Sometimes, depending on the artist. With good direction, Wayne Reynolds and awesome, as is Eva Widermann and some of the others, but William O'Connor must die. Or learn basic anatomy.

Ed outlines a great business plan in his linked articles, but I've got one more idea about marketability:

You're probably right. While business decisions rightly take some place in determining direction (and author Ed points out some smart moves in his linked articles), soooo much of what's wrong at WotC reeks of putting the cart before the horse. They forget that they have to have a good product to sell before they can…

That is actually a pretty brilliant idea.

Oh. Oh, my. they truly fucked themselves, as they seem to have wanted to look even more Dark'n'Gritty (tm)... while removing the actually dark elements.

Our group's in DC.

You seem like good peeps. If you're in DC, you're invited to our table. You can judge our social graces and sanity for yourself.

"Every nerd subculture—comics, cosplay, console gamers, Trekkies, etc. etc.—has their embarrassments"

Yes- I call D&D "the Hobby that Dare Not Speak It's Name."

It's new from Ronco (tm).

Because everyone's on board with Jar-Jar now!

It wasn't that they scratched Half-Orcs, or reversed themselves... it's that they held out some of the most popular stuff for expansion products so you'd buy them.

Where is this "inherent bonus option" found?

"I just want to see humanity escape the fragile thermal phase of our development and move into things that have a longer life expectancy."

The first thing they need to do if they want to gather more players of more styles together is make magic a separable layer. My GF and I wanted to play a low-magic setting to preserve the sense of wonder that magic should evoke, and wound up having to home-rule the shit out of it. We also wanted to actually…

"And I propose that technological change is the only thing that can help. Politics, and social attitude are ephemeral and never seem to apply the sharp focus necessary for lasting change."

To start with- I agree that our disagreement is not about a political stance, but about the relationship of the political to the commercial.

Yes. Maybe my girl would like it, as she shares your delectations in these matters... but since she's a writer, I'm scared to expose her to it!

After your much more thoughtful response, I went and watched the clip and you're right- and though there's even more reasoned criticism of the way money and marketing work in Hollywood, the obvious pull-quote is in direct contradiction to a lot of other stuff he said.

"Were I Lucas - even if I AGREED with McCallum I would have severed the deal."