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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1138165" data-attributes="member: 177">I'm going to approach this in reverse order...I don't think you're wrong about how the changes work.  If the BoEF had come out before the changes, it seems that WotC could have ordered a destruction of the product.So, would beating the deadline have served any purpose for Valar?  Perhaps.  The stuff I've seen coming from AV about this suggest that economic welfare of Valar was secondary to the strategic and moral/ethical purposes.Folks around here like to paint a picture of WotC as evil.  However, it seems to me that the evidence shows them having a pretty darned good record of working with third party publisers in general, and their former employees especially.  So, given that history of playing nice, we must ask - if AV had gotten the BoEF out before the license change, would WotC have put out the changes and then ordered the product's destruction, knowing that Valar is small and new and would take a big hit from the loss?  Maybe, and maybe not.  Fan PR isn't really a big deal, as only a few of the millions of gamers out there would hear about this. But they'd be taking action against a former employee.  Retroactive action, which is kind of petty.  That can't feel really great to them personally, and it would harm their ability to deal with other third-party people in the future (because they'd forevermore be worried about license issues), which doesn't seem to be in WotC's interest.So, AV dislikes the changes with a passion.  He tries and fails to stop them fro the inside, and finally decides to try to say, "Fine, if you want to implement these changes, you'll have to go through me to do it." If he had managed to get the book out early, he couldn't lose the whole deal.  If WotC backs down, he wins on all fronts.  He keeps the d20 logo on his product, and effectively weakens WotC's clout concerning enforcing that part of the license.  If WotC doesn't back down, AV takes an economic hit, but WotC loses face as a company that plays nice with others.  That scores at least a moral victory for AV.This all doesn't work if he doesn't get the book out early enough.  If the license changes come out first, then WotC is on the moral high-ground of having the policy there in plain view before the BoEF's release.</blockquote>

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