On 4/4/2019 5:56 PM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:
> IMO, MT was the 1st mistake while TNE was 'merely' the compounding
> fatal one.
>
> I wouldn't expect anyone ay GDW to admit what a big mistake they made.
> It goes against human nature, esp when they all just *knew* that it
> was the best thing since sliced bread!
> The howls of distress that resounded on this list should've been a
> 'fair warning' but, by then, I imagine they already 'drank the kool-aid'.
>
> The annals of retail marketing, from largest to smallest, are replete
> with many, many similar tales &, in the end, the guys who are
> responsible always, always, always show a very high propensity to
> 'point the finger' elsewhere.
>
> GDW, died due to bad decisions by management.
> TNE was the last, fatal, one.

I think that's a bit harsh, Phil.  Over the years before the company's
demise, I met a number of the GDW team at various conventions and I
don't think they are liars or delusional. However, I do think that they
made several tactical errors that grew into strategic errors which
limited the company's agility and ability to react to market changes. 
The late 80s and early 90s saw the rise of CCGs, specific Magic; The
Gathering, which sucked an incredible amount of money out of the
traditional gaming market segments.  A lot of companies were either
closed or gobbled up (and then dismantled) during those years so let's
not overlook that aspect of the equation.

While I think the whole backstory for TNE is one better left in the
commode, I think that another part was the fact that at that time GDW
had several lines; their board games, their miniature games (both
standalone and supporting other lines), Traveller, T2k, Cadillacs &
Dinosaurs, Dark Conspiracy, Space: 1889, and Traveller: 2300/2300AD that
I remember off the top of my head. That's a lot of width for a small
company to manage and produce new products for, especially when there
were up to five different and incompatible systems involved.  They hit
on the idea to cram everything into one "house system", which on its own
was mediocre at best and did a poor (at best) job of modeling
characters, so that everything would be more or less compatible.

That was when my friends and I walked away.  T2k v.1 had issues; decent
characters had to be old, combat was a overly complex, the horrible
"shots", and some others, but it was fun and with a bit of work,
playable.  T2k v2 made even older characters anemic when it came to
being able to so something without being a one trick pony, and the rest
of it was more complex than we thought necessary. C&D and DC we didn't
bother with, there were already games that did the same thing, and did
it better, on the market.  T2300/2300AD had potential, but I think it
was a good decade or two too early if the characters wanted to do
anything other than roam around on a planet.  A simple smartphone app
would have made the distance calculations so much easier and could have
salvaged the game.  Also, I think the story, set in the world we know
but different, rubbed a lot of gamers the wrong way, at least it the
ones I spoke to at the time.

Then there was the big one, Dangerous Journeys and all the legal issues
that surrounded it.

TNE is remembered because it was the last crusty jewel in the crown of
the flagship line produced by GDW.  Despite turning a lot of people off
due to the cause of the collapse, it wasn't *the* cause. It was *a*
cause, but I think poor tactical decisions, poor strategic results, the
inability to correct mistakes, and the change in spending patterns at
the time were the stakes in the heart.

This is just an opinion from someone who has played the game since 78 or
so, and was very active with several local game shops during these events.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me