Quote from: ostap bender;637614i do not think that james is a nutjob, as you succinctly put it, but i do think that it is more accurate to think about his as someone that is having something akin to a nervous breakdown than as a scam-artist conning people and laughing all the way to the bank.

If one just wants easy money to scam, there are numerous easier ways than kickstarter.

Quote from: ggroy;637615If one just wants easy money to scam, there are numerous easier ways than kickstarter.

i completely agree.

Quote from: ostap bender;637607but also, i always  felt that his involvment with OSR was result of a certain traumatic event/realization that was triggered by premature passing of gary gygax and that something similar could also push him in other way.

Of the many profoundly stupid things written about James Maliszewski, this is one of them.

Please, tell us more about how not liking his blog is muddying the waters, and then continue with your intreweb psychoanalysis, 'cause I'm sure that's going to offer up all sorts of entertainment.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637646Of the many profoundly stupid things written about James Maliszewski, this is one of them.

Please, tell us more about how not liking his blog is muddying the waters, and then continue with your intreweb psychoanalysis, 'cause I'm sure that's going to offer up all sorts of entertainment.

well, i am at least entertaining.

speculating about the james' authenticity and offering testosterone fueled diatribes on a geeky forum about his cunning plan to impersonate real grognard and trick honest people out of their money is muddying the water. i just find interesting observing what type of people populate our little corner of the world.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;636934Turning over ALL of the money to Malszewski?

THAT incredibly bad business decision.

Turning over all of it before delivery of a product that could be published.  A contract ought to spell out when transfer of IP and money take place:  "Fuck you.  Pay me."

Are we all sure that JM didn't actually pay for all those things he acquired?  I mean I find it pretty hard to believe folks are just going to drop their rare/hard to find items in the mail and send them off to some blogger who said he would like to have it.  

When I found Grognardia I had no idea who JMal was.  Frankly, I still don't really know his history in the rpg community prior to when I started reading the blog about 2-3 years ago.  The same applies to all the other OSR bloggers I've read since then.   If something on his blog interested me I read it.  Otherwise I moved along.  

Theres a lot of odd stuff being proposed in this thread.  The idea that JMal might have been an alias?  We're moving into conspiracy theory territory.  

It seems to me that if the money were still in the bank, the logical thing would be for him to simply give it back.  That leads me to believe that, for whatever reason, its gone.  I doubt very much that was the plan JM had at the outset but obviously something went off the rails somewhere and here we are...

Quote from: ostap bender;637663speculating about the james' authenticity . . .

I'm not speculating about anything - I'm telling you what he wrote on his blog.

Suggesting that the death of Gary Gygax started a downward spiral of fame-seeking and mental illness? Yeah, THAT would be speculation, and among the more fanciful examples of it, I might add.

Quote from: ostap bender;637663. . .and offering testosterone fueled diatribes on a geeky forum about his cunning plan to impersonate real grognard and trick honest people out of their money is muddying the water.

Since no one's suggested anything about a "cunning plan to impersonate real grognard (sic) and trick honest people out of their money," you're just making up shit whole-cloth at this point.

Quote from: ostap bender;637663i just find interesting observing what type of people populate our little corner of the world.

Try looking in a mirror.

Quote from: Zevious Zoquis;637676Are we all sure that JM didn't actually pay for all those things he acquired?  I mean I find it pretty hard to believe folks are just going to drop their rare/hard to find items in the mail and send them off to some blogger who said he would like to have it.

I remember one thread on his blog in particular where one of the responders said (I'm paraphrasing) "Shoot me your address, James, and I'll send X to you." I don't think you can go back and see those comments now. It's very easy for me to believe that he could acquire things without paying for them.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637691I'm not speculating about anything - I'm telling you what he wrote on his blog.

so what? what does that have to do with anything?

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637691Suggesting that the death of Gary Gygax started a downward spiral of fame-seeking and mental illness? Yeah, THAT would be speculation, and among the more fanciful examples of it, I might add.

mental illness is too strong word but yes and that is at least far more reasonable (not to mention interesting) than 'tourist jumped on our steam-powered osr wagon and stole all da girls and gold. fuck the landlubber' buffoonery.  

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637691Since no one's suggested anything about a "cunning plan to impersonate real grognard (sic) and trick honest people out of their money," you're just making up shit whole-cloth at this point.

did you read this thread at all? someone (not you but you decided to identify with it for reason that is beyond me) just proposed that james is probably a nigerian.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;637691Try looking in a mirror.

don't worry jack my mascara is not all screwed up by man-tears of righteous anger.

Quote from: ostap bender;637695mental illness is too strong word but yes and that is at least far more reasonable (not too mention interesting) than 'tourist jumped on our steam-powered osr wagon and stole all da girls and gold. fuck the landlubber' buffoonery.

:rotfl:

Seriously, this is the feeling I get from most of the Malizewski-hate.

That from a professional POV the Dwimmermount thing is a colossal fiasco, that's no longer up for debate. No matter how dire his personal and family issues, three months without even communicating is gross mismanagement, and not to mention not paying the artists.

That he was bland, repetitive, self-important and "not a real grognard", eh, whatever. I wasn't even born when this fucker started rolling dice, but I guess having freelanced for White Wolf once disqualifies you from being a "real grognard" forever. I enjoyed reading his take on the hobby's history, though admittedly I've read neither of the recently published, methodical works on the subject (Designers & Dragons, and Playing At The World). For a guy who got his start with the 1991 "black box" D&D Introductory Game, and then moved on to D&D RC and AD&D 2e, it was a pretty good and accessible introduction to older editions and the OSR.

Also, while asking for stuff is stupid, no one held a gun to people's heads and demanded that they mail the OSR Pope their old modules.

But most of the criticism directed at his person (as opposed to criticism of his writing, or the irrefutable pointing out of his catastrophic inability to complete Dwimmermount or to communicate with Autarch and the backers) smacks of butthurt to me.

The weird thing about all of it is that James did, under continual prodding from Tavis, actually put together a Word document that is a draft of the dungeon Dwimmermount. And it's mediocre. An unambitious dungeon more concerned with showing off to the DM reading it that there is history to the place, than presenting a lively and interesting play environment. It's not epic bad or anything like that, it's just a long and fairly tedious module.

Quote from: Endless Flight;637443The most annoying thing about James to me was his opportunistic wishing (begging) for games, modules, etc. that he didn't own. He'd post something like "I saw X in a store 30 years ago and wish I had it". Then a couple days later, he would say. "Thanks to John Doe, I now have that copy of X".

Can you blame him for accepting free shit from sycophants?

Quote from: everloss;637768Can you blame him for accepting free shit from sycophants?

Not if they just offered it up without his prodding.

Quote from: Endless Flight;637772Not if they just offered it up without his prodding.

I've never owned a copy of the white box OD&D.

There, did I just prod people to send me one for free?

And BTW, if you feel so inclined, please PM me and I will happily offer up my shipping address.

Quote from: Mistwell;637773I've never owned a copy of the white box OD&D.

There, did I just prod people to send me one for free?

And BTW, if you feel so inclined, please PM me and I will happily offer up my shipping address.

Sorry, you aren't the OSR Pope.

No White Box for you!