Author: Sam Chupp (---.204.110)
Date: 03-28-2002 06:46
Yeah, what you said.
I myself had a particularly ego-crushing "fall from grace." During the time I worked for White Wolf, I was basically treated like a minor rock star. I went to conventions, flew to Canada and Ireland, enjoyed the sincere appreciation of the fans. I would sit and listen for hours to other people's gaming stories, and I would have folks *beg* me to tell them something, some secret, some insider knowledge that I had to give. I got a lot of attention and I was getting paid to do it, getting paid to write, to design, to play and run games. I was hanging out with people whose name I knew previously only as a fan, industry insiders with pull and clout who could make or break a project with a word.
This was heady stuff. Certainly, I was a legend in my own mind. But ultimately, it really didn't mean a thing in the overall scheme of the universe.
Once I got terminal writer's block and was fired from White Wolf, all of those "friends", those "industry contacts," all that "insider information" availed me nothing. My fame dried up like the dew on the grass and that was that - time to get a real job, get into the daily grind.
So, a cautionary tale to you young Industry Starlets out there: the fame, the name recognition doesn't last. Heck, even the credits on the books that I worked on are being slowly but surely deleted as new editions come out that conveniently leave off the names of the people who originated the ideas and wrote the original words that have been merely edited or re-pasted-up and sold as a "3rd or 4th edition."
Still, this is how it should be. I was "too big for my britches" as my dear grandma would've said - life taught me another way to be. And Gaming books are not "War and Peace" - they're entertainments. Fame is fleeting - the true value of life is not in what you once did, but how you live your life now, what you do with what you have, and how you relate to others.
When I'm lying in my hospice bed, I want to know that I am leaving behind a legacy of wonderful friends, positive contributions to my community, and good kids who will themselves go on to rear good children if they so choose. That will be my truest success.
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