D&D 5E Rants Regarding the Corporate Castration of our Beloved Hobby

Morrus · Nov 11, 2017

MechaPilot said:
I did not say that. I said that basic necessities cost more here. Most Americans have incomes high enough to be the envy of people in other parts of the world. That's certainly true. However, our expenses are not priced at the same amounts that theirs are. Yes, a minimum wage American earns enough that many people in the world would love to earn that much. But, those same minimum wage Americans have to pay vastly more for transportation, housing, health care, etc. than people do in other parts of the world.

Very many Americans, despite how appealing their income is to people in other parts of the world, are left with little to no disposable income after you subtract the cost of necessary expenses.

My goodness. I don’t know what to say. That’s a most ... unusual view of the world.

Anyway, it’s not something to discuss here. Let’s stay on target, folks. There are plenty of other places to discuss global wealth disparity.

MechaPilot · Nov 11, 2017

Morrus said:
My goodness. I don’t know what to say. That’s a most ... unusual view of the world.

Anyway, it’s not something to discuss here. Let’s stay on target, folks. There are plenty of other places to discuss global wealth disparity.

Fair enough. My apologies.

Mirtek · Nov 11, 2017

Corrosive said:
We earn more than anybody else in the Western world,

Some of the tiny western european states (e.g. Switzerland and Luxembourg) don't agree with that statement at all.

Greg Benage · Nov 11, 2017

EvilCorp gives away the basic rules to its game for free. EvilCorp issues a free license allowing anyone to create and sell derivative work based on their IP. The license is sufficiently open that it spawns a major competitor to their business built on publishing a version of EvilCorp's game (as well as a host of smaller competitors cloning older versions of their game). EvilCorp doubles down and creates a marketplace for anyone to sell their commercial derivative products, and even opens up additional IP for commercial derivative products in this marketplace.

This inevitably leads to complaints about EvilCorp's greed, since they don't quite allow anyone to do absolutely anything they feel like with their IP.

I'd be astonished, except that it's so predictable.

MechaPilot · Nov 11, 2017

Greg Benage said:
EvilCorp gives away the basic rules to its game for free. EvilCorp issues a free license allowing anyone to create and sell derivative work based on their IP. The license is sufficiently open that it spawns a major competitor to their business built on publishing a version of EvilCorp's game (as well as a host of smaller competitors cloning older versions of their game). EvilCorp doubles down and creates a marketplace for anyone to sell their commercial derivative products, and even opens up additional IP for commercial derivative products in this marketplace.

This inevitably leads to complaints about EvilCorp's greed, since they don't quite allow anyone to do absolutely anything they feel like with their IP.

I'd be astonished, except that it's so predictable.

While true, that's only indicative of a small group. For example, I don't think people should be allowed (for their commercial benefit) to do "absolutely anything they feel like" with a company's IP.

Greg Benage · Nov 11, 2017

MechaPilot said:
While true, that's only indicative of a small group. For example, I don't think people should be allowed (for their commercial benefit) to do "absolutely anything they feel like" with a company's IP.

That's cool. I think companies/creators should be able to decide for themselves what people can do with their property, and I think Wizards has been amazingly generous and supportive of the hobby in how they've made these decisions. I have no personal dog in the hunt, but it genuinely irks me when people take that for granted and rail at them when they do exercise really basic ownership rights over their own damn property.

MechaPilot · Nov 11, 2017

Greg Benage said:
That's cool. I think companies/creators should be able to decide for themselves what people can do with their property. . . .

Within reason. Fair use laws need to play a role as well.

Morrus · Nov 11, 2017

Greg Benage said:
That's cool. I think companies/creators should be able to decide for themselves what people can do with their property

To an extent. There are uses which override that, for important reasons. We wouldn’t want MacDonalds preventing me from blogging about my thoughts on their Big Macs, for example.

Greg Benage · Nov 11, 2017

MechaPilot said:
Within reason. Fair use laws need to play a role as well.

Morrus said:
To an extent. There are uses which override that, for important reasons. We wouldn’t want MacDonalds preventing me from blogging about my thoughts on their Big Macs, for example.

Yes, of course. One hundred percent agreed.

(Though McDonald's might be irked at your traditional construction of their trademark. On the other hand, it's not a Big Mc, so maybe it's their own fault.)

Morrus · Nov 11, 2017

Greg Benage said:
Yes, of course. One hundred percent agreed.

(Though McDonald's might be irked at your traditional construction of their trademark. On the other hand, it's not a Big Mc, so maybe it's their own fault.)

To be fair, I eat there about once every 3 years. Their branding isn’t at the forefront of my thoughts.