<$BlogRSDURL$>

Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

West End Games passes 

For historical reasons I note what may be the final passing of West End Games, which in its first incarnation in the 1980s published the original editions of PARANOIA. That version of West End ceased most operations in the mid-1990s and finally (as part of its parent company, Bucci Retail Group) declared bankruptcy in 1998. Eventually the rights to PARANOIA returned to the game's original designers, Dan Gelber, Greg Costikyan, and Eric Goldberg. They later licensed Mongoose Publishing to produce the current (2004) edition.

After the bankruptcy, West End (minus PARANOIA) changed hands a couple of times. The current owner, Eric J. Gibson, has struggled for some years. After an extended flamewar on the RPG.net forum, Gibson bade farewell to the roleplaying field. On the West End forum, he says he is now taking bids for individual properties. Though I haven't seen a formal list yet, I presume these properties include Torg, the D6 and Masterbook Systems, and the unquestioned prize of West End's current line, Junta. On another RPG.net forum thread, interested fans are discussing the prospects and wisdom of bidding.

Whether or not the West End name will persist remains unclear.
Posted by: Allen Varney / 6:25 PM

Comments: Post a Comment

Copyright © 2004-2013 by Greg Costikyan and Eric Goldberg. All your rights are belong to us. No bloody Creative Commons here! Bwahahaha!
No, seriously. If you make non-commercial use of stuff here, that's fine, but we reserve all commercial rights, and all rights to prepare derivative material on things posted here. In addition, posters of comments must be aware that we reserve the right to use whatever material they post here, and/or derivative works therefrom, in PARANOIA, supplementary products, licensed products, or derivative work, without any compensation whatever, for all time to come and throughout this universe and any alternate universes that may be discovered. At our discretion, and without obligation, we may, if it strikes our fancy, make a good faith effort to credit you for stuff we use, but we can't promise it won't slip our minds, in the hurly-burly of meeting deadlines. (Actually, we intend to do that, but it's possible we'll screw up.) By posting comments, you grant us a non-revocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use whatever you post, in whatsoever fashion we deem useful, here or in any other forum, in PARANOIA or in any and all future products, including but not limited to derivative works, and specifically but not exclusively including the microbrewery beer, ale and porter; salty and sugary snack; and tattoo design rights deriving therefrom. Woohoo! Is that enough legalese for you? The Computer is Your Friend.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?