I’ve been in contact with various members of the computer and role-playing game industries over the past few years and with some before that and it’s become my opinion that for the most part they are real jerks. They mostly seem to suffer from Comic Book Guy syndrome.
Noted for doing things like but not limited to:
- not responding to my email or phone calls
- being sarcastic in socially inept ways
- acting like I am a complete moron
- treating me as a second class citizen
- shutting down discussions or groups with no explanation
- being almost indifferent toward me when they do bother to respond
- being ungracious with offers I have proposed
- acting interested in what I have to say and then not following up at all even with gentle encouragement
- being self-centered to the point of exclusion
- generally acting in a rude or anti-social manner
I have found only a few exceptions over the years to this behavior, among them: Steve Perrin, Loyd Blankenship, Jason Durall and Fergie at Chaosium. All the other RPG writers, game developers and publishers, including some at Chaosium, Mongoose Publishing, Steve Jackson Games, Epic, and Blizzard have just been rude.
Because of this I am serious thinking about giving up even the idea of playing or running another game. I definitely won’t be playing and MMOs any time soon. The only thing that might remotely encourage me is if the group of people I used to play with were to get back together – but this is extremely unlikely given that some of them have moved to Connecticut.
Well hell. I’m more pissed about the industry people than anything else.