A couple rants...
For the background, the following post was made by Tracy Hickman this evening on the messageboards on his site:
http://p098.ezboard.com/fdragonhearthfrm33.showMessage?topicID=71.topic
Short summary: Amazon.com is listing, and offering for Pre-Order, the 3rd book in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Dark Chronicles trilogy, it says it is going to be released in July.
...Tracy and Margaret aren't done with the book, they haven't handed in the manuscript to Wizards of the Coast yet. The plot summary on Amazon isn't even the plot they've written.
Then, they find out that WOTC doesn't want their manuscript, they won't accept it anymore.
So, what is WotC trying to do? Have they handed the project over to someone else to write? with only 5 months to go? They can do it, they own the characters and setting.
This is just another thing that is causing me to REALLY not like WotC. It started with the general annoyance that they have completely abandoned Greyhawk, D&D's original setting, and have focused instead on creating yet MORE content for the already over-crowded and over-powered Forgotten Realms. They are releasing expansion books galore for the rules of the game system, creating headaches and power balance issues for the GMs trying to run games in D&D. With all their focus on creating new rules for the game, they're completely neglecting creating adventures for the game. I know the idea is that the GM is supposed to write the adventures, but many GMs don't have the crativity or time to write a complete campaign, so adventure modules were great. They've done a few revisions of the classic modules, but there hasn't been any completely new ones for a long time. Then there is WotC's handling of Living Greyhawk, and the other fan/volunteer-run Living campaigns. They have become simply marketing arms of the company, pushing the new rules books they are mass-producing, and the new Living campaigns are not nearly as fun, interesting, or well-run. They streamlined them to require 90% less manpower to run, but also got rid of 90% of the talent that was writing the adventures, so now all the Living campaign adventures suck.
Then there is 4th Ed. It's really too early for a complete revision of the rules, 3rd edition works fine - as long as you're not trying to incorporate the massive amounts of extra rules!
So, yeah, that's my rant about WotC...
Um. there was some other rant I was going to type, something about politics.
Oh, right! Prince Harry.
Why are people so blanking worried/annoyed/whatever that the media in the UK promised to keep Harry's deployment and missions in Afghanistan secret? Why did someone in the US feel it was so important to break the story to the world? Frankly, I am just fine with, even proud of, a news media who respects their government enough to KEEP its security secrets. All Prince Harry wanted to do was stay with his men, serve his country, and help do what needed to be done so that this war could get over with. The media following him was content to be able to wait to publish their story after his tour of duty was over. It's a great story, being able to show the country that even their Prince was doing his duty to his country.
So, just annoyed that people are all up-in-arms about the "secret cabal" between the UK governement and UK media. It's SECURITY, to keep the Prince and his unit from becoming a direct target. I say again, I am amazed at the respect the UK media has for their governement, and for their Prince, to agree to keep quiet about it.
Anyway, time to go home...
http://p098.ezboard.com/fdragonhearthfrm33.showMessage?topicID=71.topic
Short summary: Amazon.com is listing, and offering for Pre-Order, the 3rd book in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Dark Chronicles trilogy, it says it is going to be released in July.
...Tracy and Margaret aren't done with the book, they haven't handed in the manuscript to Wizards of the Coast yet. The plot summary on Amazon isn't even the plot they've written.
Then, they find out that WOTC doesn't want their manuscript, they won't accept it anymore.
So, what is WotC trying to do? Have they handed the project over to someone else to write? with only 5 months to go? They can do it, they own the characters and setting.
This is just another thing that is causing me to REALLY not like WotC. It started with the general annoyance that they have completely abandoned Greyhawk, D&D's original setting, and have focused instead on creating yet MORE content for the already over-crowded and over-powered Forgotten Realms. They are releasing expansion books galore for the rules of the game system, creating headaches and power balance issues for the GMs trying to run games in D&D. With all their focus on creating new rules for the game, they're completely neglecting creating adventures for the game. I know the idea is that the GM is supposed to write the adventures, but many GMs don't have the crativity or time to write a complete campaign, so adventure modules were great. They've done a few revisions of the classic modules, but there hasn't been any completely new ones for a long time. Then there is WotC's handling of Living Greyhawk, and the other fan/volunteer-run Living campaigns. They have become simply marketing arms of the company, pushing the new rules books they are mass-producing, and the new Living campaigns are not nearly as fun, interesting, or well-run. They streamlined them to require 90% less manpower to run, but also got rid of 90% of the talent that was writing the adventures, so now all the Living campaign adventures suck.
Then there is 4th Ed. It's really too early for a complete revision of the rules, 3rd edition works fine - as long as you're not trying to incorporate the massive amounts of extra rules!
So, yeah, that's my rant about WotC...
Um. there was some other rant I was going to type, something about politics.
Oh, right! Prince Harry.
Why are people so blanking worried/annoyed/whatever that the media in the UK promised to keep Harry's deployment and missions in Afghanistan secret? Why did someone in the US feel it was so important to break the story to the world? Frankly, I am just fine with, even proud of, a news media who respects their government enough to KEEP its security secrets. All Prince Harry wanted to do was stay with his men, serve his country, and help do what needed to be done so that this war could get over with. The media following him was content to be able to wait to publish their story after his tour of duty was over. It's a great story, being able to show the country that even their Prince was doing his duty to his country.
So, just annoyed that people are all up-in-arms about the "secret cabal" between the UK governement and UK media. It's SECURITY, to keep the Prince and his unit from becoming a direct target. I say again, I am amazed at the respect the UK media has for their governement, and for their Prince, to agree to keep quiet about it.
Anyway, time to go home...