Re: Blue Pill Time

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_BuQV0wyVp1z3WumnuNXXT3aQxWPzwBBc93CB_tZGczTBvFKuTnNysF4tE1Q0eCPYjDC2>
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:24:32 -0000


I'm taking a break in packing up my stuff and shutting down (largely unsuccessfully) my many affairs in the good old USA to be gratuitously abusive.

> I'm still on all the groups that have a reason for
> existence. Not the one that only got created in the
> first place because Greg won't lower himself to even
> acknowledge the existence of the ones that have been
> running for decades, and which he tells me is for a
> group of Elite People. I'm not "elite". I don't want
> anything to do with anyone who declares themselves
> part of a self-appointed "elite".

The creation of the World of Glorantha list had nothing to do with this so-called "elite" (although as an elitist, I wish I was a member), and everything to do with intellectual property issues. If people ask really politely at Tentacles, I might tell the more of the story. If I'm plied with enough good beer and liquor.

> No, you get a boycott because I have had more than
> enough of The Great Greg implying that his creative
> whims are more important than his CUSTOMERS - he's
> pretending to do this professionally, remember? This
> time he didn't just imply it, he said it. And said
> that the "deep" Glorantha is the "real" one, and the
> published one is only the unimportant dumbed down for
> the masses version. Wrong way round, asshole, unless
> you really imagine your private Glorantha is "real"
> and that used by thousands of others is less
> important. So screw him.

Are you sure you even want to go down this path? First, Greg (and myself, and Mark Galeotti, and many of the other folk who write with Greg) do this largely for artistic and creative reasons - the small amounts of money involved are hardly the motivation for anything other than a commissioned work. FYI, I don't get paid a cent for the stuff I've produced. Not a pence for my freeforms, not a wooden nickel for Enclosure, not a penny for Our Great Empire, The Middle Sea Empire or the Heortling History Book. Nada. Greg makes a little more than that. We do this because it fulfills some artistic and creative itch.  Period.

Second, the Glorantha described in "gaming supplements" is always going to be fundamentally MGF. The Glorantha described in "background books" like KoS, GRoY, FS, Entekosiad, MSE or the HHP are always going to be fundamentally creative explorations in mythology. There will be things in "gaming supplements" that don't make a lot of mythological sense because most gamers don't want to fully immerse themselves in a fictional mythology - they just want to have a fun game set in an interesting fictional world. Everyone does that. My games deviate from my creative writings and that's just fine. I let my players do things that I'd never allow in my writings. These are two different mediums.

And here's what drives me nuts - many people complain that Greg (or Issaries or Moon Design) don't produce enough, or that they haven't finished a story arc that folk are interested in. And then when something creative is produced, they bitch about how it doesn't fit their preconceived format. "Be creative, but only within the ranges we self-appointed guardians of the 'CUSTOMERS' want you to be."

Well, bollocks to that.

Jeff            

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