Corporate Takeover

Schnevets

That fiendish Kenyan socialist Barack Obama just gave you permission to temporarily take over any company. All you have to do is march up to the offices and show them a slip of paper, and you have complete control for just one year. Any logistics will be taken care of, you're just an idea man with complete control. What do you take over? Do you aim big, or do something on a smaller scale? Do you sabotage the company for ethical reasons/personal profit/teh lulz?

Apreche

Apple. Everything open, no other changes. Easy as that.

Schnevets

This started from a thread on a different about taking over Wizards of the Coast. I said slow down the number of releases for 4th edition and make a new rule set, whose rulebook would only be about 20-50 pages, and would only contain the essentials (not even weapon stats or classes). Call it something that doesn't have D&D in the title (I called it dLite), and then spend some money getting rights to release licensed products (Things like Harry Potter, Halo, and Naruto). If all goes well, I'll hopefully addict a bunch of unsuspecting kiddies on Role Playing games for life.

...I'll probably write a more idealistic and exciting scheme later...

TheWhaleShark

That fiendish Kenyan socialist Barack Obama just gave you permission to temporarily take over any company. All you have to do is march up to the offices and show them a slip of paper, and you have complete control for just one year. Any logistics will be taken care of, you're just an idea man with complete control. What do you take over? Do you aim big, or do something on a smaller scale? Do you sabotage the company for ethical reasons/personal profit/teh lulz?

Anheuser-Busch, and force everyone to cope with real beer.

Or I'd take over PETA and destroy it from within.

Cremlian

This started from a thread on a different about taking over Wizards of the Coast. I said slow down the number of releases for 4th edition and make a new rule set, whose rulebook would only be about 20-50 pages, and would only contain the essentials (not even weapon stats or classes). Call it something that doesn't have D&D; in the title (I called it dLite), and then spend some money getting rights to release licensed products (Things like Harry Potter, Halo, and Naruto). If all goes well, I'll hopefully addict a bunch of unsuspecting kiddies on Role Playing games for life.

I would discontinue 4th edition and release D&D; the burning wheel addition.

Apreche

D&D; the burning wheel addition.

How are you going to add Burning Wheel to D&D;?

I would actually hire Luke and co. to make a brand new game. I would call it D&D;, no edition. Just D&D.; It would be a handful of books, five max. They would all be released at once, in a set. No more books would be released ever. It would just be those forever and ever. We would release a beta set, so the final set would not even have errata.

I would also change Money: The Wasting to be more like Dominion. No more starters and boosters. You buy a set. All the sets are the same. Every player will buy one copy of each set. People will be able to make any deck of some minimum size using any sets. The way to impose limits is that you can't use the same set more than once. So if there's only one Shivan Dragon in the set, you can't go buy a second copy of the same set and use two. That's cheating. A number in the corner of the card will indicate the limit of how many you can have in your deck, just in case. There will always be one foundation set on sale that includes 20 of each land, so land won't be an issue anymore. Think of all the wasted land out there. Such a waste of paper.

Also, one major problem with M:TG is that because they want it to be backwards compatible with all their cards throughout history, they have never changed the size, shape, or art on the back of the cards since a long long time ago. I would design a new back for the new cards that is awesome, and I would print them the same way actual playing cards are printed with the plasticy-ness. That would make for much better shuffling and holding experience. Not sure why CCGs don't do this already.

For the rest of their stuff, whatever.

...

Take over The Mint and destroy all money I can. See what happens.

Cremlian

I would actually hire Luke and co. to make a brand new game. I would call it D&D;, no edition. Just D&D.; It would be a handful of books, five max. They would all be released at once, in a set. No more books would be released ever. It would just be those forever and ever. We would release a beta set, so the final set would not even have errata

obviously it would just be burning wheel but with the name recognition that D&D; has :-p

WindUpBird

Either open Apple or redirect 100% of Exxon Mobil's profits into the establishment of new, clean energy sources across the country.

Apsup

I would discontinue 4th edition and release D&D; the burning wheel addition.

To this and to the all Burning Wheel/D&D; comments below this one (I'm looking at you Apreche).
Why would you want to take a game away to get another Burning Wheel, it already exists and I'm sure Luke will make new games in the future. I'm fan of inde rpg;s too, but I also respect those who like to play D&D; as it is. I'm quite sure that there even exists players who play both of those games, so why take one game from them.

Apreche

Why would you want to take a game away to get another Burning Wheel, it already exists and I'm sure Luke will make new games in the future. I'm fan of inde rpg;s too, but I also respect those who like to play D&D; as it is. I'm quite sure that there even exists players who play both of those games, so why take one game from them.

First of all, I don't want to take a game away from anybody. I didn't say just to take Burning Wheel and replace D+D with it. I said to make a brand new game that is better than D+D and make it the new D+D. This new game will probably have many indy RPG aspects, but it won't be Burning Wheel.

Also, how does it take a game away from anybody? Want to play old D+D? It's still out there. Be my guest. Go and play it. How does making a 5th edition that doesn't suck take away editions 1-4?

Cremlian

To this and to the all Burning Wheel/D&D; comments below this one (I'm looking at you Apreche).

hey don't get me wrong I love 1-3 of the editions of D&D;.

Churba

Complete control, you say?

Piece of piss. I'd take over the largest, most secure corporation I could find - Microsoft, Apple, ExxonMobil, whatever - and then Immediately put myself in complete control of the company for as long as it takes to spin off an extremely lucrative side company with no specific field - Call it CHI for now, Churba Heavy Industries - which I would be given complete ownership over, give it a bunch of company property - Patents, IP control, so on, then streamline the practices of the larger company, see what changes I could make there to keep my little scheme from being harmed while also benefiting the business of the larger company and trying to get the whole thing to run as best I can, paying myself a particularly generous salary all the while, as long as it didn't disadvantage the average employee of the company, and then, on the final days of that year, award My spin-off company CHI a large portion of stock of the parent company(if possible), sort it out so that it's an extremely bad idea for the parent company or any of it's smaller satellites to try and attack or try and crush out CHI and then sever all of it's ties to the parent company.

Go about running my brand new, large, and surprisingly powerful corporation.

D&D? Burning wheel? Pffft. Greasy Kid's stuff. If I want to make changes to D&D, I'd just buy wizards of the coast using the Larger corporation's money, and award it to CHI, proceed to tinker how I pleased.

trogdor9

Churba, I have a feeling that wishing for more wishes kind of defeats the purpose of the discussion. :P

Omnutia

Yoshinoya.. and then export it as healthy food.

Churba

Churba, I have a feeling that wishing for more wishes kind of defeats the purpose of the discussion. :P

Then they should have been more specific. Sabotaging the company is clearly a possibility, as noted in the original post., and I'm pretty sure that starting another company purely for myself with the company's resources counts as sabotage, though admittedly, not severe enough to kill the company, just enough to ensure my company is a success. And there is no rule against Taking control of the company for longer, and the rules do give you complete control, which means you have enough control to extend your tenure.

I might be dumber than a sack of hammers, but I'm cunning enough to make up for it.

Apreche

Actually, I changed my mind. Taking over Apple and opening it is too easy. That's like using the cheat menu in Civ 2. Here's a better idea.

Take over Sony. That's right, Sony. Then what I would do is compete with Apple. The challenge of trying to rebuild and rework and beat Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. at their own games would be so worth it. If I won, it would be oh so much sweeter.

It would be really easy to start, too. They've got all the tools and resources needed to win, they just have huge cultural and organizational issues. Imagine if all the different divisions at Sony actually worked together with some sort of unified strategy, instead of working apart, and sometimes against, each other. They've got everything from Playstation to Sony Pictures to Sony Ericsson.

I could start by reducing the number of models in each product line. Fewer higher quality products. Then I would get all sorts of Amazing Japanese designers to create a brand new unified Sony industrial design. I would have the software divisions create a unified platform so all Sony products talked to each other and unlocked amazing potential, such that someone who used all Sony products would unlock amazing integration features.

I would still remove stupid DRM policies and open everything up. Presented with amazing hardware of all varieties on a unified open software platform, developers would jump on board the new Sony.

WindUpBird

Berkshire Hathaway. Slowly build a keiretsu, leading to Wub Heavy Industries. Use my massive holdings to manipulate the market into funneling money into WHI, and from there into an offshoot, Hephaestus Energy Forge. Spend all money moving into HEF on building cheap, immensely efficient liquid-fluorine thorium reactors nationwide. Slowly make the reactors modular. Release detailed, unpatented schematics to all nations after a sufficient amount of money has been made and enough places rely on HEF for power. Use HEF profits to fund Yggdrasil Emergent Technologies, a company devoted to carbon sequestering, vert farming, and geoengineering.

It is possible. You could do it, if you were selfless.

Rym

Can it be a government owned, funded, or operated company/department?

I would take over Amtrak, force eminent domain where necessary, and build high-speed rail links between every major city on the eastern seaboard. To fund it, I would shut down all subsidized rail routes and use the profits from the very lucrative existing lines in the northeast.

Victor Frost

Can it be a government owned, funded, or operated company/department?

I would take over Amtrak, force eminent domain where necessary, and build high-speed rail links between every major city on the eastern seaboard. To fund it, I would shut down all subsidized rail routes and use the profits from the very lucrative existing lines in the northeast.

Don't forget to have an ultra-high-speed rail built to connect eastern cities with major middle-US and West coast cities.

lackofcheese

But why would anyone want to leave The City?

Victor Frost

But why would anyone want to leave The City?

I meant for the rail to connect the major cities in those regions. Detroit, Houston, las vegas, Los angeles, sanfrancisco, sacramento, mountain view, Seattle, etc.

Rym

Don't forget to have an ultra-high-speed rail built to connect eastern cities with major middle-US and West coast cities.

There's no reason to do this elsewhere: the population density and commerce just don't justify it, and you really should fly if you're going more than a few hundred miles. I don't believe there is a place for passenger rail service over long distances (more than 600 or so miles per link).

Churba

I meant for the rail to connect the major cities in those regions. Detroit, Houston, las vegas, Los angeles, sanfrancisco, sacramento, mountain view, Seattle, etc.

You're saying that there are other "Cities"? You're clearly delusional.

Nuri

Can it be a government owned, funded, or operated company/department?

I would take over Amtrak, force eminent domain where necessary, and build high-speed rail links between every major city on the eastern seaboard. To fund it, I would shut down all subsidized rail routes and use the profits from the very lucrative existing lines in the northeast.

Um... As far as I know, Amtrak is a private company. It doesn't have the power of eminent domain. Only the government can do that. Eminent domain is for public uses.

Smooth-god

Well if Rym is going to make (relatively) short distance rail transportation more efficient, why not make long distance flight transportation equally efficient?

The idea is, instead of having the super large jets that seat hundreds of people and then having them fly indirect routes with layovers and all that good stuff, have smaller, less expensive, more "comfortable" planes that are built for fuel efficiency fly direct flights. I've never flown anywhere personally, but this sounds good in theory. However, the larger planes may still be needed for longer/transcontinental flights.

I read a few months ago that Honda is trying to do something like this with their new plane.

Victor Frost

Don't forget to have an ultra-high-speed rail built to connect eastern cities with major middle-US and West coast cities.

There's no reason to do this elsewhere: the population density and commerce just don't justify it, and you really should fly if you're going more than a few hundred miles. I don't believe there is a place for passenger rail service over long distances (more than 600 or so miles per link).

But-but, the romance of a train ride... Besides, if theres no rails, how can there be a Railtracer?

WindUpBird

Don't forget to have an ultra-high-speed rail built to connect eastern cities with major middle-US and West coast cities.

There's no reason to do this elsewhere: the population density and commerce just don't justify it, and you really should fly if you're going more than a few hundred miles. I don't believe there is a place for passenger rail service over long distances (more than 600 or so miles per link).

Cross-country links to other main cities are essential. The objective is to cut down on fossil fuel usage; the more trains you have, the more precious, precious oil we save.

Rym

The idea is, instead of having the super large jets that seat hundreds of people and then having them fly indirect routes with layovers and all that good stuff, have smaller, less expensive, more "comfortable" planes that are built for fuel efficiency fly direct flights. I've never flown anywhere personally, but this sounds good in theory. However, the larger planes may still be needed for longer/transcontinental flights.

That's a terrible idea for too many reasons to get into here.

Cross-country links to other main cities are essential. The objective is to cut down on fossil fuel usage; the more trains you have, the more precious, precious oil we save.

Few people would pay the actual cost of rail travel over such a long distance. For freight: sure. For passengers, flying is still better. The maintenance on long-distance high-speed tracks alone would be staggering.

The goal of my eastern seaboard plan is simply to make it faster and easier to take an efficient train from, say, Boston to New York, rather than fly. Currently, flying is not substantially more expensive than Amtrak.

Subways and light rail for the short-haul (in dense cities and their suburbs), high-speed rail for the mid-haul, and planes for the long-haul. Simple.

As far as I know, Amtrak is a private company. It doesn't have the power of eminent domain. Only the government can do that. Eminent domain is for public uses.

Yes. I'd have to force the issue somehow. But with the monies I'd save from shutting down the subsidized infrastructure, I'm sure I could bribe enough politicians to get what I wanted.

Churba

That's a terrible idea for too many reasons to get into here.

I would be fascinated to know why, Partially to see where your idea lines up with mine(as I agree with your conclusion), Partially to see how you arrived at that conclusion, and of course, partially to see if you are getting any bits wrong.

AtheriShadow

Perhaps take over Fox News and forbid them to say anything that cannot be directly backed up with evidence. Of course this could go badly since they'd then point at the paper I used to take over with Obama's signature on it and say "See?"
Does this count as violating the first amendment because the takeover paper came from the government or does it become a private issue the second I am in control?