We're here with Ian Watson, the founder of
Wolf Spoor. Love it or hate it, White Wolf has had a big effect on the game industry, and has had a vast influence over the non-d20 portion of the industry -- and has its toe in the d20 industry as well.
Ian's site is THE place to go to keep up with White Wolf -- we've (shamelessly) quoted his site right here on rpgnews.com many times.
RPGNet: How did the site start?
Ian Watson: The idea started back in 1998 or so, maybe 1999. I do remember
discussing as a more or less fully-formed idea when I was at GenCon in 2000.
Basically, I had been a fan of the nerd news headquarters, slashdot.org, for
years. And I had been a big fan of White Wolf since around 1994 or '95.
But White Wolf's web presence left something to be desired. Even when
updates to the site were fairly timely, developers and authors often
mentioned lots of great stuff in the forums, mailing lists or newsgroups
that never showed up on the front page. So I wanted to do something about
that.
The original idea was to use slashdot's backend code, SLASH, since I
wasn't aware of any alternatives at the time. And, following in the
footsteps of other sites running that code, I was thinking of calling it
slashpaw.org.
Later, as the idea developed some, I found that PostNuke was pretty much
the best solution for me, since I already knew my way around PHP. In May of
2001, I finally kicked myself into action and bought a domain name.
Something that had a nice ring to it, something that would stick in peoples'
minds. I tried out a bunch of ideas, but WolfSpoor was the winning name. I
spent a couple of months doing basic web design, doing some graphics, and
founding the basic skeleton of the site, and then opened about mid-July that
year.
Spoor, by the way, means tracks or traces that an animal leaves,
particularly a wolf. Some people have told me it means poop, which isn't
really the case. Although fecal matter is certainly included as "traces."
The domain name, by the way, came from several places: I wanted a dash in
the middle, to bring to mind the white-wolf.com site. The .org TLD is my
homage to slashdot. And... well, part of the reason I chose "spoor" was
because of moviepoopshoot.com, a parody of aint-it-cool-news.com used in the
movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back."
RPGNet: How long will you continue working on the site? Is there a line or a goal you've set?
Ian Watson: Originally I planned to set up the site, figuring it would become a real
community nexus. Fans would put whatever news they discovered up on the
site, they'd discuss them under each news article... all I'd have to do is
pay to keep the thing active. Things didn't work out that way,
unfortunately. While it's popular, it's not as popular as my admittedly
naive imagination told me it would be. And from working on the site, I've
become pretty good at ferreting out most stuff: one of my other admin,
Craig, catches most of the stuff I miss. I've had several people tell me
that they were about to submit some news, only to find that I already had
it. Oh, well.
As long as the site continues to be fun for me to do, I'll keep doing
it. After that point, I'll pass the torch on to someone else, but that's
not in the forseeable future.
RPGNet: If I were to decide to create a fan site, what advice would you give me?
Ian Watson: Any author will tell you to write about what you know. You have
to be enthusiastic about what it is you're doing, and you have to have the
willpower to keep it up beyond just the first week or two. A lot of
websites (including some of my own) have died as a result of this lack of
effort. The site should also provide something to bring in the fans: while
pages like "this is my Vampire character" are fine, they don't provide a lot
of reason for people to visit. It doesn't hurt to provide people with a
unique service, as well - and that goes for any website you may want to
design.
RPGNet: Has anyone associated "officially" with White Wolf recognized the site in any way?
Ian Watson: That depends what you mean. A lot of the developers stop by. Phil
Boulle gave us a nod in one of his Paw Prints newsletters, and Ethan Skemp
did the same in a forum post. Justin Achilli and Fred Yelk came up here for
a con in May, and said they knew of and really liked the site. People like
Fred, Conrad Hubbard and Brian Glass have, on occasion, slipped me some news
I otherwise wouldn't have gotten, or at least earlier than it would have
shown up on the WW homepage.
However, WolfSpoor hasn't gotten linked from White Wolf's front page or
anything, or gotten mentioned in any book (that I know about!), if that's
what you mean.
RPGNet: If you could be any White Wolf splat, what would it be?
Ian Watson: Tough to say... I identify with most of them in one way or another.
However, a favorite username of mine is "etherlad," and my LiveJournal does sport some very pulp-flavoured icons. So I'd probably have to say Sons
of Ether in Mage, or a mesmerist in Adventure. Mesmerist because I really
dig Trinity's psions, to whom the mesmerists are genetic antecedents. Two
birds with one stone.
RPGNet: What do you think is White Wolf's greatest triumph?
Ian Watson: They're the second highest-selling RPG publisher, and first among
independent d20 publishers. That's not bad.
RPGNet: Fair enough. What do you think was White Wolf's biggest mistake?
Ian Watson: Probably poor marketing of 1997's Trinity RPG (orignally ĈON). I mean,
right now WW is fairly diversified: the World of Darkness, Exalted, Sword &
Sorcery. But back then, White Wolf was practically synonmous with the WoD,
much more so than today. Trinity didn't get much in the way of marketing
and advertisement back then, so far too many people just dismissed it as
"Vampires in space." Aberrant, being tied to Trinity, was also ignored by
most people. Fortunately, Adventure seems to have found a place in the
gaming public's hearts. It's a fantastic setting, and a pity that people
ignored it like they did.
Of course, the Trinity Universe will be getting another chance by being
introduced to d20 fans next spring, which really pleases me.
RPGNet: Speaking of the world of Darkness, what do you think of the whole "End of the World of Darkness" thing and
the upcoming World of Darkness 2.0?
Ian Watson: The Time of Judgment was really really ballsy, but I think it was
something that needed to be done. Every game had its own version of
Apocalypse "just around the corner," and while a lot of companies would keep
that up indefinitely, letting the setting stagnate just so they could
squeeze every last drop out of it, WW had the guts to actually say that the
story was over. Probably most controversial thing they've ever done.
As for World of Darkness 2.0... I can't really comment on that, since no
one really knows much of anything about it yet. I do think it's a good
idea, however: White Wolf is known first and foremost for the World of
Darkness, which they're ending. With all the WoD game lines combined, it's
probably their biggest moneymaker. It'd be just plain foolish to throw that
away. Again, though, it's ballsy: they're taking the chance that people
will like the new WoD as well as they liked the old one. There's a strong
possibility that they won't. For myself, I trust them to continue telling
fantastic stories no matter what the setting. I'll certainly be picking up
the WoD2 stuff.
RPGNet: What other (non-White Wolf) RPGs do you enjoy?
Ian Watson: I unfortunately don't get the chance to game much these days,
ironically. I still play D&D now and again, I wrote a bit for an upcoming
book for the Star Trek RPG, and I'd love to get involved in a game of Star
Wars or Nobilis. There are few games I wouldn't want to play if given the
chance, I don't think.
RPGNet: No time to game... Isn't that how it always is? Well, Ian, do you have any final thoughts for us?
Ian Watson: Thanks to all the fans who've gotten WolfSpoor where it is, and thanks
to other sites like RPGNews.com, who have given us further support.
Stay and school and don't do drugs, kids!
RPGNet: Heh. Right on, then.
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