Article – Why are we talking about them?

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img[1]By Paco Garcia Jaen

The release of D&D Starter Set sparked many reactions from a lot of people. Mostly, people have been excited and mostly they have been welcoming. Some people, though, have complained about how two individuals who were consulted. The extent of their influence on the game is unknown.

I can understand that. I don’t know any of the two people in question, but what I have read that they’ve written make them come across as thoroughly obnoxious and up-their-own-arse individuals with no empathy or room for what anyone else think.

Quite frankly I would have consulted them too. If anything because whatever they said would have been put in the “this is probably the wrong thing, so let’s avoid” list.

The thing is, these two individuals (I won’t mention them because I don’t want to give them any more publicity) have got more attention than the good people who’ve contributed to the game. Their presence alone is like having a cockroach in a restaurant. No matter how clean everything is; no matter how well cooked the meals are; no matter how it’s pretty much unavoidable that there will be vermin, their mere presence taints everything else even though they are insignificant.

And we are letting that happen. We are contributing to driving people off the restaurant because someone saw a cockroach.

This is a metaphor, of course. I am not saying they’re like cockroaches, just that the reaction the spark is similar.

So how about we do something else this time? How about, this time, we don’t engage? How about we simply let WOTC that having people like that is not what we expect and simply, leave it there?

Yes, people will goad you into “conversations” because how dare you have an opinion that clashes with theirs? How dare you dislike what they so like? Don’t bother with them. Make your voice heard, don’t give them another route to get out and point at more cockroaches in the catering community.

Why aren’t we talking about the good people in the industry? Why aren’t we talking about Cam Banks, Shannah Germain, Christina Styles, Rob Donohue, Bruce Cordell…

Why are we wasting our time with the obnoxious when we have so many *amazing* people instead?

By the way, I have no grudge nor axe to grind with them two individuals. I don’t like how they come across and I feel the conversation would be more constructive if it was directed at the excellent people instead. Neither of them have done anything to me and disliking their Internet personas is not the same as having axes to grind or grudges.

 

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