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Monte Cook Games Announced Numenera 2: Discovery & Destiny!
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<blockquote data-quote="ArchfiendBobbie" data-source="post: 7722519" data-attributes="member: 6867728"><p>Tweet I didn't criticize, for the most part. I just said he was part of a team that was ultimately toxic to its members. Some teams are like that; talented people, but putting them together brings out the worst in them.</p><p></p><p>The thing is, a lot of people back then were certain that Cook would, like Williams has. He was very vocal, a lot of the worst flamewars in the 3.0 vs 3.5 conflict were based on statements he said, and he was openly opposing what was pretty much the ruler of tabletop gaming at the time. For a lot of people, this came across as the career equivalent of dousing yourself in kerosene and lighting a match. Some of the conflicts that, frankly, he started raged up into the 4E era and are still banned subjects in some parts of the community.</p><p></p><p>And, really, to a degree the failure of 4E can be put on his shoulders, since that edition was born from that very conflict as much as it was from a desire to innovate. He may not have been the person who put out the fuel for the edition war that raged, but he is the one who sparked it. From that point on, every gripe and debate blazed with full glory as WotC got to watch their forums try to reenact the French Revolution. And I might give him a pass for his complaints not being invalid if it wasn't for how he presented them and how clear he was that he was ticked at Hasbro and willing to burn bridges behind him.</p><p></p><p>There are still people who don't like Cook because of that mess, and I know that for awhile in the 3E era he was effectively a pariah as far as parts of the community went; even in some parts of the fandom that were on his side, there were many who didn't like him simply because of the conflict that he helped cause.</p><p></p><p>You don't go from "designer of the game we're playing" to "not welcome to discussions by many of its fans" that quickly without "redeemed" being the right word for the status he enjoys currently. And, frankly, I respect him all the more for that.</p><p></p><p>But as I accepted I will be shelling out for Numenera 2 as soon as it launches, I have also accepted that he wasn't always the most pleasant members of the DnD community. I do not doubt that he very much is every bit the game designer worthy of having his name on a company, but I also do not doubt he once was very much a massive problem.</p><p></p><p>Skip Williams isn't retired; he makes maps now. Just for a very small company that doesn't always credit him...</p><p></p><p>Burning the company down is because I believe that the team combination itself was toxic and brought out the worst in everyone who was on it. Not because the people themselves are toxic, but because the combination of them was. Cook fueled a massive edition war, some people think Williams simply went crazy due to some of the later errata and Sage's Advice columns, and Tweet... Actually, Tweet was okay. If he was flapped by being on that team, I don't think anyone saw any sign of it. But the fact that these were all established, respected people before and how things went during and a bit after... That kinda suggests it was something about that period that negatively affected all of them. Cook, at least, recovered and went on to show that was just an insane period of his life. Tweet remains unflapped, because I suspect he's too cool to let something like that bother him. And Williams simply faded away...</p><p></p><p>At the very least, that team ruined at least one game designer, if you ask me. And another was almost ruined by the experience. So, no, I don't want to repeat it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ArchfiendBobbie, post: 7722519, member: 6867728"] Tweet I didn't criticize, for the most part. I just said he was part of a team that was ultimately toxic to its members. Some teams are like that; talented people, but putting them together brings out the worst in them. The thing is, a lot of people back then were certain that Cook would, like Williams has. He was very vocal, a lot of the worst flamewars in the 3.0 vs 3.5 conflict were based on statements he said, and he was openly opposing what was pretty much the ruler of tabletop gaming at the time. For a lot of people, this came across as the career equivalent of dousing yourself in kerosene and lighting a match. Some of the conflicts that, frankly, he started raged up into the 4E era and are still banned subjects in some parts of the community. And, really, to a degree the failure of 4E can be put on his shoulders, since that edition was born from that very conflict as much as it was from a desire to innovate. He may not have been the person who put out the fuel for the edition war that raged, but he is the one who sparked it. From that point on, every gripe and debate blazed with full glory as WotC got to watch their forums try to reenact the French Revolution. And I might give him a pass for his complaints not being invalid if it wasn't for how he presented them and how clear he was that he was ticked at Hasbro and willing to burn bridges behind him. There are still people who don't like Cook because of that mess, and I know that for awhile in the 3E era he was effectively a pariah as far as parts of the community went; even in some parts of the fandom that were on his side, there were many who didn't like him simply because of the conflict that he helped cause. You don't go from "designer of the game we're playing" to "not welcome to discussions by many of its fans" that quickly without "redeemed" being the right word for the status he enjoys currently. And, frankly, I respect him all the more for that. But as I accepted I will be shelling out for Numenera 2 as soon as it launches, I have also accepted that he wasn't always the most pleasant members of the DnD community. I do not doubt that he very much is every bit the game designer worthy of having his name on a company, but I also do not doubt he once was very much a massive problem. Skip Williams isn't retired; he makes maps now. Just for a very small company that doesn't always credit him... Burning the company down is because I believe that the team combination itself was toxic and brought out the worst in everyone who was on it. Not because the people themselves are toxic, but because the combination of them was. Cook fueled a massive edition war, some people think Williams simply went crazy due to some of the later errata and Sage's Advice columns, and Tweet... Actually, Tweet was okay. If he was flapped by being on that team, I don't think anyone saw any sign of it. But the fact that these were all established, respected people before and how things went during and a bit after... That kinda suggests it was something about that period that negatively affected all of them. Cook, at least, recovered and went on to show that was just an insane period of his life. Tweet remains unflapped, because I suspect he's too cool to let something like that bother him. And Williams simply faded away... At the very least, that team ruined at least one game designer, if you ask me. And another was almost ruined by the experience. So, no, I don't want to repeat it. [/QUOTE]
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