For once, the picture on this blog post is actually relevant to what I’m talking about. The guy in the center is me ten years (and probably forty pounds) ago, playing my Brujah Anarch at the International Camarilla Conclave. More importantly, that’s me ten years ago playing in Vampire: The Masquerade, a part of the World of Darkness. Now, I’m the World of Darkness developer for the new WoD RPGs. One of the many things that means is that I’m helping to make more game material so that more people can make more memories like that for themselves.
But that LARP isn’t some isolated incident in the past, a wistful look back to the time when I used to game. Last night I played in a Sabbat-focused Masquerade LARP. Last weekend I made a character for a Dark Ages: Vampire game. The weekend before that I played in a different Masquerade LARP (this one centered around the Camarilla and the independent clans). I may be making the games, but I’m still a fan and still a player. I love Masquerade and Requiem (and all the other games) with different levels of passion and intensity, but I do love them.
A couple of weeks ago, Mike Mearls posted on the Internet about Dungeons & Dragons. Now, many people post about D&D on the Internet, but Mike is the Group Manager for the D&D Research and Development team, which is probably a title roughly analogous to my own. He posted his love of the various editions of D&D, and some of the sentiment he expressed mirrored a lot of my own thoughts about editions wars, so I didn’t think much of it except for giving Mike a mental fist bump before moving on.
Then Russell posted about the fan reaction to this:
There are, however, those who doubt Mike’s sincerity. He’s just making nice for the Pathfinder players, they say, in order to lure them insidiously into his brand-new gingerbread house D&D products. The ones that look like candy, but are soaked in cyanide. And WoWcraft.
There’s more, and I suggest you read it, but Russell’s zeroed in on a point that’s bugged me for a while: folks like us don’t get to be in charge of projects like this without having a shit-ton of passion for these games specifically, or for games in general. We’re not corporate drones designed to kill everything that’s awesome in gaming. Quite the opposite: in every interview for a game design position I’ve given or received, at some point there’s the question of “what games do you play?”
And it’s not just Mike and Russell and me. I play D&D with my boss once in a while. The president of CCP North America has an ongoing game. Our CEO once chatted with me about the best way to go about becoming the Prince of Reykjavik. Every time a new video game launches, the office will be full of people talking about it the next day. Some of the guys in the kitchen staff have a Requiem tabletop game. Even people we’ve hired from outside the game industry who don’t game seem to become gamers before too long.
So it’s hard for me to look at something that someone like Mike Mearls wrote and find any malicious design behind such a passionate love letter. It’s hard for me to attribute negative corporate decisions to faceless “suits,” because there aren’t many in most of the game companies I know. Granted, there are more and more businessmen in the video game industry as it continues to make (and spend) a staggering amount of money, but more often than not someone who works for a game company probably owns a set of polyhedral dice or a video game console and uses them.
Game companies might be more chaotic than we should be at times, but we’re probably not as evil as some folks think we are.
We played old school D&D together, for that matter. I agree, Eddy- it used to amaze me, and still does when the issue is raised, when fans would spin out these conspiracy theories about the big business guys or the Marketing thugs, or whatever, that were screwing with WW’s books. Sure, business decisions were made- that’s why despite the odds we still are publishing- but they were made by gamers who wanted to keep on playing and creating games for a living. Many of whom could have worked in another industry and made more cash. Old news, I know, but like your post- well worth repeating for those who tuned in late.
I ONLY DIED A FEW TIMES.
Fuckin’ old school D&D.
Psssh. That’s just the sort of defense of a fellow Corporate Suit that I’d expect from a soulless instrument of The Man.
Whatevs. You’re still reeling from jealousy over our GenCon booth.
I like it. Thanks for the reminder, Eddy! It’s really hard to forget that getting places doesn’t immediate rob you of passion and love for the job. I mean, working for an RPG company…that’s not something you do unless you really love the hobby. There’s tons of money to be made elsewhere.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading EVE blogs all morning, but I caught myself thinking you were responding to some CSM-centered tears I hadn’t heard about.
… I’ve got to find a regular WoD crew…
Honestly, every time I learn about an employee of a game company who wasn’t a gamer beforehand, I consistently have the following series of internal responses, like the stages of grief:
1) Shock: Don’t “they” screen applicants to protect against that?
2) Confusion: This ain’t the mid 90′s! The gaming industry saw what happened with Lorraine Williams! Don’t they screen applicants to protect against that?
3) Shock/Confusion: Who doesn’t play ‘some’ kind of game these days? Didn’t ‘non gamers’ go the way of the dodo bird?
4) Depression: I’m a gamer/college graduate. Why is this world operating so arse-backwards? Varying quantities of alcohol usually accompany this stage.
5) Acceptance: Obviously the person in question presented an exceptional set of skills that fit the company’s needs at that time. Besides, only someone like Lorraine Williams can spend any extended amount of time surrounded by gamers and game culture without at least developing a shadow of interest.
6) Denial: I drink more heavily and cry myself to sleep pretending that the fifth stage was all bull.
I will l say I’ve never thought of a game company as ‘evil,’ at least towards their player base. Maybe that points to a game-consumption-deficiency on my part. Things like the EA Spouse scandal fall under a different context, I think.
WHAT? You mean I did all this for all these years and if I get hired full time by a company, I don’t get to lose my passion and heartlessly sell out all my ideals in exchange for piles and piles of cash?
DAMMIT!
(Hurls computer out window, stomps off to apply to law school.)
-G.
No. You do, however, get to sell out your ideals in exchange for a handful of cash.
All you’ve said here makes total sense. I’m in a gaming group that loves to sit and analyze what each tiniest part of every announcement from WotC means (because we’re D&D addicts and we need help). Sure, sometimes announcements are made that we’re not completely happy with, but I always try to remember that the developers really DO have what’s best for the game in mind and will ALWAYS fight to support it.
So, um… how exactly WOULD one go about becoming the Prince of Reykjavik?
Er, just purely out of academic interest, mind you! No plans for world domination here. Nope. Not even a little bit.
Apparently, tell the other three or four vampires that you’re Prince.
I laugh every time I hear people espouse these corporate conspiracy theories. Has it happened? Probably, but that’s the tail end of the bell curve.
There are very few people who get into the table top gaming industry out of anything but love for it. Not enough money, health insurance or any other material gain to acquire. If it weren’t for comp copies I don’t think most game writers could afford to buy games.
Hasbro/WotC and CCP/WW are probably the most “corporate” table top companies out there right now and saying that is a bit like saying your local 3 locations burger franchise is a business on par with Burger King.
Pretty much, yeah. The scale is just completely different.