My problem with Monte Cook...

[angramainyu]

Let's keep away from the personal attacks and the political debate. We try to keep this place as friendly as possible, so I'm not sure this thread is appropriate. Perhaps Monte's own boards would be a better place for this discussion?

 

[Morrus]

Disagreeing with Monte's opinion is fine. The rudeness and vitriol behind this thread, however, is not.

We don't allow messageboard members to talk to each other in that tone; that goes for game designers too, especially those who frequent these boards.

In future, if you want to disagree with somebody's opinion, please try and do it withourt attacking them personally. Monte, as I understand it, does invite discussin of his rants. That does not mean he invites rudenss and hostility.

 

[EricNoah]

I'm not a huge fan of the "rant" type of editorial, in general. I think ranting usually succeeds in communicating only the following:

1) You are angry not only about "subject X" but also simply the fact that anyone else in the world would have a different opinion about "subject X."

2) You aren't interested in having your opinion changed. Which is understandable, I'm not interested in having my opinion changed on most subjects. But I also wouldn't go around telling people how to be or how to think.

3) The rant style encourages an emotional response in the same way message board trolling does -- purposely pushing "hot buttons" for no other reason than to get a response. I personally find that manipulative. I like to be engaged, not punched in the eye.

On the other hand, the few times I've looked at Monte's rants I haven't found them to be particularly rantish. They seem to tackle fairly tame topics and I don't find him hot-headed. And the way they're presented on his site they're very easy to ignore if you're not really all that interested in learning about a game designer's personal/social/political beliefs.

Monte's site, in particular, is unique because it kind of blends his "personal RPG/other interests" site with his Malhavoc Press stuff. That can be pretty confusing -- it might be hard for people to read his "rants" (and certainly his reviews) and not feel that there may be more than just Monte the Man behind them (more like Monte the Company, I guess).

Unfortunately the whole situation is further complicated by the fact that KDLadage is also a publisher (albeit publishing free products for now) -- so is this a publisher vs. publisher thing, or is it one publisher trying to suggest that another publisher is behaving unprofessionally by having "rants" on his site at all, or what? In my view a publisher ranting about a publisher ranting starts to get real complicated real quick.

edit: oops, thread was closed while I was composing my reply, and the system let me post anyway as I'm an administrator. Oh well, point still stands.