NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="DPGDarrin" data-source="post: 271268" data-attributes="member: 4949">Morrus,I totally think you should write editorials. I'll make no secret of the fact that I hit your page at least once a day. The first time I hit it, I just want to read the news. Is there anything new or surprising from the industry? Is there anything cool on the fan sites? Has someone said something that strikes people as interesting, funny, annoying, etc.? One piece of news I really look forward to is Monte Cook's line of site. I mean here's a bright guy who's a heck of a designer, and a well known and opinionated individual spouting off whatever strikes him as important. One thing I really like about that column is how he doesn't always stick to the industry. He comments on society, the X-files, and whatever else he wants to. Well Morrus, this is your site and your forums, so start telling us how you view the industry and the rest of the world. Other than this site, how is the world according to Morrus? What would possess someone who appears to be wholly sane to take on an insane job like this site? Another thing is that when Eric announced that he was closing down his site, you jumped in to fill his shoes. Within weeks your old site became his old site. The color scheme changed, the amount of news changed, and the traffic went through the roof. I believe you did it for the community's sake, and maybe a bit to see where you could take it, and possibility even for the recognition. In the process I think you lost a bit of where you were going before this happened.Evolution is a natural process, and I agree with you that it may be time for this site and the community to evolve. Evolve into what, I don't know.  Let me tell you a bit about what I have done for WotC. Before you nod off, and think this is a moralistic WotC is wonderful tale, let me say something: it isn't that animal. This haslittle to do with WotC as everyone here knows it. This is a story about how you love something and dream about something, and then once you get there it turns into as much of a chore as anything else. But I'm getting ahead of myself.My job has basically changed to a different focus now, but for a very long time my main focus was supporting the Star Wars fan club. If there's anyone reading this that I've spoken to on the telephone or emailed about whatever, Hi! AnywayI watched Star Wars for the first time when I was 5 years old, and since then I've always loved it. Then I got the job supporting the fan club and I began to see the business side of things, and how it was my job to keep the fans completely oblivious to that (not that they should really know what goes on behind the scenes anyway). For me Star Wars had been that mythical galaxy far, far, away, where I would travel to let my imagination wander. And then when I got the job supporting this beast at WotC, I was so thrilled. I was thrilled to be talking to other fans about these movies that I loved so much. I've read the books, collected action figures and comics, watched the movies about a hundred times each. I was the guy that always won at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. In fact most people stopped trying after I trounced them the first couple of times.And then one day it happened. The one thing that should never happen to any true fan of anything. The inevitable let down. It started innocently enough. I answered a phone call and got the expected questions about what was coming out that was new, and do we know where they can find certain action figures, and then after answering in all honesty that we hadn't seen these things yet, the person had the audacity to suggest that I wasn't a real fan of Star Wars. Me! Mr. I knew about the Zahn books a year before they were released. Me, Mr. seeing all 4 movies (at that time) on the opening night (except for possibly the frst because I can't remember a lot of details of when I was 5). Me, Mr. George Lucas is one of my favorite movie makers of all time! So I hid my irritation with this person, and finished up the call. And then it hit me like a five ton weight landing square on my head. As much as I loved Star Wars, I had never called a phone line to try to probe for details that the person on the other end wasn't willing to tell me. I had never gone to a convention just to get Jeremy Bullochs autograph on a vintage Empire Strikes Back poster. I hadn't even gone to the Star Wars Celebration I. So was I a fan? I had always believed I was, but in comparison to a lot of the people I was dealing with day in and day out, I was little more than an observer! My level of dedication was really amateurish compared to some of these people. In my time there, I've talked to people that literally spend thousands of dollars on merchandise on a monthly basis. Why? I guess that its harmless enough if their rent or mortgage is paid. Then there's the behavior of many of the fans, which should make most people cringe, but I won't even go into that. In time my enthusiasm for Star Wars began to wane. I took something that I had never been ashamed of before in my life, and internalized it. On the outside it was blase, but there was still part of me that I made sure was well hidden, that delighted in parts of this whole phenomenon - like the new movie. I just made sure that this part of me was never visible to the fans, because they wanted to get to the rumor monger and the spoiler in me. Some of them wanted to see me as their adversary because I couldn't give them the information/ product/ gratification/ recognition that they wanted. I just couldn't do it. What was even worse was that I sat back and watched exactly the same thing happen to the people that I worked with.So what does this have to do with you? If you're lucky, absolutely nothing. But from what I'm getting, the industry demands are becoming tedious, and the job of handling other publishers isn't as personal and fun as you would like. The difference between your situation and mine is that you can choose to be the eternal fan. You can rumormonger. You can provide whatever spoilers that you have, and no one can really tell you not to do it. There is a certain innocence that you have as a fan, which you can't have as an industry insider. Enjoy that freedom! Do it in any manner you choose, and make sure that this fan base remains fun.One last comment, and I mean this very sincerely. Another aspect of my job was dealing with role playing game fans via the online store. Before you start to wonder, Yes - that one! Anyway, it was always a pleasure dealing with role players. It is so much easier to explain the way things work to them, and I found them to be downright pleasant, reasonable, and intelligent to talk to. Yes, I prefer that community, but as a publisher myself, I won't even go into when I started gaming, how large my bookshelf(s) of games are, or partake in any other measurement of fandom. Lets just say that I was around when the 1st edition books were still coming out and leave it at that. Morrus, Enworld is your world, so I recommend limiting yourself only by your imagination. And one last time, have fun!</blockquote>

Verification