"Game Designer 'Turf Wars' on TMP?" Topic

I'm relatively new to TMP, but let me say I have enjoyed the helpful community atmosphere and the depth of knowledge here.

I just wanted to note that over the last week or so, two boards I visit frequently (Star Wars and Giant Monsters in Sci Fi, pretty lite stuff) have had public scuffles between designers. Areas of dispute specifically include a perceived criticism/comparison between rules that cover the same topic, and a heated debate about the similarity between two (apparently independent) rulesets.

Although admittedly a layperson in this arena, I never imagined that freely distributing self-published rules, or house-rule modifications of published sets, would present a problem, but apparently they are opening the door to 'intellectual property' conflicts.

Although they appear to have been resolved amicably before turning into a full-fledged flame war, 1) – they always distract the thread away from what should be the focus and 2) – they make me feel a little uncomfortable, as though I'm eavesdropping on a private conversation. No, no-one's forcing me to read them, but you do have to read them once before you realize what's going on!

Shouldn't these matters be resolved through personal messaging? Does TMP have a policy regarding this? As a concerned user, I'm just curious!

Although the designers do not get into debates very often the fanboys of their products often do (raises hand). Flame wars are doused very quickly however and outright insults sends one to the dawghouse.

Welcome to TMP! Have you tried the Napoleonics boards?
And yes, sometimes people take themselves a little too seriously here. Don't let it put you off though. On the whole we're a decent bunch and there are many well informed and helpful members. They far outnumber the noisy fools thankfully.

In my experience – I published my first rules back in the 'eighties and my most recent ones next month – I've found that game designers generally get along well, are interested in one another's ideas, and generally share a bond.

Heck, I owe Ed of THW a dinner.

Where there's a quarrel, it's usually between over-competitive types who write over-competitive rules, and their over-competitive fanboys.

Generally speaking, the worst of the designer flame wars are, indeed, on the Napoleonic forum. The trigger seems to be an argument about what should and shouldn't be abstracted, and what should and shouldn't be bathtubbed.

It's not like other periods aren't challenged the same way. (Heck, I'm currently writing a hard sci-fi game that's hit abstraction and bathtubbing as I force it to revolve around the core mechanic.)

If the arguments you reference on those two boards are anything like the Napoleonics ones (and I wouldn't know, as those subjects are outside my current tastes), the subject of the argument isn't the source of the heat. It's probably a clash of personalites that's been going on for some time, and really doesn't have anything to do with the rules.

If you want to avoid flames wars avoid the following:

The Napoleonics Boards, for some reason it does seemto be very polarising -about 1/4 ofstifles were earned in the Napoleonics Boards.

Avoid The Flames of War WWII Board – the fanboys are extremely thin skinned and do not like anything other than praise being applied to the "Flames of War Hobby (tm)". I got 50% of my stifles from breaking this principle.

Avoid the Warhamster/Warhamster 40K boards for the same reason.

Being 'Orange' on St. Patrick's Day got me most of the remainder. ;-)

Designers are not the problem – the fanboys are.

Where was the scuffle on Giant Monsters? I saw no turf war action there.

I suppose it was more of a misunderstanding than a true turf war, but there was some animosity in the Rules thread. Again, resolved amicably, but do we really need to be distracted by that kind of debate?

Ah.

Um.

Perhaps I'm just jaded, but that very short, amicably conducted exchange didn't even register as turf war or flaming.

I'll concede that, but I definitely sensed turf defense on the Star Wars board (in fact, it looks like that thread was removed, so I'm guessing it did violate policy/make other people uncomfortable). I'm sure there are much worse disputes, I just wanted to voice concern about the general trend.