TSR Lorraine Williams, unfairly lambasted?

[Gadget]

Well, presiding over the final sinking of the ship is going to rub off on you, and it is not completely undeserved. I think the main thing is, as others said, she was an outsider, and seemed to make little attempt to understand the industry from even a business perspective (to be fair, it seems that none of the "suits" at TSR did, but she was the one in charge).

There seemed to be rumors from ex-TSR people, though I can not point to any at this time, in the after years that she was rather imperious and dismisve of the whole "geek" (or nerd, or whatever term you want to use) culture that her company serviced and helped create. Maybe that was merely a product of the fact that things ended badly on her watch and she was perceived as ousting the beloved and eccentric "father" of the game in a 'hostile' take over.

 

[Jaeger]

... Instead of sharing the blame, why does it get focused on her?
Simple:
1. ... not her fault...

2. She wasn't a gamer.

3&4: ...Fake news...

#2 Is the only reason I have ever heard from critics why she gets the sheer amount of flack she does.

Not only was she not a gamer, but at times showed what was interpreted as contempt for D&D fans.

Gary was no great businessman. And in 20/20 hindsight; he was not discerning enough when it came to choosing people to handle the business side for him. So yes a good bit of blame lays squarely at his feet for losing control of his own company.

While not all Williams decisions were bad, at the end of the day, She was the one in charge when some seriously bad financial decisions were made. Period.

In the end, TSR was her company, and she ran it into the ground.

In her defense, in 20/20 hindsight Gary wouldn't have done much better if he was the one calling the shots.

 

[Count_Zero]

There seemed to be rumors from ex-TSR people, though I can not point to any at this time, in the after years that she was rather imperious and dismisve of the whole "geek" (or nerd, or whatever term you want to use) culture that her company serviced and helped create. Maybe that was merely a product of the fact that things ended badly on her watch and she was perceived as ousting the beloved and eccentric "father" of the game in a 'hostile' take over.

There were a few panels from Paizocon (at least one used to be on YouTube) called "Secrets of TSR", which had a whole bunch of TSR Alums who worked in the main office talking about the work environment and how, for example, they had try to steal time to playtest product off the clock, because Williams would not permit "playing" on company time - even if the playing was for purposes of refining upcoming product and creating new product.

 

[LordEntrails]

I always have laid the blame squarely on Gary. He started off making lots of bad decisions. Just one of those was hiring Loraine.

 

[Parmandur]

This is really not true at all. (From the people who were involved) It was almost TSRs version of Atari's ET game.

Eh, a few flawed narrators in there, but I think this gets to the core of that incident:

Lawrence Schick: I think that the reaction to the module is more interesting than the module itself. The actual content of it is only mildly eccentric by current standards. It’s more a matter of what a light it shines on the management reaction at the time, and the "Satanic Panic."

 

[Zardnaar]

I always have laid the blame squarely on Gary. He started off making lots of bad decisions. Just one of those was hiring Loraine.

Problem with Gary was money. He took money from the Blumes.

But no Blume money potentially no D&D.

 

[darjr]

There is an interview of the author of that adventure before she died. As I listened it dawned on me thst there was a lot of resistance to a woman game designer. Some of it rather nasty. Darlene’s interview at GaryCon strikes a very similar tune. Darlene of all people.

 

[Parmandur]

There is an interview of the author of that adventure before she died. As I listened it dawned on me thst there was a lot of resistance to a woman game designer. Some of it rather nasty. Darlene’s interview at GaryCon strikes a very similar tune. Darlene of all people.

Yeah, some of the same apparent biases at work on some of those accounts as with the Williams hate (not that Williams was Boss of the Year or anything).

 

[Shiroiken]

I agree, and think Lorraine Williams is unfairly blamed. People forget where TSR was when she came in (and why she came in). I would not defend many of her decisions, especially in the latter part of the 90s, but a lot of companies struggle.

If the company had been doing well, she wouldn't have been brought in the in the first place. TSR had a TON of finiancial issues in the mid-80s, mostly due to over-exaggerated growth projections. I didn't realize she continued to run TSR until the WotC buyout, but tbh, after Gary, I stopped caring about who was running things.

1. She wasn't Gary (or one of the founders of D&D).

I blame her for her participation in the ousting of Gary, but she's not the only one to blame. Hell, Gary's actions were the instigation.

2. She wasn't a gamer.

This IMO was the biggest deal. Having a non-gamer determining the company's direction, and one who gave the impression she looked down upon her customer base, was not ideal.

3. She was a woman.

4. She was overweight. (Oh, the irony of that attack!)

Even back the in sexist 80s and early 90s, no one I know seemed to make a case about #3, but then again, we didn't really have much in the way of internet to bitch about it either. I've never seen a picture of her, so #4 was never discussed, but given the 80s and 90s, I could have seen some using this as an ad hominem attack.

 

[ninjayeti]

You are glossing over the fact that Williams owned the company for almost TWELVE years. Yeah, Gygax was a terrible businessman, but I don't think he deserves any blame for the collapse of TSR over a decade after his departure.