Why White Wolf is a model game company

[Elissa Carey]

Originally posted by Dulahan

The one they use is the crappiest one I have ever seen in my Online life. Bar None.

I have seen worse. Much, much worse. At least the WW fora are usable.

[Bruce Baugh]

Originally posted by Pseudoephedrine
With web-masters a dime a dozen in this economy, why White-Wolf sticks with Connie is beyond me.

The people who actually own and run the company are happy with him. Every year or two I do my part by suggesting the merits of designating a net-rep or two, tapping into the skill base of our fans who do professional web design, work at hosting companies, and like that. I know others do as well. It never goes anywhere - the bosses' view is that whatever problems there may be are isolated enough that they don't translate into anything like significant losses and that any proposed fix would incur both cost and risk.

Honesty compels me to note that I'm not part of the crew that built up a company from pirated copies of Word and PageMaker to #2 in just a few years and maintained that status ever since, and maybe my perspective is in fact wrong. I know that I'd like a website with forums as cool as Ian Watson's and product news as informative as SJG, darn it.

[Funksaw]

Anecdotal conjecture, complete rumor, possible libel:

My friend who shall remain nameless has worked with Conrad extensively and has hated every moment of it. He kinda gets the feeling that WW has a very insular, fraternal "no matter how wrong he is, we'll stand by him, cause he's fun at bars" mentality regarding Conrad.

I call it "The White Wall of Silence."

-- Funky.

[Funksaw]

Ian, ever thought of hosting games on your site?

-- Funky.

[jachilli]

Originally posted by Funksaw
Anecdotal conjecture, complete rumor, possible libel:

My friend who shall remain nameless has worked with Conrad extensively and has hated every moment of it. He kinda gets the feeling that WW has a very insular, fraternal "no matter how wrong he is, we'll stand by him, cause he's fun at bars" mentality regarding Conrad.

I call it "The White Wall of Silence."

Conrad is no fun at bars.

I've had to be talked out killing him twice, the knife literally wrestled from my hands at one point. I also slipped him a mickey once, so that we could deposit him back at the hotel and continue carousing without him.

On the other hand, Conrad deals with some of the most rabid, savage, troglodytic, self-righteous, monstrous and generally execrable members of the human race: Netfolk. Perhaps you're one of the ones who was treated poorly out of hand by Conrad. On the other hand, maybe you're one of the ones who tried to hack his personal e-mail accounts, sent him death threats, posted personal information of his to public forums, tried to hack his realm of responsibilities at work or just generally acted like a smeg-drenched feces sculpture shaped somewhat like an anthropomorphism.

He's also a dependable worker, and knows his duties and his tools almost without peer.

So dramatically shake your fist at the "White Wall of Silence." However, not working here, you certainly don't know what you're talking about.

Regards,
Justin

[Elizabeth Brooks]

Originally posted by Funksaw
Anecdotal conjecture, complete rumor, possible libel:

My friend who shall remain nameless has worked with Conrad extensively and has hated every moment of it. He kinda gets the feeling that WW has a very insular, fraternal "no matter how wrong he is, we'll stand by him, cause he's fun at bars" mentality regarding Conrad.

I call it "The White Wall of Silence."

-- Funky.

As far as it goes, I'm not going to comment either way on Conrad. Mainly because, while I am certainly aware of many interactions that have turned out badly, I have not personally been subjected to any of them, and the time I met him face-to-face, he was pretty mellow.

I just want to point out that since Conrad's been hired at WW, the web page has been revamped a bit and receives regular updates. Chris McDonough was overworked before they hired Conrad on (and may still be), but the end result was an overall improvement in web presence. The forums get rebooted more often when they crash, the web page gets regular updates (or rather, webpages, what with Sword & Sorcery).

Just pointing out some reasons why the people who make these decisions keep Conrad on the payroll.

[RedFox]

Justin: In all honesty here: Cry me a river.

Now I don't know Conrad from Adam, but I know that all that bullshit about death threats and hacked email and retards banging at the door is part of the job description for any high-profile front-company web admin.

Now maybe Conrad is just filling too many hats. Maybe he's good at some things and not others. Maybe he's actually doing his job and people bitch at him because they're just so icky mean.

I don't know. What I do know is this:

Good web admins tend to be invisible. It's a "you only notice me when something breaks" job. Too many people know Conrad's name and job description in the fan community.

Also, all the people complaining may just suggest that there's something to look into. As I said, I've not been personally affected by Conrad in any way, but it seems to me as an outsider looking in that what you've got is way more than your typical "vocal minority" making complaints.

Lastly: The web page design / forum software are just not up to snuff for the second-largest RPG company. It looks like an amateur hack-site straight out of the late 90's, not a slick corporate front-piece like it should.

Take that all with as much salt as you like. I'm just laying it out as I see it.

[Funksaw]

Originally posted by jachilli


Conrad is no fun at bars.

I've had to be talked out killing him twice, the knife literally wrestled from my hands at one point. I also slipped him a mickey once, so that we could deposit him back at the hotel and continue carousing without him.

On the other hand, Conrad deals with some of the most rabid, savage, troglodytic, self-righteous, monstrous and generally execrable members of the human race: Netfolk. Perhaps you're one of the ones who was treated poorly out of hand by Conrad. On the other hand, maybe you're one of the ones who tried to hack his personal e-mail accounts, sent him death threats, posted personal information of his to public forums, tried to hack his realm of responsibilities at work or just generally acted like a smeg-drenched feces sculpture shaped somewhat like an anthropomorphism.

He's also a dependable worker, and knows his duties and his tools almost without peer.

So dramatically shake your fist at the "White Wall of Silence." However, not working here, you certainly don't know what you're talking about.

Regards,
Justin

Justin, I agree with you, but I think that Conrad has the kind of personality that attracts the dregs of the net. Most of his problems are self-created - the ones that he doesn't create himself, he exacerbates.

While netfolk can be a cruel bunch, I've been a netizen for a while, I've yet to recieve or send a death threat, I've never had my email hacked... Hell, I doubt that Cmdr Taco or Cowboy Neil, or even Matt Drudge has the kind of problems that Conrad has.

Mostly because Conrad has pissed EVERYONE off, net-saint and net-scum alike. The net-saints just refuse to deal with him, the net-scum attack back. In the worst cases, he pisses off otherwise sane and rational people so much that they take actions out of anger.

Guess what. When you drive away nice people and just make the assholes more determined, what are you going to see when you logon?

Indeed, I think White Wolf wouldn't have nearly the problems it has with online idiots if it wasn't for Conrad's antics.

It's true, not working at White Wolf, I don't know how bad the problem is. But even from a view from the outside, I can tell there is a problem, and that it is getting worse and not better.

That said, I don't want to deal with him. Really. That means I don't want to deal with the website, I don't want to deal with the WW forums, the WW chatroom...

The man drives people away from WW's marketing and promotional tools. That should be a warning sign.

And in an era where the Internet is making a big impact on gaming, and is the easiest, most effective promotional tool that a game company can have nowadays, my advice - which WW doesn't seem to take - would be to find someone else who can do the job without making enemies.

[Grey Area]

Personal attacks (justified or otherwise) aside, I'll add my voice to those who are saying that the WW site needs to be revamped (d'oh!). The navigation seems very cumbersome (it took me quite a while just to find the forums), and the forums themselves are atrocious (I know nothing about internet type stuff, but what they've got here seems to work pretty well for me!).

[alexandria2000]

I cruise the WW forums fairly often, and it would be nice if the forums were changed. It's...clunky to get around on.

phpBB's fairly nice.