Pardon me? A condition of viewing the page? Sorry, but no. If you want to make viewing your ads a condition of viewing your page, I want a nice little script that pops up before the page does, that essentially reads "by visiting this site you agree to not bypass any ads that are hosted on this page"-- with an "ok" button to let me in, and a "cancel" button to kick me out to Slashdot (or wherever).
Damn straight. Western students have been caught on the fourth and fifth floors of Weldon engaging in all sorts of sexual activities; my guess is some of the Kinesiology students are claiming it as extra credit.
Not to mention being used as a "gateway" (to borrow the drug analogy of many anti-D&D groups) to the upcoming 3rd Edition rules; WOTC needs the just-graduated-from-Pokemon kids to get hooked on D&D as soon as possible-- otherwise sales aren't going to be good enough to prevent Hasbro from canning the whole operation. I mean, just look at everything that's happened over the last few months: they're re-running the cartoon (what's next, bringing back the D&D candies, or the jerking-motion action figures?); they've talked Blizzard into bundling the Diablo II "collector's edition" with bits of the Diablo campaign setting for 3rd Edition; WOTC's only other active RPG (Alternity) has been cancelled; and of course, the upcoming release of the flick. This is just a continuation of what I was talking about in the "D&D Movie" thread.
In order to understand the differences between Starship Troopers (the novel) and Starship Troopers (the movie), one has to look at Paul Verhoeven's filmography.
Mr. V. has a long history of parodying the (presumed) American psyche. Two excellent cases in point are the two Robocop films-- particularly with regard to the fake commercials, and the newscasters.
Mr. V. has also directed Showgirls-- a film that was generally lambasted, and apparently almost universally disliked (I can't comment on it, having never seen it). It is entirely understandable that he might be a bit peeved at American viewers for not enjoying/understanding/going-on-a-killing-rampage- to-see the film.
From here, we go to Starship Troopers. Personally, I enjoyed the film-- as a broad political comedy. Mr. V. probably saw it as an excuse to get back at the same (from his theoretical perspective) redneck yokels who dissed Showgirls, by tricking them into swallowing heaping helpings of Nazi imagery masquerading as Good 'ol Boy American jin-- er, patriotism.
"Pardon," you say?
From the beginning, hallowed American symbols and ideals are intermixed with fascistic ones. The stylized eagle we see near the beginning of the film could be mistaken for a "SF-ed up" version of the American Eagle motif. On the other hand, it looks a great deal more like a fusion of the stylized Nazi "SS" and the eagle that perched atop the laurel-wreathed swastika. Likewise, the uniform that Doogie Howser (yep, same actor), Mind Melter and his Intel comrades wore looked virtually identical to a type of WWII German uniform (it actually scared the hell out of me the first time they showed up on screen).
In and of itself, the film was a parody of American war movies (and war news coverage), from the opening audience briefing ("Klendathu must be destroyed" [graphic of quietly exploding planet]), to the hypermedia propaganda bits, to the increasingly desperate recruitment ads (note how enlisting slowly goes from merely increasing the likelihood of having one's citizenship request accepted, to guaranteeing citizenship at the end of the film). I'll refrain from explaining how the "brain bug" at the end is a blatant manifestation of the vagina dentata, partially because it should be obvious just from looking at it, and because I don't want to waste any more bandwidth.
...As opposed to uo.com reporting that "he has threatened to anally rape any EA executives or marketing department employees that he comes across. All EA employees are hereby advised to avoid the Austin area, and report any threatening phone calls received from Mr. Garriott."
Anything that he wants to do that isn't a MMRPG falls outside of the scope of Origin's work-- there was an announcement a few weeks ago that said that they've become EA's MMRPG arm.
Personally, I'm glad that he's leaving. I'd like to see if he's as burnt out as a lot of people are claiming; if we can get a decent RPG with a good background out of this event, I'll definitely be happy.
According to Origin's PR flacks (and allegedly the killer of LB), the guy was kicked out for violating the TOS: he found a bug, and exploited it instead of reporting it.
>Now a rubber hand-puppet chasing The Doctor - that's convincing!
>Now be fair. The 1990s US-based Doctor Who was far superior, despite the obvious handicaps of cgi and a big budget. That's why it >did so well.
I hope you were being facetious. Fox's Doctor Who was the most disappointing thing that I have ever witnessed. Killing off McCoy's Doctor in a random display of street violence? Come on-- letting him regenerate in his sleep (without the recycled Highlander Quickening F/X, thank you), or suffering a heart attack, or anything else would have been much better than that slap in the face they gave to one of the best Doctors. McGann was good, I will admit, but that awful "self-pitying-half-human/ooh!-a-potential-sex-part ner" subplot they threw in to get him attached to that lady surgeon (and to give her character an excuse to become his Companion) was ham-handed at best. I wish Hollywood would figure out that sex is not the only way to create tension between characters.
Ugh; don't remind me. My roommate got his hands on mpegs of somebody's handycam recording of FF9-11 gameplay trailers (presumably filmed at a trade show). The future is bleak.
FF9 looks to be a return to the earlier FF principles (at least stylistically): the FMV is cartoony, the characters are closer to the original chibi ("super deformed") ideal, and they aren't composed of low-grade polys. Overall, it looks to be a return to the "fantastic" theme of the earlier games. Of course, it's anyone's guess how much actual gameplay is in it.
FF10 and 11 are an entirely different matter. FF10's claim to fame seems to be (gods forbid) internet connectivity. Since I can't read any of the Japanese character sets (particularly when they're smears on a projection screen), I'm forced to guess that players of FF10 will be able to download and play mini-quests in confined areas, the list of which will presumably be added to as time goes on (personally, I won't be holding my breath). Equally annoyingly, they've gone back to the "realistic" character style of FF8.
FF11 is the worst of the bunch; it is specifically on-line only. Just think: by the end of 2001, proud PS2 owners will be able to experience the same online-only rathunts that PC RPG enthusiasts (or masochists, take your pick) engage in daily. I must admit, it never occurred to me that Squaresoft would have the brass-balled audacity to try pulling a plot-free "RPG" out of their gestalt ass. I'm afraid to ask what's coming down the conceptual pipe (FF Deathmatch, perhaps?)...
I agree with your story and your dark world view, but ought D&D fans to take it lying down? I mean, I think the time has come to create an Open Source RPG. (Sigh... Mayfair games tried to treat AD&D as open source, remember Demons? But I think they got successfully sued for that one.)
Of course we shouldn't take it lying down. The problem is, our effectiveness is extremely limited. A boycott will probably either have no effect or kill the product line, but that isn't going to cause all of our extant D&D stuff to burst into flames, is it? There's a fair amount of good stuff out there right now, and if it comes down to it, there's any number of home-grown campaigns that could be disseminated through any number of channels.
As for the actual rules... There's not much we can do about that, short of stockpiling extra copies of the 2nd Edition rules (and perhaps the Core Rules CD-ROM) to share with the local gaming group. I can't advocate photocopying the text (because that would be illegal), but I have to wonder if some sort of D&D oral tradition could be devised-- no, wait, that's far too silly.
As for an open-source RPG... FUDGE is the closest thing that I can think of.
I think that a few good things have come out of WoTC, notably the Dragon Magazine archive which seems to contain the issues intact and with no censorship (i.e. Ed Greenwoods The Nine Hells is intact, the "naughty" art hasn't been altered.) So maybe the pessimism isn't warranted. If they decide AD&D is commercially worthless, maybe a group of fans could pool their resources, buy it, and open source it... or am I a hopeless dreamer?
I'll agree with you on the Dragon Magazine Archive; I snagged a copy of that the first time I saw it. I'm inclined to believe that they didn't censor it mostly for legal reasons (ownership of art and ads), and because it would have been too much effort-- I get the distinct feeling that they sat a couple of interns down with a stack of mags, a scanner, and a copy of Acrobat Distiller. If I was in that situation, I wouldn't go out of my way to glue a strip of black cardboard across someone's bits and pieces.
Open source D&D would be pretty cool, but I don't think it's going to happen, regardless of its financial viability.
You want a Shadowrun computer game? Track down a Super Nintendo, the Shadowrun self-titled cart, and a case of Maalox. Seriously though, I feel your pain. I liked Shadowrun (even though my GM was an absolute idiot), but I doubt that a CRPG or a movie would have done the setting justice.
A PG rating? But of course. There is an excellent reason for it, and the reason is merchandising. Most of this post is a capsule history of AD&D over the last ten years, to illustrate my final point, so if you just want to skip to the end, scroll down to The Present.
Simply stated, T$R has a long, illustrious history of circling the proverbial bowl. When one of its founders (Gary Gygax) was divorced, his ex-wife (known in some circles as "The Bitch") won a controlling share of the company. Almost immediately, the entire product line was retooled into AD&D Second Edition: gone were the piles of rulebooks that had accrued over years of rules amendments and neat ideas; gone were the (very) occasional pieces of naughty artwork; and gone was everything that could be perceived as "evil" or "controversial" (the Assassin class, demons, and devils, to name a few). Granted, some of the things that were removed were unbalancing (the Cavalier and Barbarian classes, for example). Second Edition was supposed to be a fresh start, a distillation of the best of First Edition and (major selling point) compatible with the original rules. Of course, things broke down quickly.
The 2ndEd product line started off fairly well, with monster packs, books detailing new rules for the four basic character types, and retoolings of older game worlds that had presumably become stale. This wasn't making enough money. Sourcebooks of dubious worth were published, new settings of interest only to very particular types of players were introduced, and campaign settings suffered terrible Dubious Cataclysms That Changed Everything (TM) in order to invalidate old sourcebooks and campaign sets. The bean-counters and lawyers took over, uttering threats (and sometimes making good on them) to buy or sue anyone who so much as looked at them strangely (including anyone who published home-grown rules or campaign information on the Web). The Ty-D-Bol Man beckoned. Luckily for them, Wizards of the Coast scooped them up before it was too late.
During the takeover, WOTC played up their historical connections with AD&D, T$R, etc., proclaiming that their name was originally from an AD&D campaign that the company's founders were involved in. That tidbit was apparently supposed to convince gamers of two things: one, that WOTC was on "their side"; and, two, that since they were gamers once, too, the WOTC brass had innate knowledge of how to make T$R the titan it used to be. This was, of course, bulls**t. WOTC bought T$R because of their excellent distribution network, their pre-existing product lines, and because they were desperately seeking a safety net for when Magic: The Gathering finally lost its popularity: WOTC's homegrown RPG, Everway, died a quick death, and M:tG has always been in danger of losing its popularity in the same sort of shocking surge that it became popular with in the first place. WOTC then discovered one of T$R's biggest problems: its writers were old-school AD&D players, and naturally had a difficult time relating to the current generation of Vampire: the Masquerade players. Worse, M:tG's popularity was beginning to hurt: each new expansion strangled sales of WOTC's other products, leaving them in increasing amounts of debt. The Pokemon card game was just as dangerous to them as Magic, for the same reasons. One flurry of bad product and Magic: The RPG rumours later, Hasbro took over.
Hasbro was nervous. Sales of traditional toys were down, in favour of multimedia and interactive games. Their rival, Mattel, was making inroads into the interactive entertainment market, leaving them in the dust. In response, Hasbro purchased MicroProse. Having their own computer game company was all well and good, and Hasbro Interactive produced a lot of simple, mass-market computer games and crossover products (like the execrable Star Wars Monopoly). The only problem was, they didn't have any "traditional" computer game licenses. Enter WOTC, stage left, wearing a "buy me!" sign.
Hasbro's buyout was beneficial for both companies (or their execs, at least). The owners of WOTC made a killing, and were no longer waking from nightmares of being crushed by unsold boxes of Magic cards. Hasbro was especially happy: They gained a monopoly on domestic Pokemon merchandise, a half-decent novel publishing arm (TSR Books), and control of the AD&D computer game license (to go with their own computer game production house; it is highly unlikely that Hasbro will license another company to produce AD&D computer games after the current batch have finished production). Then, the fun began.
WOTC recently announced the production of a third edition of AD&D (now referred to as D&D, since the original "Basic" D&D was no longer in print). This edition was intended to appeal to the current generation of gamers, and was disturbing both in that the game mechanics had been altered enough that an expensive "conversion book" had become necessary to bring Second Edition characters into line with the new rules, and that WOTC decided to publish the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide in such volume that they could sell them at a cut rate. From this, one could be led to believe that WOTC has a lot riding on the success of Third Edition D&D. One would be correct.
The Present:
The D&D movie is rated PG because WOTC desperately wants young people to see the movie, and then buy the (relatively) cheap 3rd Edition core rulebooks shortly thereafter (I would be willing to wager that they will be available for sale at kiosks in most large theater lobbies, along with "What is D&D?" programmes). The movie is both a test of the feasibility of (gods forbid) more D&D movies, and a massive advertisement for 3rd Edition. They are going to such an outrageous length to promote the 3rd Edition rules because if they aren't massively popular to begin with, D&D will probably go out of print (and incidentally, a lot of writers will be canned). This is hardly a surprise: the product line has been tanking for years, and Hasbro could care less about keeping it around for the sake of "tradition". Hasbro already has what it wants out of WOTC: Pokemon; a perennially strong computer game license; and a group of captive RPG writers to pen the next Star Wars RPG.
Deny @home users access to alt.sex.* for eternity and the rest will follow. You don't think they actually read anything else, do you? You fiend! At least leave us with the really good ones-- like alt.sex.hello-kitty, and alt.sex.cthulhu...
All @Home really needs to do is grab a bunch of techs who aren't doing anything, give 'em the spams, access to query the logging server and I bet within a few days they wouldn't have a problem anymore. I know we didn't.
Sounds like a fairly solid plan. My question is, does anyone have any idea how they'd go about accomplishing this? I mean, @Home's network sprawls like the proverbial corpse. Would this just be a job for @home HQ, or would the local licensees have to get into the act? Gawd help their users (like Yours Truly) if HQ and the licensees actually had to closely co-ordinate their efforts to get this done.
A Monsanto official told the NEW YORK TIMES that the corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety of its food products. "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job," Angell said.
Considering that the FDA has been in Monsanto's pocket since the Reagan administration (anyone remember the skulduggery surrounding Nutrasweet?), that has to be one of the most revolting statements that I have ever laid eyes upon.
Slashdot Mirror
Pardon me? A condition of viewing the page? Sorry, but no. If you want to make viewing your ads a condition of viewing your page, I want a nice little script that pops up before the page does, that essentially reads "by visiting this site you agree to not bypass any ads that are hosted on this page"-- with an "ok" button to let me in, and a "cancel" button to kick me out to Slashdot (or wherever).
Damn straight. Western students have been caught on the fourth and fifth floors of Weldon engaging in all sorts of sexual activities; my guess is some of the Kinesiology students are claiming it as extra credit.
Not to mention being used as a "gateway" (to borrow the drug analogy of many anti-D&D groups) to the upcoming 3rd Edition rules; WOTC needs the just-graduated-from-Pokemon kids to get hooked on D&D as soon as possible-- otherwise sales aren't going to be good enough to prevent Hasbro from canning the whole operation. I mean, just look at everything that's happened over the last few months: they're re-running the cartoon (what's next, bringing back the D&D candies, or the jerking-motion action figures?); they've talked Blizzard into bundling the Diablo II "collector's edition" with bits of the Diablo campaign setting for 3rd Edition; WOTC's only other active RPG (Alternity) has been cancelled; and of course, the upcoming release of the flick. This is just a continuation of what I was talking about in the "D&D Movie" thread.
Mr. V. has a long history of parodying the (presumed) American psyche. Two excellent cases in point are the two Robocop films-- particularly with regard to the fake commercials, and the newscasters.
Mr. V. has also directed Showgirls-- a film that was generally lambasted, and apparently almost universally disliked (I can't comment on it, having never seen it). It is entirely understandable that he might be a bit peeved at American viewers for not enjoying/understanding/going-on-a-killing-rampage- to-see the film.
From here, we go to Starship Troopers. Personally, I enjoyed the film-- as a broad political comedy. Mr. V. probably saw it as an excuse to get back at the same (from his theoretical perspective) redneck yokels who dissed Showgirls, by tricking them into swallowing heaping helpings of Nazi imagery masquerading as Good 'ol Boy American jin-- er, patriotism.
"Pardon," you say?
From the beginning, hallowed American symbols and ideals are intermixed with fascistic ones. The stylized eagle we see near the beginning of the film could be mistaken for a "SF-ed up" version of the American Eagle motif. On the other hand, it looks a great deal more like a fusion of the stylized Nazi "SS" and the eagle that perched atop the laurel-wreathed swastika. Likewise, the uniform that Doogie Howser (yep, same actor), Mind Melter and his Intel comrades wore looked virtually identical to a type of WWII German uniform (it actually scared the hell out of me the first time they showed up on screen).
In and of itself, the film was a parody of American war movies (and war news coverage), from the opening audience briefing ("Klendathu must be destroyed" [graphic of quietly exploding planet]), to the hypermedia propaganda bits, to the increasingly desperate recruitment ads (note how enlisting slowly goes from merely increasing the likelihood of having one's citizenship request accepted, to guaranteeing citizenship at the end of the film). I'll refrain from explaining how the "brain bug" at the end is a blatant manifestation of the vagina dentata, partially because it should be obvious just from looking at it, and because I don't want to waste any more bandwidth.
B5 gets green light (JMS had been flogging it since the 70's).
DS9 announced.
B5 starts to have run-ins with the Shadows.
The Dominion becomes a problem.
White stars arrive in B5 timeline.
The Defiant is allocated to DS9.
The Shadow War begins.
Every other DS9 episode is about some fleet action or another (an exaggeration, granted, but it did become a major element).
The Shadow War ends; Shadow Minions (etc, ad nauseam) become a problem.
Dukat goes insane, summons Par Wraiths (spelling?).
B5 20-years-after; Sheridan "dies", goes beyond the rim with the First Ones.
Cisco dies in mortal combat with Dukat. The Prophets welcome him back into the fold.
Anything that he wants to do that isn't a MMRPG falls outside of the scope of Origin's work-- there was an announcement a few weeks ago that said that they've become EA's MMRPG arm.
Personally, I'm glad that he's leaving. I'd like to see if he's as burnt out as a lot of people are claiming; if we can get a decent RPG with a good background out of this event, I'll definitely be happy.
As for U7: Wow. I didn't know about that trick.
>Now be fair. The 1990s US-based Doctor Who was far superior, despite the obvious handicaps of cgi and a big budget. That's why it >did so well.
I hope you were being facetious. Fox's Doctor Who was the most disappointing thing that I have ever witnessed. Killing off McCoy's Doctor in a random display of street violence? Come on-- letting him regenerate in his sleep (without the recycled Highlander Quickening F/X, thank you), or suffering a heart attack, or anything else would have been much better than that slap in the face they gave to one of the best Doctors. McGann was good, I will admit, but that awful "self-pitying-half-human/ooh!-a-potential-sex-part ner" subplot they threw in to get him attached to that lady surgeon (and to give her character an excuse to become his Companion) was ham-handed at best. I wish Hollywood would figure out that sex is not the only way to create tension between characters.
FF9 looks to be a return to the earlier FF principles (at least stylistically): the FMV is cartoony, the characters are closer to the original chibi ("super deformed") ideal, and they aren't composed of low-grade polys. Overall, it looks to be a return to the "fantastic" theme of the earlier games. Of course, it's anyone's guess how much actual gameplay is in it.
FF10 and 11 are an entirely different matter. FF10's claim to fame seems to be (gods forbid) internet connectivity. Since I can't read any of the Japanese character sets (particularly when they're smears on a projection screen), I'm forced to guess that players of FF10 will be able to download and play mini-quests in confined areas, the list of which will presumably be added to as time goes on (personally, I won't be holding my breath). Equally annoyingly, they've gone back to the "realistic" character style of FF8.
FF11 is the worst of the bunch; it is specifically on-line only. Just think: by the end of 2001, proud PS2 owners will be able to experience the same online-only rathunts that PC RPG enthusiasts (or masochists, take your pick) engage in daily. I must admit, it never occurred to me that Squaresoft would have the brass-balled audacity to try pulling a plot-free "RPG" out of their gestalt ass. I'm afraid to ask what's coming down the conceptual pipe (FF Deathmatch, perhaps?)...
Of course we shouldn't take it lying down. The problem is, our effectiveness is extremely limited. A boycott will probably either have no effect or kill the product line, but that isn't going to cause all of our extant D&D stuff to burst into flames, is it? There's a fair amount of good stuff out there right now, and if it comes down to it, there's any number of home-grown campaigns that could be disseminated through any number of channels.
As for the actual rules... There's not much we can do about that, short of stockpiling extra copies of the 2nd Edition rules (and perhaps the Core Rules CD-ROM) to share with the local gaming group. I can't advocate photocopying the text (because that would be illegal), but I have to wonder if some sort of D&D oral tradition could be devised-- no, wait, that's far too silly.
As for an open-source RPG... FUDGE is the closest thing that I can think of.
I think that a few good things have come out of WoTC, notably the Dragon Magazine archive which seems to contain the issues intact and with no censorship (i.e. Ed Greenwoods The Nine Hells is intact, the "naughty" art hasn't been altered.) So maybe the pessimism isn't warranted. If they decide AD&D is commercially worthless, maybe a group of fans could pool their resources, buy it, and open source it... or am I a hopeless dreamer?
I'll agree with you on the Dragon Magazine Archive; I snagged a copy of that the first time I saw it. I'm inclined to believe that they didn't censor it mostly for legal reasons (ownership of art and ads), and because it would have been too much effort-- I get the distinct feeling that they sat a couple of interns down with a stack of mags, a scanner, and a copy of Acrobat Distiller. If I was in that situation, I wouldn't go out of my way to glue a strip of black cardboard across someone's bits and pieces.
Open source D&D would be pretty cool, but I don't think it's going to happen, regardless of its financial viability.
Personally, I just want Earthdawn back.
A PG rating? But of course. There is an excellent reason for it, and the reason is merchandising. Most of this post is a capsule history of AD&D over the last ten years, to illustrate my final point, so if you just want to skip to the end, scroll down to The Present.
Simply stated, T$R has a long, illustrious history of circling the proverbial bowl. When one of its founders (Gary Gygax) was divorced, his ex-wife (known in some circles as "The Bitch") won a controlling share of the company. Almost immediately, the entire product line was retooled into AD&D Second Edition: gone were the piles of rulebooks that had accrued over years of rules amendments and neat ideas; gone were the (very) occasional pieces of naughty artwork; and gone was everything that could be perceived as "evil" or "controversial" (the Assassin class, demons, and devils, to name a few). Granted, some of the things that were removed were unbalancing (the Cavalier and Barbarian classes, for example). Second Edition was supposed to be a fresh start, a distillation of the best of First Edition and (major selling point) compatible with the original rules. Of course, things broke down quickly.
The 2ndEd product line started off fairly well, with monster packs, books detailing new rules for the four basic character types, and retoolings of older game worlds that had presumably become stale. This wasn't making enough money. Sourcebooks of dubious worth were published, new settings of interest only to very particular types of players were introduced, and campaign settings suffered terrible Dubious Cataclysms That Changed Everything (TM) in order to invalidate old sourcebooks and campaign sets. The bean-counters and lawyers took over, uttering threats (and sometimes making good on them) to buy or sue anyone who so much as looked at them strangely (including anyone who published home-grown rules or campaign information on the Web). The Ty-D-Bol Man beckoned. Luckily for them, Wizards of the Coast scooped them up before it was too late.
During the takeover, WOTC played up their historical connections with AD&D, T$R, etc., proclaiming that their name was originally from an AD&D campaign that the company's founders were involved in. That tidbit was apparently supposed to convince gamers of two things: one, that WOTC was on "their side"; and, two, that since they were gamers once, too, the WOTC brass had innate knowledge of how to make T$R the titan it used to be. This was, of course, bulls**t. WOTC bought T$R because of their excellent distribution network, their pre-existing product lines, and because they were desperately seeking a safety net for when Magic: The Gathering finally lost its popularity: WOTC's homegrown RPG, Everway, died a quick death, and M:tG has always been in danger of losing its popularity in the same sort of shocking surge that it became popular with in the first place. WOTC then discovered one of T$R's biggest problems: its writers were old-school AD&D players, and naturally had a difficult time relating to the current generation of Vampire: the Masquerade players. Worse, M:tG's popularity was beginning to hurt: each new expansion strangled sales of WOTC's other products, leaving them in increasing amounts of debt. The Pokemon card game was just as dangerous to them as Magic, for the same reasons. One flurry of bad product and Magic: The RPG rumours later, Hasbro took over.
Hasbro was nervous. Sales of traditional toys were down, in favour of multimedia and interactive games. Their rival, Mattel, was making inroads into the interactive entertainment market, leaving them in the dust. In response, Hasbro purchased MicroProse. Having their own computer game company was all well and good, and Hasbro Interactive produced a lot of simple, mass-market computer games and crossover products (like the execrable Star Wars Monopoly). The only problem was, they didn't have any "traditional" computer game licenses. Enter WOTC, stage left, wearing a "buy me!" sign.
Hasbro's buyout was beneficial for both companies (or their execs, at least). The owners of WOTC made a killing, and were no longer waking from nightmares of being crushed by unsold boxes of Magic cards. Hasbro was especially happy: They gained a monopoly on domestic Pokemon merchandise, a half-decent novel publishing arm (TSR Books), and control of the AD&D computer game license (to go with their own computer game production house; it is highly unlikely that Hasbro will license another company to produce AD&D computer games after the current batch have finished production). Then, the fun began.
WOTC recently announced the production of a third edition of AD&D (now referred to as D&D, since the original "Basic" D&D was no longer in print). This edition was intended to appeal to the current generation of gamers, and was disturbing both in that the game mechanics had been altered enough that an expensive "conversion book" had become necessary to bring Second Edition characters into line with the new rules, and that WOTC decided to publish the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide in such volume that they could sell them at a cut rate. From this, one could be led to believe that WOTC has a lot riding on the success of Third Edition D&D. One would be correct.
The Present:
The D&D movie is rated PG because WOTC desperately wants young people to see the movie, and then buy the (relatively) cheap 3rd Edition core rulebooks shortly thereafter (I would be willing to wager that they will be available for sale at kiosks in most large theater lobbies, along with "What is D&D?" programmes). The movie is both a test of the feasibility of (gods forbid) more D&D movies, and a massive advertisement for 3rd Edition. They are going to such an outrageous length to promote the 3rd Edition rules because if they aren't massively popular to begin with, D&D will probably go out of print (and incidentally, a lot of writers will be canned). This is hardly a surprise: the product line has been tanking for years, and Hasbro could care less about keeping it around for the sake of "tradition". Hasbro already has what it wants out of WOTC: Pokemon; a perennially strong computer game license; and a group of captive RPG writers to pen the next Star Wars RPG.
Deny @home users access to alt.sex.* for eternity and the rest will follow. You don't think they actually read anything else, do you? You fiend! At least leave us with the really good ones-- like alt.sex.hello-kitty, and alt.sex.cthulhu...
Sounds like a fairly solid plan. My question is, does anyone have any idea how they'd go about accomplishing this? I mean, @Home's network sprawls like the proverbial corpse. Would this just be a job for @home HQ, or would the local licensees have to get into the act? Gawd help their users (like Yours Truly) if HQ and the licensees actually had to closely co-ordinate their efforts to get this done.
Considering that the FDA has been in Monsanto's pocket since the Reagan administration (anyone remember the skulduggery surrounding Nutrasweet?), that has to be one of the most revolting statements that I have ever laid eyes upon.