In a message dated 9/4/00 4:17:13 PM Central Daylight Time, ami@ML.usagi.org 
writes:

<< Sorry, I'd rather go and sell my testicles than work for WotC. They've
 destroyed ccg after ccg. I was a HUGE L5R fanatic and then WotC took
 it over, and it became apparent what was going to happen right after
 Obsidian Edition, "move over bacon, here comes the Rolling Thunder
 suck-ass system!" *WRETCH* I gave it a shot, but stopped buying after
 Hidden Emperor 4 when I had tons of duplicate useless commons and
 it looked like the storyline was getting bad. Did you know that even
 though they've completely taken the ccg over from AEG, they still
 want AEG to have the L5R RPG (which WotC has no control over) to
 follow WotC's storyline? What audacity, the nerve of them to kick out
 all of the original AEG storyline people (and I really liked John &
 Ree), not to mention all the good artists, and then turn around and
 demand that the product that they don't even own or control be set
 to WotC standards. Bastards!!>>

while i have to admit the company is evil WotC has its strong points. they 
basicly control the roleplaying and CCG market at this point. yes Hidden 
Emperor sucked but the fact it came out in clan specific packs and had 6 
commons 2 uncommons and a rare should have told you that after the first set 
it was shit. i work in a hobby shop i knew it was shit after buying two 
packs(Emerald was pretty cool though)
now as for not trying to get a job there i think its kinda harsh to say since 
they f-bombed up on one product that they are completly out of the running a 
far as jobs go. look at their roleplaying marketing strategem at the moment. 
"ok lets just put adds for it in our three gaming magazines and let those 
other mags plug us for free when they get back from conventions, then we will 
watch as people come back for more gaming goodness."  ok so maybe that wasnt 
what they shot for but it was what happened. reason why all their marketing 
department is plugging right now is poke and magic(and hardly any magic). 
regardless of personal feelings your marketer instinct (i assume its 
developed by now) should be telling you that it would be a wise choice to 
attempt to be employed by them since they control a good 80% of the market 
now. whats left white wolf, the people at pallidium and AEG and pennacle.
 
 <<<ahem> Thank you very much for the tip, I'll look into it. I actually
 had planned on going over to Pennacle (RPGs: Doomtown, 7th Sea, Brave
 New World) but I heard a few months ago that they've been in a
 financial vice and might close up shop in a year or so if things don't
 work out. AEG is too WotC tained according to a good and reliable
 personal source of mine so I guess I have to look into the mainstream
 companies. >>

as far as Pennacle goes they are gonna be dead by the end of business year 
2001(that would be june 2001 people) look at what they have 
accomplished.....i'm still looking. anyways doomtown sucked as a card game, 
its sales hit bottom after a week. brave new world, well we dont even carry 
it i dont think. and then here comes 7th sea. the Roleplaying game had such 
potential, but they killed it with being late with arrivals of the material, 
they killed it with not having 1 big book for all the factions instead of 1 
for each(gee we are still waiting for volume 6). now for the card game... It 
came out and i was insane with greed for it "finally the Rock...er Finally a 
card game with pirates alright" but when i played it, it cntained the oddest 
rules possible like they were made to be not understood. then we get a new 
set everymonth or so ugh people cant buy that many cards. although i liked 
the last chance savior dance they attempted the find the gold thing was cool, 
never did find it though.

o well this one has gone off my original topic enough for one post later
U2R
coleader of the WoS
second gen EOE and damn proud of it
marketing major "you need to buy it you need to buy it"