D&D General When We Were Wizards: Review of the Completed Podcast!

[billd91]

It's certainly duplicitous to sign a contract assigning rights to your creative work to your company, as a means to encourage every other creative working for that company to follow suit, but with no intention of actually giving up your own rights or control of your creative output. Which seems to be what Gary did.

He may have been self-deluded enough to believe that this was morally justified, because he considered himself the genius who came up with the idea and founded the RPG industry, but it's certainly deceitful.

Alternatively, he thought he'd always have at least an equal ownership stake in the company to the point where it didn't really matter if the company owned the IP or he did. They were synonymous. I'd still consider that at least somewhat duplicitous since it was became clear that he wasn't going to treat other creator's rights the same as his own.

 

[Warren]

Alternatively, he thought he'd always have at least an equal ownership stake in the company to the point where it didn't really matter if the company owned the IP or he did. They were synonymous. I'd still consider that at least somewhat duplicitous since it was became clear that he wasn't going to treat other creator's rights the same as his own.

I wonder how much of that attitude came out of what went down with Arneson and all of the animosity that resulted.

 

[Clint_L]

Alternatively, he thought he'd always have at least an equal ownership stake in the company to the point where it didn't really matter if the company owned the IP or he did. They were synonymous. I'd still consider that at least somewhat duplicitous since it was became clear that he wasn't going to treat other creator's rights the same as his own.

Yeah, I think it was more this - as the podcast makes clear, Gygax seemed oblivious to the idea that he could ever lose control of TSR...which is why he eventually lost control of TSR. Still deceptive, and I'm definitely not defending him on this, but I think in his personal narrative it was not the same situation as with the "employees," and his various statements seem to back that up.

In other words, I think what he did was wrong, but I think he saw it very differently. Just trying to see it from his perspective.

 

[billd91]

Yeah, I think it was more this - as the podcast makes clear, Gygax seemed oblivious to the idea that he could ever lose control of TSR...which is why he eventually lost control of TSR. Still deceptive, and I'm definitely not defending him on this, but I think in his personal narrative it was not the same situation as with the "employees," and his various statements seem to back that up.

In other words, I think what he did was wrong, but I think he saw it very differently. Just trying to see it from his perspective.

One of the things that amazed me so much was just how much leeway most of former TSR employees were going to give him. Granted, he enabled many of them to have something of a dream job and much of what we know now has come out in hindsight, but maybe we're all just living in a much more cynical age now that it's harder to relate to that. I suppose one of the reasons we do live in this more cynical age is because of TSR's meteoric rise and subsequent fall under the weight of greed and mismanagement.

 

[Riley]

As a 12 yr old or whatever the adventures were great to me, but everybody is different. I did appreciate all of the background campaign info too. There was something for everyone coming out every ~2 weeks(!)

Plus Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

I thought 2e Dungeon Magazine better than most of TSR's official 2e adventures!

 

[Mannahnin]

Alternatively, he thought he'd always have at least an equal ownership stake in the company to the point where it didn't really matter if the company owned the IP or he did. They were synonymous. I'd still consider that at least somewhat duplicitous since it was became clear that he wasn't going to treat other creator's rights the same as his own.

Yeah, when I say "Come on guys, you need to sign over your rights. Here, I'll sign first. We all know I'm giving up the most here since I invented this game and wrote the core books. By comparison you're giving up less", if I don't actually believe that I'm giving up anything...

 

[Warren]

Yeah, when I say "Come on guys, you need to sign over your rights. Here, I'll sign first. We all know I'm giving up the most here since I invented this game and wrote the core books. By comparison you're giving up less", if I don't actually believe that I'm giving up anything...

"Sign over your rights to the company, like I did. Note: I also own the company."

 

[Mannahnin]

"Sign over your rights to the company, like I did. Note: I also own the company."

Though note that he wasn't majority shareholder, and quite a few folks were part owners at the time.

 

[Warren]

Though note that he wasn't majority shareholder, and quite a few folks were part owners at the time.

Yes, I think that's important and I do recall he wanted creators to be a part of the company ownership and share the wealth that way. I don't know when he said that, but it's clear not much was done about it.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yes, I think that's important and I do recall he wanted creators to be a part of the company ownership and share the wealth that way. I don't know when he said that, but it's clear not much was done about it.

That was a big part of the recruitment sales pitch for some folks. Rob Kuntz and Jim Ward were able to make "buy a house and be middle class instead of poor" money off their royalties.

But as time went on TSR cut back more and more on royalties and then even on the worse replacement incentives, and retroactively changed deals to screw over creators, like the podcast talks about. A good example is Star Frontiers, where first the promised royalties were withdrawn, then the same with the creative bonuses which were offered in lieu of royalties, then those and even author credits were taken away.

Of course royalties to Gygax (and to a lesser extent Arneson) were a big financial liability and one can understand why TSR management didn't want to have more of those, but in a world where they were competent managers they would have been able to afford them.