-I had surfed my way to a D&D site and came across this post by a TSR editor in the 80s. There are some very relevent questions that we should be asking ourselves as sports sim fans.
Link:
KNIGHTS & KNAVES ALEHOUSE :: View topic - What's up with the Zeb Cook hatred?
"The thesis was that game genres evolve and eventually die in a very predictable pattern, in fairly well-defined stages. The first stage is the creation of the genre. One game breaks the mold and creates the genre. A very exciting time follows, as copycat games are rushed out and then better-designed, legitimate contenders are created. The excitement generated by the new genre causes wild variation in the parameters (setting, game mechanics, goals, etc.) among games bursting into the genre. Fans of the genre are generally open-minded, accepting of and interested in multiple variants.
The second stage is thinning the herd. The copycat games die out. One game, usually the one that created the genre, becomes clearly dominant. But there are several viable, strong contenders all vying for second place. The parameters of the genre become more codified. Games that don't fit within certain acceptable parameters face rejection from fans, who've narrowed their focus on the game or games they'll play within the genre.
The third stage is ossification and stagnation. A few very well-established games dominate the field. The genre-creating game may still be dominant or it may have fallen by the wayside, failed to keep its audience. Game parameters become very hard and fast and fans are unaccepting of new games that do not adhere to a strict set of parameters, or of existing games that reinvent themselves and drift outside the established genre parameters. Most fans play only one game in the genre.
The fourth stage is effectively commercial death. The narrowing of genre parameters and the intolerance of fans to change drives away any newcomers to the genre. An increasingly small, increasingly vocal minority dictates what they will and will not accept. At some point, it becomes unfeasible for companies to publish products in this genre, to such a small and highly critical audience. The genre might live on, in fan-created products, but commercial interest in it is gone.
When I read that, a few years ago, I found it very interesting. A lot of it is common sense, but it was fascinating to have the evolutionary stages laid out (and the author did a much better job than my poorly remembered version here). I could see its relevance to computer/video game genres, but I never associated it with paper game genres. Until I got onto this message board.
It seems that quite a few people here fixated on the 1e rules and essentially "stopped evolving," if I can use that phrase without offending too many people. The genre-driving company, TSR, moved on, evolving AD&D in an effort to gain the greatest possible audience, which is what a company has to do to continue growing. I think a lot of the folks here became essentially a very vocal minority who refused to be satisfied.
IIRC, there's something of a business maxim that a small minority, maybe 5%, of a company's customers will never be satisfied, no matter what the company does. The maxim holds that it's in the company's interest to let those customers go as it will cost the company far more (in time, resources, money) to try to placate them than they are worth to the company. You'll lose a lot more customers you could have more easily satisfied if you try to satisfy the very hard or impossible to satisfy folks.
Essentially, a lot of you folks became those customers that for TSR it was better to let go than try to satisfy. I hope I'm not insulting anyone by saying this. There's nothing wrong with being those customers. You have a right to your opinions and you certainly have a right to want to play games you like. But I think a lot of people here don't understand why TSR left them behind and you feel betrayed and bitter. Or at least that's the vibe I'm getting.
And I frankly don't understand. You folks are fully capable of creating your own adventures (and I know a number of you do). You can let TSR go its own way and you go yours, as you've got your own adventures to play. I do understand a sense of bitterness toward TSR, but I really don't get why people feel such disdain for the designers and editor/writers who continued to work on AD&D material. It wasn't the direction that you wanted the game to go, but it's unjustified to somehow translate that into the designers/editors were incompetent or evil or greedy or backstabbing bastards, as they're actually none of those things."