Stormprince said:
First of all, Tracy's correlation between "terrorism" was not just out from left field. He opened his mail box on September 11th, when you could not avoid thinking about terrorism (it was on just about every television station, in every newspaper, on every radio station). He saw something that offended him. He has the right to be offended. He also has the right to state his opinion in his own newsletter. Tracy has a very strong sense of what is good and evil, right and wrong, a strong sense of morality. His sense of morality was offended by seeing an entire magazine that is mailed to a wide-audience dedicated to "evil."
He certainly is entitled to his opinions, but there is an added amount of responsibility and common sense he should use before he decided to take his level of "industry fame" to slander innocent designers that were required to complete a project (Monte may have came up with the idea, but I'm sure everyone else assigned was forced to expound and assist whether they liked it or not).
Tracy Hickman is guilty of slandering innocent industry professionals and should make a public apology to all involved. He is also guilty of trivializing the REAL tragedy that occured a year ago with the terrorist attacks.
I'm sure the families of those that died that day wouldn't enjoy seeing those events compared to a silly method of thinking concerning how a role-playing game should be played.
He also mistakenly took the approach of insulting the general gamer that would desire to play an evil PC or implement parts of tBoVD by saying " And my I further suggest that you demonstrate your own maturity by avoiding purchasing or playing ANYTHING labeled for ‘Mature Audiences Only".
A magazine where there are subscribers who are kids. A magazine with a "sealed" section to supposedly prevent children from reading it. Come on now, a sealed section? Who do you know didn't unseal that section? Do you think any of these same people who may not be able to get into an R-rated movie without being escorted by an adult asked permission from their parents before they unsealed that section?
A magazine that over-dramatized the contents of the work by the opinion of everyone that has read it save Tracy Hickman (I've yet to see someone that has read the sealed portions agree that it *should* have been sealed). A magazine that despite whatever some people say (marketing ploy or legitimate concern), tried to stop younger audiences from perusing its "questionable" contents.
A magazine that has given Mr. Hickman work in the past and didn't deserve the public lashing that it received by Mr. Hickman.
Personally, I don't need any product to tell me how to "make evil really evil." I have plenty of resources in real life, as Tsyr pointed out.
Well, I'm glad for you -- I really am. However, not every player of the D&D game can say the same thing, or perhaps they're just too lazy to research "evil" for themselves. For whatever reason, there are multitudes of people that want this book and who has the right to stop WotC from giving it to them?
The fact that they're putting out only the Book of Vile Darkness, and not a companion "Good" book, just goes to show that it's one of those pure marketing manuscripts.
Do you know the product release schedule of WotC for the next 5 years or so? Nope, I didn't think so. Whether they decide to make a companion "Good" book or not is irrelevant -- there are people that want this book and they're getting it.
Oh yeah, it was written by Monte Cook. How could I forget? How "dare" Tracy disagree with someone Monte or another writer put out. Shame on him. Grow up. Tracy and Laura Hickman worked for TSR to create the same worlds that still exist today.
And this reasoning excuses Tracy for inappropriately slandering the names of good people? I don't care if the EGG, or Monte Cook said those remarks, I would nail them both on it.
Yep, which is very ironic -- it is like the pot calling the kettle "black".
Tracy has never made it a secret how he feels about morality. He didn't agree with having a character just be a thief, so he envisioned a race of innocent kleptomaniacs. Tracy and Margaret have dealt with and created some of the most memorable "evil" characters in modern fantasy. Lord Soth. Count Strahd. Raistlin. Mina. Dalamar, and now Prince Dagnarus in the Sovereign Stone trilogy. Need I go on? What makes them interesting characters, however, isn't the fact that they are evil, but despite the fact that they are evil.
That is his creative approach and I loved almost every character. However, this doesn't give him the right to force his opinion on how evil should be handled in such an insulting and degrading manner, to both the designers and the customers that want it.
But to be fair to him, you're only seeing a message that he typed up in the heat of the moment. You haven't read some of his responses to the Dragonlance fans on the mailing lists. You haven't sitten down and talked to him about his viewpoints.
Feel free to post a few snippets of his replies then. I would love to see them and I bet others would too. But, if you want, you can simply email them to me. Whichever.
Just as you loudly proclaimed "I am boycotting all his Sovereign Stone and Dragonlance stuff," he has the right to "boycott" this one particular issue of Dragon Magazine.
I believe I was the only one loudly proclaiming my own personal boycott of all things Hickman. However, if Tracy would stand up and admit his mistake (not his opinion, but the rude and insulting manner in which he gave it), then I would gladly purchase every Hickman-related product that I originally planned to. Hell, I would forget the event ever occured.
What is the possibility of that happening?
