Layoffs at WotC 286
Abies writes "During last year or so, quite a lot of people were fired from WotC - current owners of the D&D line. A few days ago, _most_ of big names out there had to quit - including Skip Williams and Jeff Grubb. Official WotC press info, Enworld news about that and a Monte Cook thread contain some more detailed info.
Do you think it will spell an end to D&D ? After something which seemed to be a ressurection of old-time RPG, Hasbro seems to kill the biggest RPG company out there. Will OGL and the D20 license be enough to preserve the genre ?"
Re:They can Coast a long for quite a while... (Score:2, Informative)
Designed? The Epic level rules are published [wizards.com]
Nethack RULES THE WORLD (Score:1, Informative)
And the biggest bonus, if you learn to play nethack, you'll be an expert at navigation in VI (it uses the same keys, but you don't have to).
Correlation is not causation (Score:3, Informative)
Corporate marketing people will always concede that the ultimate promotion is word-of-mouth. They do their best to create this, but they'll readily admit that it's mostly beyond their control.
Another parallel with DnD: in both games, players tend to improvise rules not approved by the publishers. In Monopoly, most players make the fine revenue into a prize you get by pulling a card at the right moment. (This change makes the game too random for my taste, but most people seem to like it.) And of course, serious Dungeon Masters use the TSR books as departure point, not a bible. In both cases, game is sustained by a critical mass of enthusiasts, not by corporate marketing.
Re:OGF != OGL (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Online Muds: Free and Non-commercial (Score:2, Informative)