Howdy all.Gygax was, IMHO, a solid wargame designer. Wargames he designed/collaborated on, like Chainmail, Alexander the Great, Tractics, Fight in the Skies and Boot Hill 1st ed. were workmanlike and comparable to the average wargame designs of the 1970s. He was no James Dunnigan or John Hill, of course, but his games were adequate.
His real significance is, of course, as co-creator of the roleplaying hobby. Like his wargame designs, D&D was an adequate game at best. However, it was the first RPG and it was just barely playable enough.
TSR did pretty much deal board wargaming a mortal blow with their acquisition of SPI. One of the better versions of the story is from Greg Costikyan http://www.costik.com/spisins.html . However, this version differs in significant financial details from other versions of the tale.
What is known is that TSR loaned SPI money when SPI was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Like any reasonable creditor, TSR insisted that the loan be secured with SPI's assets. The exact amount is unclear to me (Costikyan says a few thousand dollars, other sources claim $300K -- a lot of money in the hobby in 1982). Personally, I believe the latter amount. The loan was a "demand" loan -- TSR could demand payment anytime. Apparently, TSR demanded payment very soon after making the loan. SPI management agreed to a friendly takeover by TSR. This, by the way, has always made me suspect that SPI's management colluded with TSR to a far greater degree than has been reported. As a business lawyer, this possibility seems likely to me.
Anyhow, when SPI defaulted on the loan, TSR's only remedy was to sieze the collateral -- the assets of SPI. In such a transaction, liabilities are not required to be assumed. SPI did have other large, unsecured creditors, and TSR paid them off -- they agreed to take pennies on the dollar and release their remining claims. In essence, TSR and SPI pulled off a private bankruptcy.
A major SPI liability were the 30,000 subscriptions to Strategy and Tactics magazine (including thousands of "lifetime subscriptions"). This, by the way, constituted about 1/8 of the entire gaming public at the time, and these folks bought a very disproportionate number of wargames. I'd bet that S&T subscribers bought 1/4 to 1/3 of the wargames sold.
TSR's idiotic management chose to not honor the S&T subscriptions. Instead, they offered some kind of modest discount on new subscriptions. I don't know anyone who resubscribed. TSR's heavy-handed and thoughtless handling of the S&T subscribers enraged as much as 1/3 of the purchasing dollars in the wargaming market. And no other wargame company could really support these folks, since SPI was the major provider of the more complex games that this group favored. Victory Games, an Avalon Hill subsidiary formed from ex-SPI folks, tried to fill the gap, but they only produced a small fraction of the *number* of designs required to service the market. End result, board wargaming lost its core and never recovered.
I don't know how responsible Gygax was for this fiasco. He was president of TSR at the time. And even if he personally had little to do with the decision, his arrogance, condescension and paranoia strongly influenced TSR's corporate culture at the time. Gygax seems to have been humbled in later years, and certainly seems to be a nice guy now. But in 1982, he was a jerk, and TSR was an arrogant corporate bully. Indeed, few companies have deserved to crash and burn as much as TSR did.
Personally, I think that TSR killed boardgaming 10-20 years before it would have died a natural death. And Gygax bears a significant share of blame for that. For what it's worth, I'm willing to wager that TSR lost a lot of money trying to resurrect SPI, and this loss probably contributed significantly to their own near-death in the early 1990s. This enabled WOTC to acquire TSR, and that acquisition probably bought face to face roleplaying at least another decade of life.
--Ty----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan & Laura" <jlekevans@sbcglobal.net>
To: <tft@brainiac.com> Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 10:35 PM Subject: RE: (TFT) TSR and SPI. Rivers on hex sides. Rick says hi.
Though I have no real strong feelings one way or another, Gygax was more than a promoter. I believe he published a few wargames, including "Alexander the Great" which was originally published by Guidon and then picked up by Avalon Hill. It was a decent game for its time (or so I am told). Also, given what Rick said about TSR doesn't necessarily mean anythingregarding Gygax. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought that the realdecision-making power at TSR was out of Gygax's hands by that point. Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: tft-admin@brainiac.com [mailto:tft-admin@brainiac.com] On Behalf Of Jay Carlisle Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 10:31 PM To: tft@brainiac.com Subject: Re: (TFT) TSR and SPI. Rivers on hex sides. Rick says hi.----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Smith" <rsmith@lightspeed.ca> However, TSR refused to honor SPI's liabilities (especially the life time memberships to Strategy and Tactics magazine) and screwed over the Grognards who bought 15, 25 games a year. Those people basically boycotted TSR. TSR raped the core of the wargame industry and was the major reason it imploded. They could never understand why they could not sell as many wargames as SPI.AMEN! Gygax was a promoter. NO unique ideas. Yet WIKIpedia is giving 'Chainmail' credit for "RPG's"?! Gygax had a PRESS in the basement (from what I hear. I don't know the man) I don't wanna game by "FORCE OF MY PERSONALITY" I wanna have a set of rules that tie to common referance materal and make everyone in charge of there own areas. i.e. NO single GM. Ultimatly this will make us all Mnoren... Some thoughts... Jay ===== Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com. Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body"unsubscribe tft"
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