Important! Interview opportunity - what do you want to know about the GSL?

[Mike_Lescault]

Mike posted this on April 24. So we know it wasn't done between 4/21-4/25 (obviously). It's not outside of the realm of possibility that it won't be ready next week either. That would be between 4/28 and 5/2. So that gets us through Friday.

He has not said that it won't be available the week of 5/5. So, I'm hopeful we'll see it by then.

--G

It always pays to hedge your bets when predicting the date of major announcements, since it's really hard to know when someone might step forward and say, "Hold on, let me make sure I'm on board with this before you say that." Or someone calls in sick. Or an emergency comes up that cancels a meeting, etc. I've seen this happen many many times in my *cough*thirteen*cough* years working in the game industry, so please don't read into my words of caution as any indication of anything to do with the GSL. I just like to play it safe with announcements in general, so we don't build any expectations we might not be able to meet.

-Mike

 

[Goobermunch]

It always pays to hedge your bets when predicting the date of major announcements, since it's really hard to know when someone might step forward and say, "Hold on, let me make sure I'm on board with this before you say that." Or someone calls in sick. Or an emergency comes up that cancels a meeting, etc. I've seen this happen many many times in my *cough*thirteen*cough* years working in the game industry, so please don't read into my words of caution as any indication of anything to do with the GSL. I just like to play it safe with announcements in general, so we don't build any expectations we might not be able to meet.

-Mike

So are you suggesting we might not see the response to the questions by 5/5? Because that might make people nervous about whether we're going to see them before June 6. Having dealt with similar kinds of issues in my own professional life, I know that things come up, and schedules shift. However, given the level of paranoia regarding the announcement, it might be a good idea to at least provide some expectation moderating information if you've got it (and are able to share).

--G

 

[Mike_Lescault]

So are you suggesting we might not see the response to the questions by 5/5?

No, not at all. =)

 

[Brown Jenkin]

My own personal take which is nothing more than a gut feeling, is that if we don't see answers by 5/5, that means that the firestorm over this has caused them to send it back to legal and we won't hear anything else until 6/6 at the earliest.

 

[Voadam]

No, not at all. =)

Heh.

 

[Starman]

I just like to play it safe with announcements in general, so we don't build any expectations we might not be able to meet.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people's expectations have already been let down with the whole GSL mess.

 

[Arrond Hess]

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people's expectations have already been let down with the whole GSL mess.

QFT

 

[Greylock]

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people's expectations have already been let down with the whole GSL mess.

Frankly, WotC has lost a number of people I know over this. While folks may not think that the third parties are all that meaningful, what with all the people around ENWorld these days saying they never saw any benefit from them, many of them command fantastic loyalty from people I know, and myself. This... people have taken it poorly. Friends, fellow gamers, and at least two shopkeepers I talk to.

 

[smetzger]

It always pays to hedge your bets when predicting the date of major announcements, since it's really hard to know when someone might step forward and say, "Hold on, let me make sure I'm on board with this before you say that." Or someone calls in sick. Or an emergency comes up that cancels a meeting, etc. I've seen this happen many many times in my *cough*thirteen*cough* years working in the game industry, so please don't read into my words of caution as any indication of anything to do with the GSL. I just like to play it safe with announcements in general, so we don't build any expectations we might not be able to meet.

-Mike

I understand the need to "hedge your bets when predicting the date of major announcements".
However, you are doing a poor job in communicating with the community.

You should be at least be posting once a week saying something like "We are not quite ready to answer your questions, we hope to be ready soon. I will post again on such and such date and give you an update."

If you are going back to the drawing board I would also emplore you to reconsider the software angle. A lot of 3pp filled the devoid hole for software needed for 3.0/3.5. When you pulled the plug on d20 software products it wasn't such a big deal, because we had the OGL to drop back to. Take an honest look at your software you have in dev. Is that going to be completely ready to meet all needs on June 6th? How about July 6? How about Dec 6? I think you are going to need some extra help in this area.

 

[BSF]

Frankly, WotC has lost a number of people I know over this. While folks may not think that the third parties are all that meaningful, what with all the people around ENWorld these days saying they never saw any benefit from them, many of them command fantastic loyalty from people I know, and myself. This... people have taken it poorly. Friends, fellow gamers, and at least two shopkeepers I talk to.

It has definitely impacted my enthusiasm. There were just too many ideas and products that came out from third parties that enhanced my game for me not to feel passionately about this. At one point, I was running a game with 8 players and only 1/4 of the PCs were built using core classes. My current campaign is, perhaps, even more divergent from the core rules. The third party publishers have done so much to enhance my games!

And this isn't a direct knock on WotC. Some of the third party products are niche products. The market they are appealing to is too small to be a good investment for a company such as WotC.

I am hoping that WotC can get the GSL sorted out soon.