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Tactical Wizard said:
Lorraine Williams was legit terrible at her job, however. It was book and Dragon Dice returns that killed TSR after they expanded into the chain book store market and Williams was relying on those profits that never materialized to operate TSR.

The company folded after the bill for those returns came due and Williams never even bothered to do market research so that she could learn about the customers who kept her company alive.

How do I know this? Because I read Shannon Applecline’s exhaustive history on the RPG industry. The same Shannon Applecline that owns RPG.net.
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What history was this? Sorely tempted to make a burner on RPGnet just to link to that book, and tell Save vs DM 'You fucking donut'.
 
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Capsaicin Addict said:
What history was this? Sorely tempted to make a burner on RPGnet just to link to that book, and tell Save vs DM 'You fucking donut'.
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The TL;DR is that Lorraine Williams ran a bust-out operation on TSR. She maxed out every credit line the company had, dreamed up new ways for the company to get credit, did everything she could to delay payments to creditors, all so she could maximize cash payouts to her own bank account. The most egregious example was the up-front royalties she got for licensing Buck Rogers to TSR for products made, rather than sold, so of course she had them make tons of crap that didn't sell and took a cut each time. When the bills came due, well, gee, that was just too bad for TSR.
Mola Ram said:
Didn't Williams also force a terrible Buck Rogers game with oodles of supplements into production because she was related to the people who own the license and got royalties for every product sold?
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She owned the IP and got royalties for every product printed. And no, she didn't have to pay them back when the product didn't move. So yes, she had the company she was owner and CEO of ink a sweetheart deal with herself to have the corporate bank account pay hers out of investor cash for producing products that didn't sell.
Joe Shmo said:
Lorraine Williams certainly was a witch, but the corporate rot at TSR actually was much more widespread than that. I dug out an old article by Ryan Dancey from 2004 (a few years after WotC took over), where he describes what he found on a "fact finding/due diligence" mission before the acquisition. Ultimately the biggest problems were the overstocked inventory, fracturing the game into so many settings/variations (and assuming that all of them were going to be as popular as the core rulebooks), and worst of all zero customer feedback.
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The reason there were so many settings and variation is that TSR had a sweet deal with Random House where they got paid a cash advance for every product printed and delivered. They were encouraged by management, all the way up to Williams to deliver as much product as they could, as quickly as they could, and even internally referred to RH as, "The bank of Random House."

Every single choice in the company's direction after Gygax left is 100% Williams' fault. Sure, you can't blame a leader for inherited problems, but you can blame them for every decision they make about what to do next. Who else's fault would it be? She was owner and president. If she didn't like the unethical way they were using their credit with their printer or abusing their RH contract, she could have fired people and hired new ones. If she didn't like what a mess the books were, she could have fired their accountant and hired a new one. She did none of this and focused instead on inventing ways to transfer cash from TSR's bank account to hers.

The fact is that when WotC took over, it took them only one year to turn TSR profitable on a cash flow basis. They did nothing Williams couldn't have done.
 
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Capsaicin Addict said:
What history was this? Sorely tempted to make a burner on RPGnet just to link to that book, and tell Save vs DM 'You fucking donut'.
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www.evilhat.com

Designers & Dragons

If there’s one thing that the “old school” revolution has taught us, it’s that history is important to us as gamers. Our roots matter. But how much do we actually know &#821…
www.evilhat.com www.evilhat.com

Enjoy! Please be sure to use the phrase “you useless, sanctimonious pile of fuck” if you do.
 
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Flexo said:
Believe it or not, the Scots used to have stereotypes about being stingy and greedy as well. Hence the origin of Scrooge McDuck. Dwarves aren't Jewy about their gold, they're still Scottish about it.
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Scotch tape is called that because the prototype was so crappy and stingy with the adhesive that they called it "Scotch" (source). They say "parsimonious" but that has positive connotations and "scotch" was clearly not being used as a compliment.
 
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A tragedy in four parts...
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ITA.jpg

inevitable.png

PROBABLY A TROON.png
 
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The Ugly One said:
The TL;DR is that Lorraine Williams ran a bust-out operation on TSR. She maxed out every credit line the company had, dreamed up new ways for the company to get credit, did everything she could to delay payments to creditors, all so she could maximize cash payouts to her own bank account. The most egregious example was the up-front royalties she got for licensing Buck Rogers to TSR for products made, rather than sold, so of course she had them make tons of crap that didn't sell and took a cut each time. When the bills came due, well, gee, that was just too bad for TSR.

She owned the IP and got royalties for every product printed. And no, she didn't have to pay them back when the product didn't move. So yes, she had the company she was owner and CEO of ink a sweetheart deal with herself to have the corporate bank account pay hers out of investor cash for producing products that didn't sell.

The reason there were so many settings and variation is that TSR had a sweet deal with Random House where they got paid a cash advance for every product printed and delivered. They were encouraged by management, all the way up to Williams to deliver as much product as they could, as quickly as they could, and even internally referred to RH as, "The bank of Random House."

Every single choice in the company's direction after Gygax left is 100% Williams' fault. Sure, you can't blame a leader for inherited problems, but you can blame them for every decision they make about what to do next. Who else's fault would it be? She was owner and president. If she didn't like the unethical way they were using their credit with their printer or abusing their RH contract, she could have fired people and hired new ones. If she didn't like what a mess the books were, she could have fired their accountant and hired a new one. She did none of this and focused instead on inventing ways to transfer cash from TSR's bank account to hers.

The fact is that when WotC took over, it took them only one year to turn TSR profitable on a cash flow basis. They did nothing Williams couldn't have done.
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In an older plot arc in the Knights of the Dinner Table strip, the not-Gygax character faked his death and his company went to his ex wife who proceeded to corporate-whore style run the company into the ground. Wonder if she was a jab at this Lorraine Williams bitch.
Shaka Brah said:
Confused Gen X liberal can't understand that the moderns want him dead, not as their ally.
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*SIGH* If only I could have met him and informed him of that...
 
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Kongo-Müller said:
Just one question: Where is the sexism in this post? Even with harebrained RPG.net tranny janny logic I can't spot anything that could be remotely construed as sexist.
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Baraadmirer said:
RPG.net jannies have this thing where appearing to dismiss sexism or racism is considered sexist or racist.
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Because you must have seen it because it was SUFFUSING the gaming scene back in the day and if you claim that gamers have always been an accepting subculture driven by a mutual love of a hobby, you’re dismissing other people’s lived experiences and also obviously lying.

This is your brain. This is your brain on the narrative. Any questions?
 
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Kongo-Müller said:
Just one question: Where is the sexism in this post? Even with harebrained RPG.net tranny janny logic I can't spot anything that could be remotely construed as sexist.
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It's the one I'm really struggling with. I thought it might be the dismissal as with the racism and homophobia but it was called out separately. The closest I could see, with forcing my brain into the non-stop offended space that is Rpg.net is maybe the fact that they said their dad was in the armour as though mentioning a gender was sexism?

My personal money though, especially given a different mod stepped in to scream too, is that the initial mod always screams sexism and didn't bother to check if there was any. The second is covering them.
 
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NerdShamer said:
Kind of retarded to do the rage quit routine, but the entire forum is an showcase of Stockholm's Syndrome...
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Tell me about it. A user got a warning for saying "gypsy" years back and got temp banned last month for saying "cunt".
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He later gets told by another user that "for good reasons, the moderation system isn't one that includes dialogue". More like keeping the mods' dirty laundry out of the public eye while showing how "effective" their system is.
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Meanwhile, another user chimes in with his two cents,
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which is probably the sanest advice anyone's given.
 
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Lord Khaz said:
Seriously why would someone hate ACKS? You can play a bugman and start a hive! How awesome is that?
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The guy who made it worked for Milo Yiannopolous and when the mod team started gnashing their teeth at him, he threatened legal action. Rpg.net being what it is? Instead of restraining their impotent, hippy butt-rage they made it an infraction worthy offense to even mention that the game exists.

Edit: The Random Text summarized these cows perfectly.
harrowing.png
 
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