To my Fellow Gamers - We Have a Wonderful Hobby - Thanks - Pazio, WOTC, and all the Others

[Kebab]

Alright Guys and Girls, we all have our views and a lot of them are polarised.

However can we all agree on one thing -

Pazio , TSR (and then WOTC), GDW, Chaosium, SJG, etc. etc. - have all helped create this hobby, our hobby. Some have fallen into the darkness, but their memories remain.

They have given us wonderful adventures, great memories and hopefully new friends.

And for that I will be always thankful.

4th brought new members into our world, some stayed some left, (and they may even have moved on to Pathfinder).

I hope 5th does well. I hope that all the other RPG companies do well, (roll on Pazio’s 50th birthday!)

We need them all , for the future and for the gamers that will come after us, and may they continue to have as much fun.

So yes have your views and keep them civil, and if someone plays a game from another company, well just be glad that he/she is a fellow gamer, (and ask them to take part in your next Pathfinder game!).

[Steve Geddes]

An admirable sentiment.

[Jerry Wright 307]

My favorite game companies were Flying Buffalo, SPI, FGU and Chaosium, back in the day. TSR was less a favorite and more of a utility, like the electric company or the gas company. You had it because that's the way gaming was supposed to work in those days. The other companies were add-ons.

[Gorbacz]

This could have only worked if the OP was George Takei.

Nic try, tho.

[Jerry Wright 307]

You start talking about Twilight, and I'm outta here!

[Kebab]

We played Melee & Wizard from a company called "Metagaming" Another system that fell in to the darkness.

Those were the days.

No internet, no mail order, and all your purchases via your local shop (or shops!).

[Chuck Wright]

I want every game company to do well. :D

[SuperSlayer]

May all the great RPG games be successful, and may all the junk games fade into oblivion.

[Jerry Wright 307]

Chuck Wright wrote:

I want every game company to do well. :D

I'm sure someone somewhere considers you a traitor, but as for me... vive l'egaliterie!

[Kthulhu]

Chuck Wright wrote:

I want every game company to do well. :D

Well, maybe not the guys who made F.A.T.A.L. They can die in a 97 car pile-up.

But everyone else, I want them to do well.

[Shadowborn]

Yay! A warm-fuzzy thread. I'll set up my tent. Occupy!

[Jerry Wright 307]

Now, now, now, let's not get upset. The guys at F.A.T.A.L. weren't all that bad. After all, they gave us... um, well, there's... okay, what about... um...

You're right. 97 car pile-up.

[Zmar]

poor other 96 car drivers... AND ALL BECAUSE OF F.A.T.A.L. !

[Jerry Wright 307]

Just another reason to dislike 'em!

[Kthulhu]

Hey, just be happy. My first suggestion was to nuke the site from orbit.

[Readerbreeder]

Kthulhu wrote:

Hey, just be happy. My first suggestion was to nuke the site from orbit.

Well, it is the only way to be sure; and with something like F.A.T.A.L., you really want to be sure.

[MarkusTay]

Agreed.

More companies mean more choices. I am saddened by every RPG company closing in the past - even the ones I did not patronize. Being a gamer is about choice, not being shoe-horned into a specific niche.

To Gary Gygax, and all the other that followed, and to all the author's who's works inspired Gary in the first place, I raise my cup in salute.

Edit: And I would just like to (not) thank everyone here for making me Google F.A.T.A.L., which I never heard of. It burns!!!

On the bright side, some of the reviews I read made me have an honest-to-god, old-fashioned spit-take. :D

[Thehigher cause]

MarkusTay wrote:

Agreed.

More companies mean more choices. I am saddened by every RPG company closing in the past - even the ones I did not patronize. Being a gamer is about choice, not being shoe-horned into a specific niche.

To Gary Gygax, and all the other that followed, and to all the author's who's works inspired Gary in the first place, I raise my cup in salute.

I hope we can all agree with more choices are better that fewer.

And we can laugh about all the differences.

[DigitalMage]

I guess an argument could be made that in terms of RPGs, too much choice can actually be a bad thing; the reason being RPGs require other people to play them.

So whilst I love buying new games because they all sound cool, I rarely get to play most of them, instead they sit on my shelf unused :(

Because whilst I want to play...
Savage Worlds/Deadlands Reloaded
Mongoose Traveller
Mongoose RuneQuest/Glorantha: The Second Age
Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space
Mutants & Masterminds 2e/Freedom City
Legends of Anglerre
Starblazer Adventures
Kerberos CLub FATE Edition
D&D3.5/Eberron
Star Wars d20 Revised Core Rules
World of Darkness/Vampire: The Reqiuem
James Bond

I struggle to find 4 players interested in playing anything but maybe D&D and M&M who also suit my playstyle.

Meanwhile friends want to play:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
World of Darkness/Promethean
Pathfinder RPG/Golarion
Kerberos Club Wild Talents Edition
Legends of the 5 Rings
AD&D 2e
D&D 4e/Dark sun (though Darksun has recently piqued my interest as a setting)
Call of Cthulhu
But I am not that interested in those (as I want to play my games!)

So yeah, whilst choice can be great, and I am always a sucker for a new game, finding players can be tough with so much choice, to the point that I have bought, read and then sold games (Earthdawn, Masterbook Bloodshadows & Necroscope) without having played them beyond a couple of sessions.

Anyway, just food for thought and why I really want 5e to be a success and loads of people want to play it, because then players will be easy to find, and hopefully with the proposed modularity it can still be a game I want to play.