Dresner articles

[Ron Edwards]

A number of years ago, Emily Dresner asked to submit a series of publishing articles here at the Forge. Clinton and I said yes, and two articles in a proposed series were posted.

Today, a new arrival at the Forge asked why they didn't continue. This is a legitimate question.

Basically, it's my doing.

Emily didn't like the points that I sent to her about her articles, identifying assumptions that weren't going to be shared by a number of people, us included. These were not edits - we didn't require her to change her points, and my goal was to let her know what she'd be facing in the forums. However, based on our email exchange, it's likely that she thought she was expected to change the essays' content and didn't like that either.

In the interest of disclosure, I'm not especially sorry about it. I don't think the articles provide insight about design and publishing that are locally useful, or that couldn't be found in a first-year college writing class ("make an outline" or similar). I also think their assumptions about game design are more appropriate to the by-the-numbers, imitate White Wolf approach that most freelancers adhere to, and which produces consistently weak games to this day.

Emily is still free to provide the further articles if she wishes. My and Clinton's disagreement with her points does not represent a termination of her original proposal.

Best,
Ron

[Olorin]

(Okay. I've read the guidelines and from now on, if I'm uncertain about something, I'll send a privat message.)

And thank you. This answers my questions about the articles.