WOTC scored a home run with Magic, The Gathering.

Then, against the better judgement of some of the company's highest ranking people, they took on the Pokemon franchise and ended up printing and selling cards in the billions.

They struck it rich two times.

It was Magic and Pokemon, along with the licensing properties associated with D&D, that interested Hasbro and subsequently made everyone in the company a millionaire.  I doubt the people at Hasbro know anything about D&D other than its name value.

Huge influxes of money are great for a company, but they can be dangerous as well.  Money is finite, as are gold rush windfalls.  They can lead to arrogance and bad decisions that end up sinking everything.  

WOTC, for instance, opened a chain of mall stores across the country that had small chance of paying for themselves.  When Hasbro bought the company, they first used these stores as a way to dump crappy merchandise from their warehouses and them closed them down.

Hasbro also closed down WOTC's world headquarters building, which was like a funhouse for gamers in the Seattle University District.  (Although, I have to say that this money-loser was cool as hell, and it was exactly what I'd do if I had $500 million in my game company pocket.)

That is what happened at TSR in a somewhat different pattern.

TSR branched out into books, boardgames, science fiction RPG's, superhero RPG's, post-apocalyptic RPG's, multiple versions of Dungeons and Dragons, cartoons, movies, dice games, the Saga system RPG and dozens of other ill-advised ventures.  

This was part of a trend that also included behind the scenes mistakes like hiring way too many staff and paying for company cars, a new corporate building and all of the other trappings of big business that drain resources.

Sadly, their decline also included poor quality game materials for 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

Unlike some others, I am not a WOTC hater.  I just think that WOTC is showing signs of senility.  This is most clear in their creation and handling of 4th Edition D&D, which has alienated a huge proportion of their core customers.  

The efforts of WOTC to build a cool, online empire were ludicrous (Gleemax!) and at least 10 years behind the technology online gamers have come to expect....so they fired their computer people, which was a good move, but should have been done two years earlier.

I hope WOTC recovers, puts out a stripped-down D&D 5th Edition and returns to the path of wisdom.  We'll see.

Oh shit Mark I had all but forgotten "Gleemax".  I was at Gencon the year it debuted.  The general reaction was "WTF?" to the 100th power. Thanks for dredging up that painful image.

Mike B.

All kinds of awesome going on here:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/130578464978







(If/when the page gets yanked, I'll post a copy - too good to be missed!)

Hey everyone,



Seller has some great items up for grabs (JG, Role Aids, etc)



eBay listings



International shipping too.



Best regards,

Ronald

JasonZavoda wrote:
Wonder what the BINs were before they were bid on.

Hey Jason,

I'm not 100% sure, but I remember that some of the items didn't have a BIN, just an opening bid.

The ones that I am pretty sure didn't have BIN's were:
Nanorien Stones
Beastmaker Mountain
Gen Con IX Dungeons
Inferno
First Fantasy Campaign
and
Wraith Overlord.

Best regards,
Ronald

HermitFromPluto wrote:Was going to bid on this 1st print Melanda, but decided if I wanted to fork out the bucks I'd go for one with the dice (has anyone seen one with dice?). It went for $112

** eBay auction listing blocked.  Please enable cookies in your browser for this site and for eBay! **

I don't think Melanda ever came with dice.  Character generation doesn't even use them.  I think this is the 3rd copy of this one I have ever seen and none have had "dice".  None of the 2nd prints (which show up a few every year) have had dice either.  You might be thinking of Witch Hunt or something like that.

Casciano I expected to go that high. That copy of Milanda is pretty rare, but I wouldn't have expected people to be willing to pay that much for it. Maybe $30-40 too expensive IMO.

Well, congradulations then.
What are the other things on that 'Want List'?

rhynne wrote:
Hey Jason,

I'm not 100% sure, but I remember that some of the items didn't have a BIN, just an opening bid.

The ones that I am pretty sure didn't have BIN's were:
Nanorien Stones
Beastmaker Mountain
Gen Con IX Dungeons
Inferno
First Fantasy Campaign
and
Wraith Overlord.

Best regards,
Ronald

I was checking the completed auctions for this seller and there were some low priced BINs showing. Wondered if someone had tried to low ball these items with hopeful bids.