I have Loren Wiseman's address at GEnie, and before anyone asks,
I am NOT volunteering it. He and I have exchanged a letter or two,
and in the stuff I have read from him I see little indication that he
is interested in joining the TML or in making his address widely
known.
This makes perfect sense to me, considering the scurrilous treatment
GDW has received at the hands of the TML in past months (of which I
have been an occasional participant). As Loren wrote me, the perception
of a "bunker mentality" at GDW was initially created by the fact that
GDW received TML postings very late, if at all, through the efforts
of TML members on GEnie who forwarded the text, a nontrivial task.
He did NOT go on to imply that a "bunker mentality" was encouraged
by the TML's predilection to stand by the GEnie gateway with a loaded
ARL, gleefully shooting off any appendage that poked through for a
moment. That was strictly my own inference, but I must confess that
it was a strong one.
There are several facets to the relationship between GDW and the TML
that should be kept in mind by everyone, INCLUDING me. One is that too
many scribes spoil the yoyaokhtef, and it can be and probably IS
counterproductive for GDW to dissect every thousand-line post on the
TML for veracity and playability, thereupon to immediately scrap the
work they're doing and start over. Loren may simply choose to avoid
the TML because he has too much other input to deal with, most of
which has far more direct bearing on his job. Another thing to keep in
mind is that the TML has in the past combined its members' pride in
the fields in which they claim expertise with its enthusiasm for
improving Traveller, and salted this mix liberally with the "we're not
on GEnie and we can say whatever we want about GDW, so there"
mentality that GDW frankly despises.
I don't want to hear countercharges that GDW is being arrogant and
closeminded, and obviously refusing to listen to everyone's sage advice
out of foolish pride, or whatever. Let's face it, people: the majority
of the letters of comment on GDW's policies have been just plain MEAN.
Their factual content is, by comparison, unimportant! Game design is
in GDW's case a business of public relations and public service. As I
have lamented in the past, we of the TML are a small, SMALL fraction of
GDW's buyer base, and we create more mental anguish than the rest of them
put together. In the business of selling anything that is NOT a matter
of life and death to the buyer (get real, folx. Are YOU going to go into
insulin shock if TNE has a bad starship combat system?), it is always
better to be liked than to be right. The customer must be pleased, and
communicate this pleasure to the seller. Improvements can and should
be suggested, and I am NOT advocating that the TML scale back to the
pulled-teeth wimpiness of the GEnie round tables. BUT! Common, decent
courtesy to the people who provide us with the games we love should be
first and foremost. I don't claim innocence in these matters. Neither
should anyone else, before they access the bundle archives and reread
some of what they've written.
GDW fields letters and phone calls every day from all over the country,
if not the world. They cry out for material to keep CHALLENGE on the
stands. But there is no corollary to that law that says they must tolerate
the slings and arrows of a small, thoroughly obnoxious group of buyers
- --and pay for the privilege!-- when there are less painful and more
profitable ways of doing business. It's not good business sense to do
otherwise. The customer is NOT always right when he's being abusive on
a consistent basis.
So don't be surprised if GDW doesn't make a big splash on the TML any
time soon. We make them angry, frustrated, and upset, and it's not
their duty to sit there and take it. It's not OUR duty to soften the
ideas behind our responses to their suggestions, only the manner in
which these ideas are presented. If I sound overly sensitive about this,
it's because of the one last factor in this issue that I haven't mentioned
yet: the glass wall you're staring at right now as you read these lines
of text. I've broken through it, and have done for over ten years. It
has been my business to attach faces and voices and feelings and hopes
and everything else that makes us human to the lines of text that I read
on the TML and elsewhere. When I travel, I always meet net.people and
replace ASCII with flesh and blood in my mind. I will treasure my evening
with George Herbert and Catie Helm for years, as I do my many conversations
with Mark Cook over the phone. I envy my wife for having been able to sit
and talk to Hans Rancke-Madsen, whom I may NEVER meet, over tea. But there
is one other face and voice attached to ASCII on my screen, a face and
voice that most of you have never met and will never meet. Loren Wiseman.
He and I have chatted regularly for ten years now, and while he is not a
close friend, he is a pleasant acquaintance, and I for one would like to
be able to look him in the eye when I see him next, without having to be
ashamed for my conduct.
Think about it.
- --
metlay | and she's a master of return hitting
atomic city | giving rhythm to her posts
| so you read her and think hey it sounds good
[email removed] | and wish her posts had a soundtrack too (f. ercolessi)