7TH SEA Sold To John Wick

After recent acquisitions and changes with Chaosium and White Wolf, the latest change of game rights ownership involves Alderac Entertainment Group selling the rights to the 7th Sea roleplaying game to original designer John Wick (under his John Wick Presents label). Wick was a mainstay of the original development back in 1999. 7th Sea is a kind of exaggerated 17th century Europe.

Keep an eye on sailthe7thsea.com.

[video=youtube;3qJqrSH9keI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJqrSH9keI[/video]
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"AEG is excited to announce that we have entered into a deal with John Wick Presents to sell back the publication rights for the 7th Sea game line. AEG will still retain rights to publish a number of products within that line over the next few years and we are negotiating and planning what that will be but have no announcements at this time.

John Wick was part of the original AEG development crew and we created some awesome worlds together during our first 5 years of business but 7th Sea was his personal passion project and while it benefited from being published at AEG, it was his baby. This deal puts the game the world he loves back in his hands and gives AEG an opportunity to adventure once again on the high seas in one of the most beloved gaming worlds of the last 20 years.

John Zinser, CEO of AEG, is excited for JWP and AEG. “The world of 7th Sea is just too amazing to spend any more time sitting on a shelf and while a deal we announced a month or so ago for that other property we developed has gotten a lot of attention this deal has been in negotiation for much longer. It is just good Karma that 7Th Sea ends up back with it’s creator. We are excited that we get to keep the part of the playground we do best and let JWP start to grow the brand again from the ground up.”

“It’s the game I get asked about most,” John Wick (owner of JWP) said. “More than anything I’ve ever done. I’m very proud of the work that was done, but I’m also very excited to see the game rejuvenated with modern game design and technology.”

“I’m very glad AEG is doing card and board games,” John Wick said. “They’ve proven to be one of the best companies in the world when it comes to those kinds of games. I’m excited to see what they come up with.”

 

[Scorpio616]

This is the same guy who says game balance doesn't matter, that D&D isn't a roleplaying game and his contribution to the hobby is the abomination that is Galaxy XXX which is on the same level as FATAL in all things.

Thanks for the intel.

 

[Giancarlo Borracci]

http://johnwickpresents.com/updates/galaxy-xxx-laws-sausages/

sorry but it's April fools' day. [h=1][/h]

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This is the same guy who says game balance doesn't matter, that D&D isn't a roleplaying game and his contribution to the hobby is the abomination that is Galaxy XXX which is on the same level as FATAL in all things.

I enjoy the roll and keep system, I like the setting of 7th sea, but the fact that this property is back in the hands of John Wick is sad news not good news.

Some links for people to educate themselves about this "game designer".

http://johnwickpresents.com/updates/galaxy-xxx-laws-sausages/

http://johnwickpresents.com/games/game-designs/chess-is-not-an-rpg-the-illusion-of-game-balance/comment-page-1/

Oh and if you want a laugh watch some of his youtube videos here is his channel so you can see and hear the man's own words.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPyPASGalHol_kq8J8ldG7w

Me and some friends watched them as a group one night and did nothing but make fun of him it was good times.

First: I don't really like John Wick. Let's get that out of the way. But I dislike character assassins online even more.

#1: Was Galaxy XXX actually released? I just read that entire article you posted and it was a reasonable discussion of how difficult it is to make a game in that conceptual space. Enough so that he stopped making it, at least as of the end of that article, while re-evaluating how he could execute the concept. What was described there isn't even fractionally as disturbing as FATAL. (EDIT: And like Giancarlo points out, wasn't it an April Fool's piece???)

#2. is the reason John Wick annoys me. I read that article a long time ago and disliked his assertions. However, it does not negate his prior works (he did a great job on 7th Sea).

#3. My experience with John's videos is that he is typical of a pretty large chunk of the gamer community: a bit over-obsessed with analyzing this hobby, to the detriment of a reality check at times. Not nearly enough time to parse out which videos brought you and your merry friends to derisive laughter but maybe you could post specific links? I'm not saying that it's unjustified....I have found pretty much Zero videos about RPGs on Youtube to be anything I want to connect with....but if your goal is mockery of someone who is honestly fairly typical of the average over-obsessed gamer personality then I'm just not sure why you're here.

EDIT 2: Actually, on reflection I'll just state that I suppose it's a non-issue, but I think I only really took umbrage because I dislike efforts to convince people that a person's entire body of work is negated by portions of it, their personality, or (insert here). 7th Sea doesn't stop being a decent system just because you dislike John Wick. But....like I said, I am not a fan of his either, but my dismissiveness of him isn't really any better than your mockery of him.

 

[Inglorin]

And then he did the fabulous Houses of the Blooded. This excuses nearly any "wrong" idea he had about D&D (which later, he explained in less glaring words, in a discussion with Zak S.)

 

[JeffB]

IDK him from Adam, but frankly, I think he is on the money with his "Chess" blog post. You can play any version of D&D just like a boardgame. I have unfortunately experienced it many times, and it drives me crazy. It's a player issue , but the D&D system -all versions- does precious little to help roleplaying/story-usually it's just DM advice.

And this is why as I have aged, games like DungeonWorld, or HeroQuest are far more my thing, and D&D-any version, is tougher for me to enjoy. In fact It feels like a chore. I guess 37 years of the S.O.S. (D&D ) has done that to me.

 

[darjr]

I don't have any I'll will for John Wick, but his explanation in that video didn't help much.

I am however very grateful he had that debate. I came away with some very cool epiphanies about the fluff really being a close partner to the rules.

 

[Paraxis]

sorry but it's April fools' day. [h=1][/h]

#1: Was Galaxy XXX actually released? I just read that entire article you posted and it was a reasonable discussion of how difficult it is to make a game in that conceptual space. Enough so that he stopped making it, at least as of the end of that article, while re-evaluating how he could execute the concept. What was described there isn't even fractionally as disturbing as FATAL. (EDIT: And like Giancarlo points out, wasn't it an April Fool's piece???)

There are multiple articles about this game not just an April Fools post on his blog.

Here is the one where you can download a "69" page pdf of a preview of the game. http://johnwickpresents.com/games/galaxy-xxx-sneak-peek/

Maybe it was a joke he took to far, but it is a horrible disgusting game, for example successes on rolls are referred to as "Bangs", like you roll your dice pool and you need 4 bangs to complete that task.

It is childish and juvenile, and this guy shouldn't be in charge of anything imo.

 

[darjr]

Congrats to John on getting the rights. Here's to seeing some kicking cool stuff.

 

[RevTurkey]

....why is sex in games (and society to some degree) seen as a terrible thing to behold when violence is the cornerstone around which many (most) are built?

I don't know much about JW and his games hold no interest to me but I think the fact he is tinkering with some leftfield game ideas is not really so bad. He seems pretty clear that he is not trying to encourage sexual violence, just trying to recreate films like Barbarella which has it's tongue firmly in it's cheek which is where I suspect Mr.Wick is putting his too.

From what I saw of 7th Sea it looked like a game I could enjoy and I never got to play it.

 

[Mistwell]

John Wick talks about the Chess article here, in a conversation with Zak S. think it's a really good, interesting conversation, but whether D&D is a role playing game or a war game, and what those terms mean.