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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.CARL.ORG>
Subject: Re: [OT] Boycott M:tG
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 13:04:36 -0700
Erik Jameson wrote:
/
/ At 10:05 AM 3/13/98 -0600, you wrote:
/ >The following is the URL for Palladium's take on why they aren't attending
/ >GenCon
/ >
/ >http://www.palladiumbooks.com/Gen.htm
/ >
/ Are you sure that's the right URL? I couldn't get to it.

Worked fine for me just 30 minutes ago <shrug>. Give it another try.

/ Anyway, it does appear that Wizards of the Coast are using their
/ considerable financial muscle to try and crush all their competition. More
/ than doubling the fees to show at GenCon is example of that.

%36 increase according to Palladium.

/ Small (and some medium sized) companies are forced to not attend the
/ largest RPG/gaming convention in the US, thereby preventing them from
/ reaching a large customer base. More of the pie for WotC.

Projections say it's going to be a small turnout this year.

/ I would suggest that as a protest, we don't buy anymore Magic cards (as if
/ I ever bought gamer-crack). I don't think too many people buy AD&D stuff
/ anymore, so a boycott of that product line wouldn't help. But if there was
/ a sales drop in their vaunted Magic cards, maybe, just maybe, Wizards of
/ the Coast might catch on.
/
/ I know it'll be hard for you Magic addicts; gotta feed both the addiction
/ and the arms race. But unless you want to be a part of the creation of the
/ "Microsoft" of the gaming industry, I would stop, cold turkey.

You gotta be related to Spike somehow ;)

Magic is a top notch product. I'm not going to boycot it.

It looks like GenCon is going to be a bust this year, which is a
shame. This is the first year that I have an opportunity to attend
GenCon, but I probably won't because of the lack of vendors. I love
Shadowrun and would love to go to their booth, but if I'm gonna spend
$500 or so, I want more.

If you boycot Magic you send the wrong message, "I hate Magic and
WotC!" (well, maybe not if you really hate WotC :). If you boycot
GenCon then you send the right message, "GenCon doesn't interest me
this year." If you back that up with a letter to WotC then you can
send the message loud and clear, "I'm not going to GenCon because so
many vendors have dropped out."

When TSR started screwing around I didn't boycot them because they
were screwing people. I stopped buying their products because they
started putting out crap and killed my favorite line (DarkSun, if
you're interested).

Boycot the negative aspect of the company, not the positive. And
communicate with them directly and let them know how you feel.

BTW, this has all the earmarkings of going way off into OT land. If
this goes on much further I'm going private to keep from cluttering
the list.

-David
--
"You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it."
- Samuel Butler
--
ShadowRN GridSec
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm
Message no. 2
From: Spike <u5a77@*****.CS.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: [OT] Boycott M:tG
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 20:54:33 +0000
And verily, did David Buehrer hastily scribble thusly...
|/ and the arms race. But unless you want to be a part of the creation of the
|/ "Microsoft" of the gaming industry, I would stop, cold turkey.
|
|You gotta be related to Spike somehow ;)

I resemble that remark.
(I agree with 'im though...)
:p

|Magic is a top notch product. I'm not going to boycot it.

Bollock....
(It's not even worthy of the second bollock to make it a plural)

|It looks like GenCon is going to be a bust this year, which is a
|shame.

What do you expect?
WotC *USED* to be a good gaming company.
Then the finance people gained control, they dropped all roleplaying stock,
and released MtAddiction.

Buying out T$R was just another business decision.
They're not interested in gamers anymore. Just ca$h. >ke-ching<


--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|u5a77@*****.cs.keele.ac.uk| Windows95 (noun): 32 bit extensions and a |
| | graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit |
|Andrew Halliwell | operating system originally coded for a 4 bit |
|Principal Subjects in:- |microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that|
|Comp Sci & Electronics | can't stand 1 bit of competition. |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ o+ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ |
|5++ X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! :( |
Message no. 3
From: Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM>
Subject: Re: [OT] Boycott M:tG
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 16:43:24 -0500
At 01:04 PM 3/13/98 -0700, you wrote:

>/ I know it'll be hard for you Magic addicts; gotta feed both the addiction
>/ and the arms race. But unless you want to be a part of the creation of the
>/ "Microsoft" of the gaming industry, I would stop, cold turkey.
>
>You gotta be related to Spike somehow ;)
>
Erm, I don't think so...but then again, most of my ancestry does hail from
Great Britain somewhere...

>Magic is a top notch product. I'm not going to boycott it.
>
I would say used to be. I buy SRTCG, but if they take the same path that
Magic took, I'll stop buying it. I mean, major expansions seemingly every
time you turn around, piles of cards that aren't tourney legal because the
game designers screwed up the first, second, third time around...sorry, but
that sounds more like a Microsoft release than a quality product.

>If you boycott Magic you send the wrong message, "I hate Magic and
>WotC!" (well, maybe not if you really hate WotC :). If you boycott
>GenCon then you send the right message, "GenCon doesn't interest me
>this year." If you back that up with a letter to WotC then you can
>send the message loud and clear, "I'm not going to GenCon because so
>many vendors have dropped out."
>
Actually, I do hate Crack-for-Gamers (aka Magic: the Gathering). But that
is the *only* way that people can possibly take effective action against
the Wizards of the Coast. I don't like what they are doing, so I want to
hit them where it hurts - the bank account.

>Boycott the negative aspect of the company, not the positive. And
>communicate with them directly and let them know how you feel.
>
Direct communication has limited affects, trust me. I'm in public
relations; one of my brethren in spin control at WotC will merely crank out
a form letter stating that your concerns have been duly noted. And that'll
be about it - unless backed up by financial muscle. Trust me, when I was
with the agency that handled Toshiba's computers, it wasn't how to help the
customer, it was a)how to shut them up and b)how to do damage control, aka
spin.

>BTW, this has all the earmarkings of going way off into OT land. If
>this goes on much further I'm going private to keep from cluttering
>the list.
>
>
Agreed. If you, or anyone else, want to continue this, let's take it private.

Erik J.

Boycott Magic Now!
Message no. 4
From: Dan Weber <DFYDUK@*******.NET>
Subject: Re: [OT] Boycott M:tG
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 12:37:24 PST
----------
> At 01:04 PM 3/13/98 -0700, you wrote:

> I would say used to be. I buy SRTCG, but if they take the same path =
that
> Magic took, I'll stop buying it. I mean, major expansions seemingly =
every
> time you turn around,

How many times can you say Llanowar Elves?

piles of cards that aren't tourney legal because the
> game designers screwed up the first, second, third time around...sorry,=
but
> that sounds more like a Microsoft release than a quality product.

Speaking as a game designer, this is the point of conflict that made me =
dump my collection. (I still have a couple of commons-only decks to use =
when the insanity strikes, but nothing like I used to) When a game compan=
y creates a product which by their official statement (banning) has gapin=
g flaws, something is wrong. Look at the card companies out there with =
actual tournament rules. L5R doesn't ban cards, AvP has banned the Plasm=
a Caster in tournament play. Banning says, "Whoops, we thought (it was =
so darned neat, didn't have time to fix, not enough playtesting) that the=
extent of the card's abuse would be limited." CCG tournaments are all =
about minimaxing your deck! Play with your friends is where you get the =
enjoyment out of the product, but how often do you and your friends play =
with anything but tournament rules in effect (just for cohesion).

Dan Weber X)

"Remeber to use your powers for good and not evil."

Further Reading

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Thwap!