I remember poking fun of blogs like Grognardia, a while back on a forum in 2010, when I was mulling over dusting off my "ancient" blog:

Heh, my blog days were fine until some asshole made some remark about a family Disney picture which was "stalker level psycho" so I pulled the personal info in 2005 and it just got dull fast. Plus, I just can't do:

"WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN
INSERT MODULE BACK COVER HERE When I firsted looked at Lawrence Schick's DNA in his father's testicles back in 1945..." etc.

"WOLVES OF DARKNESS
INSERT DATED PULP ARTWORK HERE
After rereading, rereading, rereading, rereading and rereading this I've discovered that I didn't need to reread this at all as it is utter crap with the exception of 99.9999999999999% of the content related to D&D..."

"TRAMPIER COME BACK
PHOTO OF ARTIST
I ponder why can't David Trampier come back into the industry. Doesn't he recall the time when he was lauded by all as game industry champion? Why can't he come back to work for the same type people that shunned and ruined him? I don't get it..."

I think if you cut through the comedy, I wasn't really saying these type blogs were naive or anything like that. I was implying the opposite that there is a level of deceptive insincerity going on because they're not centered on a love of the majority of the content and always add a revisionist tone.

The shape of Gummermounts to come!?!?

Or just more Mxyzptlk-like yammering on my part? No wait... COME BACK!!!

I'm not sure why the fact that JMal may have had an "I saw the light" moment regarding the joys of old-school gaming somehow counts against him.  I mean it seems to me that that's a pretty common story in the blogosphere.  Lots of folks spent time playing (and enjoying) later editions of D&D before coming to the realization that there were actually really good things about the first editions that had been left behind.  The guy spent years blogging about the minutia of old-school D&D.  I highly doubt it was all a cynical setup for him to be able to make off with a bunch of KS money.  

That's not to say that isn't what he's ended up doing mind you.  I just don't think its reasonable to expect backers to have gone back several years and found out that JMal wasn't all that crazy about OD&D back then and therefore we should be iffy about backing his KS now...frankly, I'd be more inclined to see his "conversion" as a positive rather than a negative.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;637329In any case, every person with a lick of horse sense knew that some kickstarter projects were going to backfire. Some people see KS as a magic wand to turn their Great Idea into profit, with no (or little) clue how real business works. These kinds of fuck ups are necessary for kickstarted projects to face a little reality, and for pledgers to realize that a 50 dollar pledge doesn't turn a dude in a basement into a corporation.

This is my takeaway from this (and other) kickstarter fiascos. It's all hip and noble to hate on proper businesses and support the individual auteur designer doing stuff off the grid. But maybe after a few more of these fuck-ups, people will start to recognize the value of a capitalized business run by professionals. Sure, they have to make some decisions based solely on money. But they're also run by people who have a track record of actually delivering real product in some sort of timely fashion. In a traditional publishing model, this guy wouldn't have been let anywhere near a project of this scope until he delivered several modestly scoped projects on time and to spec. Even then, he'd be working under a project manager who had a plan B ready in the wings when things started to go pear-shaped.

Quote from: Zevious Zoquis;637376I'm not sure why the fact that JMal may have had an "I saw the light" moment regarding the joys of old-school gaming somehow counts against him.  I mean it seems to me that that's a pretty common story in the blogosphere.  Lots of folks spent time playing (and enjoying) later editions of D&D before coming to the realization that there were actually really good things about the first editions that had been left behind.  

Speculation:

He was awash in a sea of mediocrity, with mediocre products and projects to his name.  People who preferred older D&Ds were, in the late mid 2000s, clamoring for products and discussion.  People who'd rediscovered old D&D and were yet still tied to new D&D (then 3.5) sensibilities and authors found places like K&K, my 'site, and even the ecumenical choir at Dragonsfoot chafing.  

This left a vacuum that James M., through his game tourism, stepped in to fill and he did so quite handily: he had a layer of smarm about his point of view, his pseudo-intellectualism worked for people who wanted to feel smart because they read a "smart" 'blog, and the then-nascent "OSR" was a very, very small pond.  All of that was an extremely fertile ground for a burgeoning ego.

That's my observation, anyway.

To be honest, I never saw James as a real historian and he even said that himself.  His blogging was more like an opinion column.  He's not doing the dedicated research that real historians have done like Jon Peterson.

Bloggers in many ways are like celebrities.  Some are just more popular than others.  I think one of the reasons James had detractors is that he was so popular in this area, and that leads to feelings of jealousy in others, as well as judgement based on taste, etc.  (The "You're not a real rock star!" mentality)

I mean, when it comes to OSR publishing, I don't think any campaigns were as successful as Dwimmermount--though keep in mind it's a drop in the bucket compared to Fate Core or the Numenera print games or some Pathfinder projects.

The weird thing about this is that he did have a track record of freelancing and publishing articles and supplements that didn't give any reason for people to think he'd flake out like this.  There are hints that his self-published endeavors were bogged down, but there was really no reason to believe that the Dwimmermount project would end up like this.  Something seemed to happen to him over the last few years that has diminished his output and had him quietly retreating from the public slowly over time.

Quote from: JRT;637386To be honest, I never saw James as a real historian and he even said that himself.  His blogging was more like an opinion column.  He's not doing the dedicated research that real historians have done like Jon Peterson.

Bloggers in many ways are like celebrities.  Some are just more popular than others.  I think one of the reasons James had detractors is that he was so popular in this area, and that leads to feelings of jealousy in others, as well as judgement based on taste, etc.  (The "You're not a real rock star!" mentality)

I mean, when it comes to OSR publishing, I don't think any campaigns were as successful as Dwimmermount--though keep in mind it's a drop in the bucket compared to Fate Core or the Numenera print games or some Pathfinder projects.

The weird thing about this is that he did have a track record of freelancing and publishing articles and supplements that didn't give any reason for people to think he'd flake out like this.  There are hints that his self-published endeavors were bogged down, but there was really no reason to believe that the Dwimmermount project would end up like this.  Something seemed to happen to him over the last few years that has diminished his output and had him quietly retreating from the public slowly over time.

I wasn't even familliar with James or his blog when I backed the KS. Thanks to him sucking so royally, no non-established entity is getting any more KS funding from me.

i think that james had his road to damascus moment just after gary died. that was his conversion to osr and led him to believe that he was saint paulus to gary's messiah. so one death led to his conversion to oldschoolism and now another, imminent, death has led to his burning bridges with osr community. i always felt that he was not very stable and that eventually some other significant event could push him out of osr but i never thought that it could come to this. what he did with dwimmermount amounts basicaly to very messy public suicide.

Quote from: JRT;637386To be honest, I never saw James as a real historian and he even said that himself.  His blogging was more like an opinion column.  He's not doing the dedicated research that real historians have done like Jon Peterson.

Bloggers in many ways are like celebrities.  Some are just more popular than others.  I think one of the reasons James had detractors is that he was so popular in this area, and that leads to feelings of jealousy in others, as well as judgement based on taste, etc.  (The "You're not a real rock star!" mentality)

Would James be like the "Paris Hilton" of the OSR ?

Quote from: JRT;637386I think one of the reasons James had detractors is that he was so popular in this area, and that leads to feelings of jealousy in others, as well as judgement based on taste, etc.

Yeah, it couldn't possibly be that someone simply disagrees with him - it has to be that they're jealous of him.

Jesus fucking Christ, the stupid is getting thick around here.

ostap bender: Welcome! Now there is a username for this discussion!

What do you disagree with him about?  His blog opinions?  So, don't read his blog.  I certainly didn't like everything he wrote.  Hell, I probably didn't like more than 30% of what he wrote.  But I can't really buy into the notion that a guy who spends a couple months of blog posts reviewing the fiction of Dragon Magazine isn't doing so in earnest.  The notion that he "switched teams" and jumped on the OD&D/OSR bandwagon in order to jumpstart his stalled rpg publishing career seems utterly ludicrous to me.  Hell, kickstarter didn't even exist 2 or 3 years ago and really I don't think many people are actually making much publishing OSR material now, let alone then...

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637419Yeah, it couldn't possibly be that someone simply disagrees with him - it has to be that they're jealous of him.

Jesus fucking Christ, the stupid is getting thick around here.

I gotta admit, JRT white knighting jimmie mal was completely unexpected.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637419Yeah, it couldn't possibly be that someone simply disagrees with him - it has to be that they're jealous of him.

Jesus fucking Christ, the stupid is getting thick around here.

I wasn't addressing Dwimmermount, or saying he wasn't deserving of criticism.  I was responding mostly to the popularity of his blog.  There's been criticism of him for years before Dwimmermount was a Kickstarter.

Quote from: JRT;637386I mean, when it comes to OSR publishing, I don't think any campaigns were as successful as Dwimmermount--though keep in mind it's a drop in the bucket compared to Fate Core or the Numenera print games or some Pathfinder projects.

FGG's S&W Complete/Monstrosities reprint did about 75k, handily beating Dwimmermount.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;637428I gotta admit, JRT white knighting jimmie mal was completely unexpected.

It's not the first time.

Quote from: JRT;637429There's been criticism of him for years before Dwimmermount was a Kickstarter.

Yes, because a lot of what he wrote on his blog was inane.

Go back and read his 'retrospectives' on various game products. Put a nickel in a jar for every time he writes words to the effect, 'I never actually used this product . . . ' or 'I tried this and didn't like it at the time . . . ' and you can at the very least save up enough to treat yourself to a fancy coffee at Starbucks.

He was a convert, and like many converts, he became a zealot and then a demagogue. I don't doubt for a moment that he really learned to enjoy playing pre-3e D&D but when he talks about 'what it was like in the old days,' it's mostly second-hand experience passed through the lens of his convert's zeal. He lacked original experience, and it showed to some of those of who were, in fact, in the Blue Bottle Saloon in Wichita the night English Bob killed ol' Corky Corcoran. It's half-assed pop history passed off as wisdom.

I don't need someone to read through Dragon magazine and tell me 'what it was like' - I was there, and I know what it was like, and quite often it was little like what James Maliszewski said it was.