A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.

-- Jim Bishop

A good critic ... describes his adventures among masterpieces.

-- Anatole France

This is a tirade.

It all started when John Zinser came back from Origins with stories of people complaining that our reviews were "too complimentary." We never panned anybody. Of course, my wiseacre answer would have been "I suppose we'll start with your latest release, right?" But it is a valid complaint, especially if you don't understand our review policy.

It's true that if you read SHADIS, there isn't a single bad review in the lot. That's because we think its better to show off the good things the people of the industry are doing rather than make value judgments about the products we didn't like.

In short, if we don't have anything good to say, we'll keep our mouths shut. We know how much work people put into a role-playing product. A lot of those people have families to support. A lot of those people are gambling with their lives to live out the dream of making a living in the roleplaying industry.

Why should you, me, or anyone else condemn someone else's realized dream? It's unkind, unfair and just plain mean. If anything in this world is true, it's that it's easy to complain and a pain in the ass to create.

It's also pretty hard to have an attitude that allows you to recognize when other people do something great. We have quite a team here at AEG, and each of us is pretty good at what we do. I team a lot from my co-workers, all of whom are skilled artisans in their own right.

By just watching them work, I learn that sometimes you have to let your ego down a bit to recognize someone else's talent and appreciate it for what it is. That's hard for a lot of people to do; heck, it was hard for me to do; but like I said, I've learned a lot from doing it.

I guess the real reason I'm writing this is because I'm more guilty of the crime than anyone else in the office. I hold a lot of things close to my heart, and when I see someone presenting something I adore with even an ounce of less respect than I think it deserves, I go off the deep end. It's not a pretty sight. You know, I could have used this space to complain about a lot of things in the gaming industry that get my goat (the disrespect card gamers get, the demise of GDW, the slow fade of strategy games, the Sci-Fi Channel), but maybe I'll just take a deep breath ... let it go ... and shut the hell up.