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4 oeuvres 130 utilisateurs 6 critiques

Œuvres de Ben Riggs

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male
Nationalité
USA
Lieux de résidence
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

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While Riggs can be a bit exhausting in his fan-boy enthusiasm, and slings around the word "genius" a bit too much for my liking, he does give you a good account of how an industry gets created, and how the original business at the center of the industry gets run into the ground. A particular plus is that Riggs doesn't believe in the myth of Gary Gygax as "St. Gary," as Gygax made pretty much every mistake that a person going from penury to almost instant wealth can make, which is why he lost control of his creation.

The silent force in this story is Lorraine Williams, the businesswoman who took control of TSR after Gygax, and who initially did rather well with it. However, what became an addiction to quick profits, and the lack of serious market research, led to a business plan that almost destroyed the company and would have led to its intellectual property being scattered to the winds. Williams didn't deign to be interviewed by Riggs, but he mostly respects her accomplishments.

This finally gets you to the take-over by Peter Adkinson of Wizards of the Coast, the company that gave you "Magic: The Gathering," and who was finally the perfect conservator of the legacy of "Dungeon & Dragons." This is seeing as he was an enthusiast himself, had the deep pockets to undo the financial damage while not making money in the short run, and was willing to "get right" with all the players who had a monetary interest in D&D, but who had been stiff-armed by various management figures over the years. Arguments over intellectual property is a big part of this book.
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½
 
Signalé
Shrike58 | 5 autres critiques | Dec 27, 2023 |
Not a bad book, but a little more into the esoteric personalities and publishing than I could have wished. I basically read it to see what became of Gary Gygax.
½
 
Signalé
jsmick | 5 autres critiques | Dec 14, 2023 |
Great stuff. A lot of it I knew from other books on the subject, but much I had never heard it read anywhere before. It doesn't engage in the Gygax worshipping that many writers bathe themselves in which is a very good thing, and gives Lorraine Williams a much fairer shake than many takes. It's a well-researched and put together tale of a company that was plagued with nonsensical business decisions and ill-advised money expenditures no matter who was in charge and a lot of things that seemed to be successes back in the day simply were not. The author occasionally loses me when seemingly every creative talked about is either "a genius" or "brilliant", but this does not detract from the book.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Moon_Cthulhu | 5 autres critiques | Nov 9, 2023 |
I haven’t read any other books documenting the rise and fall of Gary Gygax’s brainchild, but this was a fascinating look at the business practices of TSR before it sold Dungeons & Dragons before it became Wizards of the Coast’s property. It’s written by someone who was a journalist for Geek and Sundry (Felicia Day‘s brainchild) who took his articles and turned them into a thorough book telling us what exactly went wrong. The author has no skin in the game, so it’s an impartial look.

It’s not surprising that such a company might lose business in the age of the Internet or as time drags on and attention focuses elsewhere. But that’s not what happened. The actions that TSR took that drove them into the ground are really bizarre and worth being noted (for example, trying to make Buck Rogers happen again).

There’s also some stuff about creatives (like writers and artists) and their business of writing licensed stuff and how that worked, which I’m particularly interested in. They were actually treated well before someone else took over and treated them as disposable.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
theWallflower | 5 autres critiques | Jul 18, 2023 |

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Œuvres
4
Membres
130
Popularité
#155,342
Évaluation
3.8
Critiques
6
ISBN
6
Langues
1

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