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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanguinemetaldawn" data-source="post: 4112069" data-attributes="member: 23390">Gamer CEO'sThe executive leadership of TSR/WotC went something like this:Gygax/KayeGygax/Blume/BlumeBlume/BlumeGygax/lending institutionLorraine WilliamsPeter AdkinsonHasbroDuring the Gygax/Kaye era D&D was first published, print runs of 1000, then 2000, then 3000 then tens of thousands: explosive successDuring Gygax/Blume/Blume (after the death of Don Kaye and his widow selling her shares), release of 1st Ed. AD&D: explosive successDuring Blume/Blume (the Blume family forcing minority owner Gygax out of control, who then went to LA), TSR degeneratesWhen TSR is on the verge of going bankrupt thanks to the idiotic policies of the Blumes, Gary comes back, convinces the lender to let him control the company, and Gary returns the company to profitability.  Unfortunately, he is still minority shareholder, and the Blumes sell their shares to Lorraine Williams, who sees TSR/D&D as a tool for making money for her Buck Rogers brand.AD&D 2nd Edition is released under Lorraine Williams with David "Zeb" Cook as primary author, a project Gygax was planning before he was expelled from the company.  Madam Williams expresses her contempt for gamers, tunnels money out of TSR into her Buck Rogers brand, and runs TSR into the ground.  Lorraine William's also sees to it that TSR is never employee owned, contrary to Gygax's intention when he returned.Peter Adkinson, a gamer and businessman, and WotC buy out TSR, and release 3E D&D.The Haze Bros buy WotC, which WotC sells because the shareholders see the money Hasbro offers for the company, and Adkinson doesn't have sole control.  WotC then releases D&D 3.5.  And is now planning on 4.0 .The trend analysis tells me two things:The gamer/businessmen (Gygax and Adkinson) both were successfulandThe gamer/businessmen not having majority ownership/control came back to bite them.So yeah, to quote you again...It did work quite well.Too bad the gamers never had ownership/control.Pretty much the only argument you can make about bad gamer owners would be the Blumes, but they were even bad gamers, with lame characters serially named Rigby, Bigby, Digby, etc. and who can forget good old Medium Rary.And the nepotism and extravagance they practiced to the ruination of the company are hardly some kind of unique characteristic to gamers.</blockquote>

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