All are doomed to sorrow.

A phrase that's stuck with me, for whatever reason.

the above one?

Yes. A phrase I heard from Lord_Gareth at about the time he started writing his harbinger class.

ah

I've been re-reading the ExTSR drama from several years ago. Man, did that guy get butthurt about some dumb stuff.

The idea that mxyzplk was considered hostile to OSR by someone seems ridiculous to me.

@DuckTapeAl My assumption has always been that he was already veeeerrryyy badly hurt by some things well before this site existed. And then I remember how many hours of fun and comraderie I've drawn from his work, and just say a little 'thanks, Frank.'

Fair enough.

but, yeah. Some of the comments and posts are... shocking in their hostility/temperamentality.

A lot of it is gone now, since it was in comments on Main, but I seem to remember there being even more anger there before.

Am I remembering correctly that he took umbrage at the use of the word "cretin"?

(Can you imagine what the arguments in Lake Geneva in the early 80's must have been like? That much pedantry and need-to-win-the-argument clustered in one building?)

Just the early days of TSR.

Ahh.

My suspicion, based on my time in the video games industry, is that there was a really talented producer who didn't get nearly enough credit for getting stuff shipped on time. :P

My vague impression is that the transition from "a bunch of people who looked up to Gary working in his basement" to "a bunch of also really-smart and opinionated people now wrestling over a vision, rather than just following one's vision" was a pretty rough one.

It usually is.

@DuckTapeAl Just looked up his profile. Even his bio is... pointed.

@UrhoKarila Yeah, that's what sent me down the archive/memory lane rabbit hole.

@DuckTapeAl you remember correctly, and he was called out for it quite pointedly. (it's the very same occasion he's complaining about in his profile description.)

don't know what ExTSR's deal is, but they seem to be trying to do some weak victim playing.

and his description of the situation is quite inconsistent. in his profile, he objects to Mxyzplk suggesting that RPGs encourage violence, while separately himself asserting that most RPGs encourage violence.

he claims he's been abused and humiliated during actions where he was the one engaging in abuse and others simply weren't having it, which is textbook crybullying, one of the ways victim playing can manifest.

← 20 messages moved from RPG General Chat

"Your tone should match the way you'd talk in person with someone you respect and whom you want to respect you."

@BESW I don't know if you were hoping to point my attention toward something in specific, or if an inbox message was just auto-generated when you moved messages that included mine. If the former, I've missed the message =\

@nitsua60 Auto-generated.

@BESW Thanks. I was trying to stay on the AGF side of things, but wasn't sure if you saw me miss somewhere.

I could tell.