax-et-al-6.html#post3971900

While I am sure that Williams did do a few things that were kind to people, based on that thread it seems to me that she has absolutely no ethics when it comes to running a business.

END COMMUNICATION

I'm agreeing that she's a bad manager. I'm disagreeing that she's a bad person. She might be a bad person. She might be a good person. I don't know. And neither do you.

For every story of "I hated her that evil witch hag" (of which there was one, from Gygax), there are employees saying they either didn't mind her or that she treated them all very nice. You've got an interview with Monte Cook flat out stating he liked working with TSR more then with Wizards.

I'm not doubting that she hated the chainmail bikini wearing people at the con, but quite frankly, I tend to have a dislike for them as well. So uh, yeah, I guess?

 

[ProfessorPain]

I'm agreeing that she's a bad manager. I'm disagreeing that she's a bad person. She might be a bad person. She might be a good person. I don't know. And neither do you.

For every story of "I hated her that evil witch hag" (of which there was one, from Gygax), there are employees saying they either didn't mind her or that she treated them all very nice. You've got an interview with Monte Cook flat out stating he liked working with TSR more then with Wizards.

I'm not doubting that she hated the chainmail bikini wearing people at the con, but quite frankly, I tend to have a dislike for them as well. So uh, yeah, I guess?

I got to agree. I don't think you can form a complete picture of a person based on a few accounts from former employees. And something about most of the stories labeling her a witch, don't pass the sniff test.

 

[JohnRTroy]

I'm agreeing that she's a bad manager. I'm disagreeing that she's a bad person. She might be a bad person. She might be a good person. I don't know. And neither do you.

Regardless of either Monte or Gary's opinion, you've got her lying on a web site about creating TSR, and using her position as top dog at TSR to funnel money into her own pockets via the Buck Rogers licenses, something that doesn't look good. Lack of ethics doesn't usually make a person that good. Would you be rushing to criticize the general public for saying that of mangers of AIG who got bonuses? I doubt it.

As far as the "chain mail bikini" stuff goes--well, you seem to be judgmental of gaming culture in general. Like I said, that is not a good attitude to have if you are running a company that supports them.

 

[Xyxox]

I'm agreeing that she's a bad manager. I'm disagreeing that she's a bad person. She might be a bad person. She might be a good person. I don't know. And neither do you.

There is one undeniable fact. Her family trust fund benefitted financially from what was at the very least an extremely poor decision, printing vast quantities of Buck Rogers game materials that were never sold.

 

[ProfessorPain]

Regardless of either Monte or Gary's opinion, you've got her lying on a web site about creating TSR, and using her position as top dog at TSR to funnel money into her own pockets via the Buck Rogers licenses, something that doesn't look good. Lack of ethics doesn't usually make a person that good. Would you be rushing to criticize the general public for saying that of mangers of AIG who got bonuses? I doubt it.

As far as the "chain mail bikini" stuff goes--well, you seem to be judgmental of gaming culture in general. Like I said, that is not a good attitude to have if you are running a company that supports them.

Just because the website contains a false statement, that doesn't mean she deliberately lied about it. This could be a simple error, on the part of the person who wrote the text for the website; someone who may not know much about Lorrain or TSR and didn't get his or her facts straight. If it comes out that she deliberately engineered a lie about her creating TSR so she could look more accomplished, then she deserves to be criticized; but errors like these happen all the time, and they are not always intentional.

As for the Buck Rogers thing; it might be the case. But all we have is a narrative based on a couple of accounts. And something about it sets my antennae off.

 

[Erik Mona]

Actually, the first line on the page is a bit of history bending, too. John F. Dille did not create Buck Rogers. The character originated in a short story by Philip Nowlan, in Amazing Stories, and Dille, a newspaper syndicate owner, arranged for the character to become a comic strip. Now, the comic strip was certainly the basis for Buck's popularity, so Dille deserves a prominent place in the history. But while it's fair to say Dille "popularized" Buck, but he did not "create" him.

Cheers,
Jim Lowder

To complicate matters further, the character was not called "Buck" Rogers until the comic strip. I'm not sure that the brand would have the staying power it does if it had been called "Anthony Rogers," which was the character's name in the original Amazing Stories tales.

--Erik