From: [p--rt--l] at [io.com] (paolo bertiglia)
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf,rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: An Open Letter from Stephan Wieck, President:White Wolf, Inc.
Date: 4 Aug 1994 10:45:50 GMT

[r--ab--h] at [netcom.com] wrote:
: Okay, here is my official response to Steve Jackson's message 
: concerning the relationship between SJGames and White Wolf.

: While Steve Jackson's message seemed to be directed at both 
: myself and at the gaming public, I would like to direct my response 
: only to those of you in the gaming public who care enough about 
: the situation to be reading the internet traffic that has resulted from 
: Steve Jackson's message. I apologize that the souring of the 
: relationship between SJGames and White Wolf has been made 
: public; I'm sure that you all have more positive things to read about 
: or do. Publicly airing the business problems between companies or 
: the relationship problems between individuals only serves to detract 
: from our hobby.

: Nevertheless, I feel compelled for basic PR reasons to put forth 
: something in way of an answer to Steve Jackson's message:

: First of all, I would like to offer some defense of my personal 
: character, since Steve Jackson chose to attack it in his message. By 
: way of defense, I would simply ask that people look around the 
: industry and talk to people who have dealt with me personally. Talk 
: to distributors, retailers, gamers, or other companies like FASA or 
: WOTC and ask them what they think of my character and my sense 
: of fairness and honesty. More importantly, you could also talk to 
: the people at White Wolf who work for me. Ask them 
: confidentially what they honestly think of me.

: I will let that be my character defense.

: I cannot help but add the request that you do the same inquiries 
: about Steve Jackson. Talk to people whose works he has previously 
: licensed for GURPs and see how many of them are happy. Are the 
: French creators of In Nomine happy with Steve Jackson? Is Ral 
: Partha happy with their business dealings with Steve Jackson? Talk 
: to distributors and other people in the industry, talk to his 
: employees confidentially.

: Form your own opinions of Steve Jackson and myself. Please don't 
: rely on what Mr. Jackson says about me to form your opinions of 
: my character or the character the other thirty-five people who work 
: at White Wolf, such as Phil Brucato, our Mage Developer who has 
: behaved admirably throughout this situation.

: I would like to add on the question of character, that I do not have a 
: problem with many of the people who work at Steve Jackson 
: games. Particularly, Jeff Koke and Derek Pearcy have always 
: conducted themselves professionally and honestly when I have had 
: occasion to speak with them or deal with them directly.

: Second, I would like to comment briefly on the some of the specific 
: points in Steve Jackson's message.

: I did not, nor would I ever condemn the character of a former White 
: Wolf employee. I did suggest that Steve Jackson take with a grain 
: of salt anything he may hear from a former employee who may 
: have left with bad feelings towards myself or White Wolf. 
: However, the few people who have left or been asked to leave 
: White Wolf, I still hold in high regard, no matter what the reason 
: they are no longer with White Wolf. I have even put in positive 
: words on their behalf when they interviewed with other gaming 
: companies (I would say something more here, but I won't. Ask me 
: in e-mail).

: Steve Jackson did specifically call me a liar, and yes I did take great 
: offense to that and found it to be extremely unprofessional and 
: counterproductive to a good business relationship. On top of all the 
: other difficulties that we had over our companies' relationship, I 
: considered name-calling to be the final signal that ended any chance 
: of the relationship being repaired.

: I did not respond to Steve Jackson's fax because I had previously 
: told him that I was not interested in devoting more time to 
: clarifying our concerns over the Mage manuscript. I felt that several 
: hours of Phil Brucato's time reading the manuscript, Phil's response 
: letter to SJGames, and Phil's and my subsequent hours of telephone 
: discussions with Steve Jackson were more than sufficient to clarify 
: our concerns over SJGames republishing our manuscript. I do feel I 
: have more important and more positive things to pursue with my 
: time than yet again repeating our position to Steve Jackson for the 
: twentieth time.

: Finally, I do not want to get into a battle of "who said what" or 
: "who did what" over the internet, therefore I will not air White 
: Wolf's side of the story on all of these issues, and even if Steve 
: Jackson chooses to respond to my message here, I will not be airing 
: anymore messages on this subject over the internet for now. Also 
: for legal and professional reasons, I have asked the staff at White 
: Wolf to confine their statements on this subject to a bare minimum.

: Certainly, we will be doing everything possible and reasonable to 
: end our business relationship with Steve Jackson Games. I have no 
: desire to do business with someone who launches public attacks 
: against me or the company that I am proud to be part of. 
: Undoubtedly, Steve Jackson will try to build a public relations front 
: to the effect that "Big bad White Wolf is trying to squash poor us". I 
: just ask you all to think long and hard before you allow Steve 
: Jackson to position himself as a martyr in your minds.

: I apologize to all of the people who play GURPs and have enjoyed 
: the past World of Darkness translation products. I will shamelessly 
: recommend to you that you try our own books if you are so 
: inclined. We are very proud of what we publish; otherwise we 
: wouldn't be doing it.

: Thanks,
: Stephan Wieck
: President
: White Wolf
: -- 
: Sam Chupp ([r--ab--h] at [netcom.com], [t--ea--r] at [aol.com]) 
: White Wolf Game Studio                                          404-292-1819
: Internet Representative / Assistant Creative Director / Playtest Coordinator
: Try The Storyteller's Circle, White Wolf's MUSH: draco.unm.edu 6666