Breathe... Remain Objective... Breathe...
I will be as collected as possible, so I will not get the thread closed. But I would like a few things clarified. I need some things explained that I do not understand.
To what end is all of this out of control "brand loyalty", when it is essentially the same brand? Isn't every Mongoose product run by Marc for Approval? I think even third parties have to submit two copies in for publication. One for them, and one for him.
I am not saying this to attach blame to Marc, or to say that he should go over every submission with a microscope, but more in recognition of that is how it is. Traveller is, and has been, liscenced to many different companies. It is interesting to see how many people that work in other game systems want to work with Traveller. It says a lot about what Marc has laid out conceptually. And why so many people enjoy it.
There has not been one single release of Traveller that has pleased every fan in the fanbase, nor has there been any single version of the rules that could be seen as "perfect". This search for perfection seems to invariably boil down to personal taste.
I saw a group at a game store playing Mgt. They reminded me of our first Traveller group. Two of the players had never gamed before, and were into it like "oldtimers". The ref told me that he got the book based on "the cool generation system". Outside of a few minutes it really hit me that me and this random kid were talking Traveller.
Probably the last face to face discussion about Traveller with anyone outside of my family probably occured in 1998 sometime, when a employee of a certain copy store "misplaced" my original copy of High Guard, which I sent over for Ship Design Sheet copies*. I'll write an amusing anecdote about this experience another time.
I do not understand the reasoning behind this version-specific stuff. Or the "This is Traveller/This is Not Traveller" stuff. Isn't it all Traveller, really?
Is it not possible that some of these new players that get into Traveller via MGT, will look into it more, and find its history, and previous products, buy them, and thus keep the fires a burning, as it were?
Reputation, gentlemen. Reputation. I am sure if you look around other boards, you will see what I see. People not wanting to come to COTI, or leaving. Winking at the mention of it. At the mention of "canon", or "grognards", or what have you.
If the objective is to put off people from seeking advice or thoughts from people who have played the game for decades, and to make them seem a tad bit Quixotic, I think you are succeeding.
Putting folks off to "canon" in backlash is pretty bad, too, as it predisposes Marc's early stuff as "Old Fart Stuff". yecch. I'm not quite ready for the Old Gamers home yet, thank you very much.
"CT is dead". Geez. Don't tell my wife that, she'll try to bury my collection or something! These sort of statements, make it seem like there really is some sort of factionizing of fans that want it to be "dead". Please. Let's not go all wonky here.
So my main consternation with these sort of sessions is not wether it is Pro or Con Mongoose, but that it is Con Traveller Fan (makes us all look bad) and Con COTI (makes this site look bad, no longer open to many versions of Traveller, say.) Some even went so far as to say I was "Pro-mongoose", but I should assure you, I'm Pro-Traveller.
Oh, by the way, "Rust" above? The person disgusted that this sort of stuff was still going on here? He is in a very cohesive grassroots effort of bringing Traveller to Germany, and from what I have seen is a pretty badass REf. It is too bad that this ongoing rigamarole blocks such things from being expressed, or even found out before being so flippantly dismissed. What a nice welcome mat to another Traveller community.
* I design ships to relax like people play the Sodoku or something. Its a habit I don't think I'll kick anytime soon.
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