Comments on: I Was a Gen Con Spy For TSR

By: Scott Gable

Scott Gable — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:09:32 +0000

Commenting is now closed for this post, and a few comments have been deleted. We want to keep the dialogue open and free here, but we will not tolerate abusive language. We understand tempers are running hot right now on both sides of the argument, but that will not be an excuse for being uncivil. Let’s try to remember that we’re all here for same thing: the love of RPGs.

By: seankreynolds

seankreynolds — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:00:50 +0000

Feh, they didn’t ask him to do anything illegal. They didn’t even ask him to do anything unethical. They asked him to walk over to a *public* booth and watch a *public* display of a game to see if it was a violation of their company’s copyrights. This isn’t industrial espionage, any more than it would be if Sony sent employees over to the Nintendo booth at E3 to see what the news is.
Yes, Colin was put in an awkward position.
Yes, it was shady that TSR gave him a fake badge.
Yes, TSR’s owners were pretty crazy. Paranoid and litigious, in fact.
Yes, it was a crappy thing for them to ask a new employee to do.
No, Colin didn’t do anything wrong.
In fact, Colin made the best choice–he went and looked as directed, and didn’t report anything back to TSR’s suits. The hardest choice, in fact, because Gygax couldn’t hurt him for his actions and TSR could.
And TSR sued Gygax anyway, which shows that having Colin do this was just a sham on their part, anyway.

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:50:58 +0000

Ok folks, time to keep it civil and on-topic.

By: Andrew Hackard

Andrew Hackard — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:18:35 +0000

Luke, keep your head down and come home safe.

By: Alex Boston

Alex Boston — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:57:36 +0000

Interesting story, but are you certain that you were the only spy they hired?

By: drow

drow — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:47:52 +0000

there is only one way to settle this…

THUNDERDOME!

By: Colin McComb

Colin McComb — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:19:57 +0000

All right, look:

I appreciate people sticking up for me. I do. It was a hard situation, it was hard to write about, and I’m not proud of it. But there’s no need to demean and belittle each other over an incident that occurred 18 years ago.

I have accepted Luke’s criticism of my actions, and I hope that I’ve improved in the years since then.

I can and will stick up for myself if necessary. This is not that time. Luke and I have exchanged opinions, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s that. If you want to start fights, don’t use me as a pretext.

By: Marc Radle

Marc Radle — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:56:17 +0000

Elfdart, seriously – ENOUGH!

Colin was good enough to share an interesting story about a difficult situation he was put in many years ago. Luke had an understanably strong opinion about it. End of story. There is no reason for you to get this nasty and rude.

Colin – thank you for sharing the story -it was intersting and showed that, in the end, you did what you thought was right.

Luke – Your dad sounds like a great person and I am very thankful for the game he gave us all! And, thank YOU for what you are doing over in Iraq.

Elfdart – Please, just drop it.

Thanks!