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Slaying the Dragon: The Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons Review
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8772110" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>This is really an oversimplification to the point of distortion, IMO.</p><p></p><p>Riggs is right (though as usual hyperbolic in his yelling "genius!" all the time) that Adkison made really good and smart business moves, and some exceptionally ethical and generous ones, like the bit about giving the TSR art back to the artists. That he got burnt out by personal issues and overwork (and screwed up in romantic relationships within the company) doesn't negate the genuinely great stuff he accomplished.</p><p></p><p>He's since kept his hand in gaming and management, buying and running Gen Con, for example. The guy didn't flame out and crash. He accomplished massive things with Magic and D&D (and a few other little things like Pokemon, I understand), got personally burnt out, cashed in and scaled back, after Hasbro's original expressed intention to use WotC executive leadership as successors to its own didn't pan out. And has demonstrated continued success and savvy leadership since, as it appears from Gen Con over the past twenty years.</p><p></p><p>Williams doesn't have the same track record of success, but she still grew the company (especially the fiction publishing arm) massively, and despite their poor profitability, was the top dog when TSR was producing some incredible stuff many of us love to this day, like Dark Sun and PlaneScape. I agree that she apparently started running the company into the ground about halfway through her tenure of leadership (1985 to 1997), but she still kept it going longer under her watch than TSR's prior management had done prior to her leadership. Gygax and the Blumes ran it from 1974 to 1984ish, and also nearly destroyed it with preposterous mismanagement in their last few years, having no idea how to solidify or responsibly consolidate their winnings from the fad period and transition once the fad finally stopped exploding. As James Lowder (who was there) wrote earlier in the thread, it seems that virtually everyone who worked at TSR under both management regimes preferred Williams, despite all the nasty stories we've heard about her. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🤷♂️" title="Man shrugging :man_shrugging:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 8772110, member: 7026594"] This is really an oversimplification to the point of distortion, IMO. Riggs is right (though as usual hyperbolic in his yelling "genius!" all the time) that Adkison made really good and smart business moves, and some exceptionally ethical and generous ones, like the bit about giving the TSR art back to the artists. That he got burnt out by personal issues and overwork (and screwed up in romantic relationships within the company) doesn't negate the genuinely great stuff he accomplished. He's since kept his hand in gaming and management, buying and running Gen Con, for example. The guy didn't flame out and crash. He accomplished massive things with Magic and D&D (and a few other little things like Pokemon, I understand), got personally burnt out, cashed in and scaled back, after Hasbro's original expressed intention to use WotC executive leadership as successors to its own didn't pan out. And has demonstrated continued success and savvy leadership since, as it appears from Gen Con over the past twenty years. Williams doesn't have the same track record of success, but she still grew the company (especially the fiction publishing arm) massively, and despite their poor profitability, was the top dog when TSR was producing some incredible stuff many of us love to this day, like Dark Sun and PlaneScape. I agree that she apparently started running the company into the ground about halfway through her tenure of leadership (1985 to 1997), but she still kept it going longer under her watch than TSR's prior management had done prior to her leadership. Gygax and the Blumes ran it from 1974 to 1984ish, and also nearly destroyed it with preposterous mismanagement in their last few years, having no idea how to solidify or responsibly consolidate their winnings from the fad period and transition once the fad finally stopped exploding. As James Lowder (who was there) wrote earlier in the thread, it seems that virtually everyone who worked at TSR under both management regimes preferred Williams, despite all the nasty stories we've heard about her. 🤷♂️ [/QUOTE]
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