Just an imprint.

I'm not a very happy camper right now, and it's because a certain snake has once again reared it's head in the Garden.  That Snake is Ryan Dancey and the Garden is RPG companies.

In an interview with Gamasutra, CCP's (The publishers of the MMO EVE Online,) Ryan Dancey had this to say about White Wolf Publishing. (CCP acquired White Wolf a couple years ago)

 "It's just an imprint... White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn't anymore. It's focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It's not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business."

This line might not be raising the dander in  many folks, as it did mine, so let me take you on a little history tour, and show you why this might make someone's blood come to a bit of a rolling boil.

Way back in 1997, Ryan was part of a company called Five Rings Publishing.  It was, in association with AEG, publishing/writing the hit CCG Legend of the 5 Rings.  That's quite an accomplishment, but Ryan managed to accomplish quite a bit more.   The deal that allowed Wizards of the Coast to purchase TSR inc was brokered by FRPG and Mr Dancey had a huge hand in it.  So much of a hand that along with WotC being able to buy TSR, they also purchased FRPG.

A few years later, the star of our show resurfaces when WotC publishes the Third Edition of the best known RPG of all time...Dungeons and Dragons.  Ryan's hand in this was quite big...he was one of the primary creators of the OGL and the D20 open gaming license.  He even was quoted at one point saying that there were too many gaming companies and too many gaming systems, and people needed to have just one good robust system with many genres, with everyone publishing stuff for the One Game. (Rumors that one of Ryan's first bosses was in actuality named Morgoth are unsubstantiated)  I'm sure that many of the publishers of then-successful games were a bit taken aback at this man basically telling people that his goal was either to drive them out of business or make them convert their companies over to being subservient publishers of HIS company's games.

Anyone who played RPG's a few years ago can certainly remember the D20 boom.  Everything was D20.  Games that should NEVER have been translated into D20 were (Deadlands.. I'm looking at you) and because anyone and their inept dog who could type a few words was able to put out a craptastic D20 game.  There was SO much chaff that it was nearly impossible to find the wheat.  Many gamers (and more than a few retailers) were getting burned by buying just the most horrible D20 products which eventually caused a significant backlash against anything and everything D20.   Where once the term D20 made eyebrows raise and people want to take a look, it became a warning sign, a pariah, and something to avoid, and a general source of ridicule.  D20 went from untouchable, to damn near unsellable.

Many good companies got their start off of D20 ; Green Ronin and Goodman games are two that come to mind, and MANY companies quickly started churning out D20 products.  Pinnacle, Atlas, White Wolf and frankly just about everyone involved in the industry, with the exception of a few.  ( To this day the thought of what would have happened had Palladium actually made D20 Rifts still makes me break out in a cold sweat)

It was a couple of years after D20 made it's splash, that Mr Dancey ran for Treasurer of  GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association.  GAMA is the organization that puts on the Origins Game show as well as the GAMA Trade Show.  To many people, GAMA is as relevant as a third nipple, and to others its a vital part of helping to promote companies that don't have marketing budgets that resemble the GDP of small countries.  It provides educational material, helps to show gaming in a good light, helps game manufacturers network and make connections, and acts to give the gaming industry something akin to a unified voice.   The GTS is one of the only places that retailers can talk to publishers in a more business to business atmosphere.

Mr Dancey had been part of a group called FixGama.  FixGama was dedicated to...wait for it...Fixing GAMA.  GAMA wasn't perfect, not by a long stretch.  The problems with the Origins awards were long and too numerous to go into here.  Ryan Dancey launched an initiative to address these issues and reform GAMA from within.  This is all well and good.  Many of the things he advocated were things that really did need to get looked at and worked on.   He was elected Treasurer of GAMA along with a few other members of the FixGAMA cabal.

Then things went to hell.

I'll let the official press release take it from here.

Ryan Dancey tendered his resignation as Treasurer of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Thursday. Dancey, who was elected at the Annual Membership Meeting a month ago, disclosed to the board shortly after his election that he had penetrated the GAMA Board of Directors e-mail list and had been reading board e-mails for some time. He certified to the board that no one else knew about this breach and that information gleaned from the action was not disseminated to any third party.

Last week, the board of directors informed members of the former board. Wednesday, the board informed the Full-Voting Membership at large. In the wake of discussion on the FVM e-mail list, Dancey decided it was best to resign.

"Over the past several weeks it has become obvious to me that the important work the Board was elected to undertake has taken a back seat to dealing with the issue of my access to GAMA's internal communications prior to the election," he wrote in his letter of resignation. "As I am aware of the number and nature of the immediate issues confronting the Board, and as I believe that the Board needs to address those issues as fast as possible, I believe that my continued service as GAMA Treasurer has become an impediment to that work, which must be removed."

"I hope that Ryan's resignation will aid us in moving forward," GAMA President Don Perrin said.

Dancey's resignation became effective at midnight PDT on the 29th. A successor has not yet been selected. Perrin indicated that further information on that subject would be forthcoming soon.

Yes.  He got access to private e-mails, and though it's not mentioned here, he used the information he read about there to get himself and some of his cohorts elected. He took things that were said on those private forums and use them in very subtle and manipulative ways for his own benefit.  He violated the privacy of a good number of people, and damaged an essentially good organizations reputation.  He completely confessed to this, and the  issue is not whether Ryan was guilty at all, but how guilty he was.  At one point in time, there were considerations of criminal charges being brought against, him.  Sadly, that never happened as there wasn't a clear indication of monetary damages.

The aftermath of this was that Mr Dancey basically became something akin to a leper in most gaming circles.  There were some who saluted his "bravery" in doing what he did, but others saw through that smoke and saw a smarmy dickweed, who felt that anyone who wasn't WotC was one step underneath sewer slime.

Let's fast forward a few years, and this...person.. becomes CCP's Chief Marketing officer.  This is also the same company that has purchased White Wolf Publishing.  White Wolf, at one point the #2 RPG producer (and it's arguable that at some points they were doing better than TSR), at one point the producers of games that totally broke the molds of table top gaming, are now being told that they are.....

"just an imprint"

Just a little side company making little side things.  He even goes so far as to call them a legacy business.  You don't call something a 'legacy business' if you have much respect for something and/or it's future.  It's a very slick way of being very dismissive.  You use that term to refer to business that are "out-moded" or "obsolete".

CCP's Marketing director basically said that his "I give a crap factor" for White Wolf Publishing can be measured in microgiveashits.  There wasn't anything AT ALL positive in what he said.  No "we're looking for to working with them to bring out some great things".   There wasn't anything at all like "with White Wolf's publishing prowess, we can move EVE online into other markets".  There wasn't anything at all to give someone who loves White Wolf Games a glimmer of hope for their company's future.  He even made a SPECIFIC point to mention that the staff had been cut and how CCP's business model was MMO's.

Back in 2007 he even made some predictions for the industry.

"As a result of this change, look for White Wolf to become ultimately focused on its MMORPG offering, and by the end of 2007, to have reduced its paper-based publishing business to a shell entity, providing reprints of its games to a dwindling number of buyers."

You can almost hear the derision in that statement there.

He recently said that WoTC was in a 'death spiral' for it's reaction to pull PDF offering from places such as Drivethru RPG, and in a review of Warhammer Fantasy RP, he even called it a "a clever derivative of D&D 3rd Edition" despite the fact that though the revamp of WFRP came out after D20, it was still so based in it's original form which predated D20 for MANY years.

I think what we're seeing here is perhaps one of the greatest cases of Schadenfreude I've ever seen. The D20 bubble burst and caused a good deal of misfortune for many, publishers, retailers and distributors.  If D20 had continued to be the juggernaut that Dancey envisioned, perhaps he would not seem to bitter to the hobby that put him on the map. 

I truly feel sorry for White Wolf at this point.  I feel for the writers who toil to put out great books for it, and I feel for the fans.  I think it's obvious at this point that CCP's Director of Marketing will NEVER allow White Wolf to even try to be anything more than "just an imprint" and a "legacy business".  He's written them off, I cannot see anything but a long, slow decline into utter irrelevance for White Wolf now, based on this attitude from it's corporate parent.

It bothers me that this person, who at one time screwed over the biggest industry organization is now back in the circle again of having some influence over what was a great RPG company.

It bothers me that this person, who at one time basically wanted gaming companies to play by his way or hit the highway, can't even be bothered to feel that it's worth it to work to build the brand of what was one of the most popular RPG brands.

I guess it mostly bothers me that once again, this man is being given a platform to pontificate from.