"Monte Cook Presents" Iron Heroes?

[Kae'Yoss]

Und vat is dis "World of Darkness"?

It's the game world where Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Hunter: The Reckoning, Housewive: The Ironing and all that is played in. Basically our world, except that vampires and werewolves and all manner of supernatural creatures are real and hiding among us. Many famous persons were really Vampires, or Werewolves, or whatever, too. It recently had its Apocalypse, and now we have a new World of Darkness (WoD 2.0 if you want) With new versions of Vampire, Werewolf and Mage.

 

[Darrin Drader]

If it was my company, and I was as accomplished as Monte Cook, and this book was a big deal that I was particularly happy with, I wouldn't hesitate to add "Darrin Drader Presents" to the cover. Is it marketing? Maybe. But I also see this book as being in the same vein as Arcana Unearthed (which itself was a clever bit of merketing), so I see nothing wrong with it.

As someone who appreciates the work of both Mearls and Cook, I plan to pick this one up as soon as I can get my hands on it.

 

[arscott]

I'd love to get a glimpse of Michelle's Neitzsche paper.

I'd rather see Mouse's Aristotle one.

 

[glass]

Und vat is dis "World of Darkness"?

It's the setting for many of White Wolf's games- Vampire: the Masquerade, Mage: the Ascention, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Changeling: the Dreaming, Wraith: the Oblivion, Hunter: the Reckoning, Demon: the Fallen and probably a couple of others I can't think of right now.

It is basically the real world with (a particular style of) vampires, demons, ghosts, werewolves, etc.


glass.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I'm not exactly angry about this, but it's still a little low.

To me, it's about the same as making a movie on a Sony Handycam and then then calling your movie "Sony Present's My Movie". Sure, it's TECHNICALLY correct.

Monte likely didn't have much input into the book at all. The product is unrelated to him other than his publishing company helping to fund it and promote it. The word "presents" means different things to different people. To some people it means they were at least the creative force behind the book. To me, it brings to mind images of "I had this great idea for a world/story/idea but not enough time to write the details of it myself, so I told my idea to someone else who wrote it for me."

To people who aren't so smart (and there are a lot of them), they might not even look at the word "presents" and just see Monte's name and buy it because he wrote it or they might think presents means "written by".

It isn't arrogant. It is, however, selling one person's work by using someone else's name. I'd prefer that the product have the actual author's name in large letters and not someone else's. Of course, the author likely doesn't care because Monte's name means that more people will buy it and he'll make more money.

It IS a lowbrow trick though. Smart people are going to think for themselves and say "it doesn't matter if Monte's name is on the front, he didn't write it, so it means nothing. Anyone could have published the book, that would not have changed the book." The only people who will care about the name on the front are the people who are a little...slow. And it is basically a marketting technique to trick those people into buying the book. So, yes, it's a little dishonest. Then again, marketting in general uses kinda "low" tactics to sell things.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Monte likely didn't have much input into the book at all. The product is unrelated to him other than his publishing company helping to fund it and promote it.

While I can speak for neither Monte nor Mike, I highly doubt this strue. If Monte's putting both his own name and his company name on this book, I'm quite certain he's looked through it, approved its contents, probably even had a hand in helping Mike design it. Remember, Mike's not just some freelancer Monte's working with; he's part of the company.

Simply assuming that Monte did nothing but rubber-stamp his name is unfair to both of them, and rather shortsighted to boot.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'd rather see Mouse's Aristotle one.

Long, long gone, I'm afraid. And probably not worth the read, anyway; it was a Freshman-level course, after all.

Still, flattered you'd ask.

 

[Maggan]

My heart is moved

My heart is moved by the concern showed here and on RPGnet for the not so smart, even stupid people who might be fooled into thinking Monte Cook wrote this book.

Not that anyone of us is one of those slow thinkers, no siree! We are not those who are so stupid, that they equate "presents" with "wrote".

Because we are smart. And outraged. On behalf of the stupid people. :\

Seriously though, getting outraged on behalf of people and justifying that by implying that those people are stupid, gullible or slow or whatever, is in my not so important opinion, rather haughty. Or even crass and arrogant. Even if it is not targeted at a person, it feels almost like ... contempt.

Be outraged, but I ask you to be outraged all for your* own sake, not because you want to be a champion to protect stupid people.

Even better, find someone who actually thought Monte Cook wrote the book, and therefore bought it, only to find Mike Mearls wrote it, and is outraged about it, then we're getting somewhere!

Cheers!

M.

* "Your" in a general meaning, not personal, this post adress sentiments expressed in several posts here and on RPGnet.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Ok, true. I am GUESSING at a lot of my points. But the fact that I don't SERIOUSLY think that it fooled too many people is the reason why I said it doesn't concern me all that much.

I'm guessing Monte did LOOK at the book and likely even made a couple of comments, but I do think it's a little unfair to put his name on it at all if he didn't have enough input into the book to get a cocredit for writing it.

Like I said, I'm not angry about it or even care all that much, but if I was in the same situation has him, ethically, I'd say "no, don't put my name on the book, I didn't write it, give the credit to the people who wrote the book."

 

[Janx]

Ultimately, it's Monte's company. He can put "Even more Crap From Monte(TM)" on the cover if he wants.

When you consider that the company is called "Malhavoc Press" but the website is "montecook.com" you'll get some insight. Most companies have a site for the company, with its own domain name. Ultimately, "Malhavoc" is Montesian for "Monte Cook", thus in english, the company name is really "Monte Cook Press"

I agree with Maggan. Frell the stupid people, they're not being swindled.

Janx