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AWAD
Draconis Combine
Chu-sa
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 766
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 Posted: 17-Jul-2004 18:21 Post subject: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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I was at Michicon today, a dying convention in the burbs of Detroit, getting ready for a Btech campaign. One of the organizers (new bunch that took over this year and will see if they can save it) and asks our FanPro Commando Glenn Hopkins (Lobsterback) if we minded if Blaine Pardoe came over. Of course we were psyched. No one knew he was coming.
He is about 5"10 or so, late thirties early forties, light brown hair, receding a little, glasses. Actually very average looking, pass him on the street and think he was a mid level manager, he does not look like the stereotypical gamer. He brought his son with him. He did not play but was from the region. Originally from the Detroit area and wanted to stop by.
Do not quote me and I am holding some stuff back from our conversation. This was informal and I did not take notes, and 10 hours has passed.
1) Wizkids even kept people like him the dark of what they were up to when they first took over, and changed the direction.
2) The whole transition from Classic to Click (in terms of history and story) is still very fuzzy. Blaine and others are beginning to force Wizkids to allow them to fill in the fuzzy area. Of course some leaps of faith and ignorance to normal rules of politics and economics will have to be made.
3) One thing he does not like and hope they change is Wizkids has a lot more control and does let the writers as much freedom. Fine up to a point but some characters are the issue. In the FASA days if writer A wanted to include stuff about a character writer B created or is the driving force they contacted directly. Now it seems the character is not sacred to the writer, Wizkids directs it.
4) On the flip side he says classic Btech people, especially old schoolers are the worst to talk of deal with. They have a hard time separating the game from fiction books. This causes animosity and the fact why some writers and the like keep a distance from them. Militant is the word he used. Like the jump jet death of Natasha, that is fiction, and cool. Killed her in a unique and story book way. But the uproar and how uncivil the fans were made it difficult to even care about what they thought. Also they did not even give Click Mech a chance.
5) With that said he did say WizKids had a talk to the hand attitude, especially to the old school players, and somewhat the writers. This of course made the situation worse. He said that stance is beginning to change.
6) Blaine says he does play both games. He use to play more but not as much no. He would set up maps and Mechs based on what he wanted to write. This way he could see if what he was writing would even work. He took the spirit of the rules into he books, but not the letter is what I gathered. Other writiers did not do this.
7) He does see classic Btech making somewhat resurgence, due to various reasons. He does see some Click players moving up to a more complicated game looking for more variance in the game he said.
This lasted for about an hour. Then he left. If he did not have family with him I would have invited him to lunch and had a long talk with him. My thoughts were positive of him. Really cool he cares enough about the game to stop by.
AWAD- Going to have to get an old book of his and take a read
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
Administrator
Joined: 03-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 6061
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17-Jul-2004 22:34 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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On 2004-07-17 18:21, AWAD wrote:
Like the jump jet death of Natasha, that is fiction, and cool. Killed her in a unique and story book way. |
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I have to say something about this one. There was NOTHING :cool" about the way she died. She was such a storied character in the universe and she died in such a stupid way. I'm not saying she shouldn't have died, but they should've put more effort into it.
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Mordel Blacknight - Site Administrator
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Paul
Capellan Confederation
Sang-wei
Joined: 25-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 255
Location: United States
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| Posted: 18-Jul-2004 13:31 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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Definitely an interesting exchange. I'd love to show that around, but I'll honor your wish.
As I've got a (small) percentage of a clue of what goes on behind the scenes, his perceptions are rather amusing. Very different from mine in some area's, very similar in other area's.
I definitely think he has got guts to take some of the problem cases among old school players to task like that. He's very much on target from what I can see, and have experienced myself the last couple of years. Some people make it very very difficult to listen to them, to take them seriously. I like how he put that.
Paul
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 19-Jul-2004 06:22 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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Finally some answers without Big Brother(Whizkids) looking over your shoulder. Whizkids seem to put a strangle hold over BT as a whole, without letting the freedom to write creatively to add spice to it? Seems Counter-Productive to me....
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4120
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20-Jul-2004 09:32 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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Okay given that the background is what brought a lot of folks into BT and given that the game NEEDS the background story to keep it fresh and interesting, then the idea that the fans use that stuff to keep up with their factions and such shouldn't be seen as wrong. The fiction drives the game as much as the game drives the fiction. BOTH need each other.
Dramatic and believable are two things that need to be in a story. I am sorry but I have to agree with those who felt Natasha's death was a joke. First in Stackpole's book that originally dealt with the death we read about SRMs hitting the head and that is end of her. That is believable and some we have all had happen in a game. Then in another book we see that the afforementioned SRMs hits never happen, it was instead the jump jet's of Jonna's Thor...uhmmm continuity was lost there as was respect for Thurston since the history of the game was in affect rewritten. That is what left the sour taste for a lot of us.
Now for the old school crowed being set in our ways and not able to be reached...well that's not true. We all are very willing and able to be reached as long as the other side is willing to listen and take some kind of interest in the things that we are talking about. Attitude on BOTH sides of the issues are what causes the problems. Those things need to be looked past and the issues need to be address and in a manner that allows all to feel that their point of view or opinion was allowed into the discussion.
It is good to hear that Wizkids is letting up on some things and maybe they will go somewhere with Dark Age...meanwhile I am also happy to see older stuff coming out from FanPro for BT and I hope that keeps being the case since the history of the game has a lot to offer for sourcebooks and different products. I am still waiting for more on the different wars the Star League fought and scenario books to go with them.
Hey re-fighting the landings at the Star League court and some of the other space ports on Earth would be a lot of fun and really allow folks to get into the major event that shaped the Inner Sphere.
Anyway my two dinars on the subject....hope to be home soon...or when ever the Army is done with us.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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DarkAdder
Clan Star Adder
Star Commander
Joined: 10-Jan-2004 00:00
Posts: 604
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| Posted: 20-Jul-2004 12:03 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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Hit the nail on the head there, Karigan.
When I first heard that FASA had been bought, I was hoping that wizzkids would keep the game going. Then the whole classic game just vanished. Dropped right off the face of the earth. Then you get ClickWarrior, and nothing else. I probably would have tried the game, eventually, but the....heavy handedness, I suppose, really put me off. "Thou shalt buy THIS version of the game, for it is all we shal provide thee. Take it and like it." Not the best way to make friends.
Im going to keep my eyes open for the new fiction. Now that Ive been forced into the game (theyre sending my pet goldfish back, soon.  ), Im curious about how things fell back to the Dark Age.
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Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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Ruger
Lyran Alliance
Hauptmann General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2039
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| Posted: 20-Jul-2004 21:04 Post subject: RE: Meeting with Blaine Pardoe |
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On 2004-07-20 12:03, DarkAdder wrote:
Then the whole classic game just vanished. Dropped right off the face of the earth. Then you get ClickWarrior, and nothing else.
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Maybe I'm not reading this as intended (hey, I've just gotten back home after about 16 hours...granted, the last four and a half of that's been for something far more enjoyable than work, but...), but you seem to be saying that the classic BattleTech game is no longer in existance, but that's not true...go to www.classibattletech.com...
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Im going to keep my eyes open for the new fiction. Now that Ive been forced into the game (theyre sending my pet goldfish back, soon. ), Im curious about how things fell back to the Dark Age.
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Well...there are MWDA novels, but most of the new fiction for the "classic BTech era" will be found on www.battlecorps.com...
Ruger
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