FWIW
First, to the peroon or persns who mentioned that money should not be a consideration in writing, get a life! Do you work your job for free? If so, you are either a fool or independently wealthy. I am neither. That the worker is worthy of his hire is certainly a truism.
The comment about a "rush" from being published is indicative of a very, very newbie to vocational authorship...
It is also absurd to assert that a published work becomes the property of others. That is a notion that can not be supported in any logical fashion. Intellectual Property and trade marks remain with the owners of such rights. This is quite proper--at least to all persons who believe in the right of private property as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
In regard to payment for creative work, as I see it, many game publishers are taking advantage of creative talent by not adaquately compensating them for their work. As it stands, all I ask is what regular SF & F book authors get for their work--and that isn't Harlan Ellison's $1 per word by a long shot
Gaming is sorely in need of a guild for creative persons, something akin to the SFWA organization.
About what world setting was first for the D&D game, it is Greyhawk. It could be no other, for there was no D&D game until I wrote the material in 1972 and 73--and that's when the basis for the WoG was layed down. Of course there were many worlds of make-believe before that, including REH's Hyborean Age world, JRRT's Middle Earth, but that's beside the point.
As for Kenszer & Company's revision of the World of Greyhawk, David Kenzer has contacted me about participating in the project. I have not yet decided on agreeing to work on it or passing. As it stands I have a very full work schedule, and the number of changes made to the base work are such that the original has been so altered in concept and purpose that I am not sure I can lend anything constructive to the effort.
Of course I designed the Oerth to be open and accommodating, to allow each creative DM using the setting to personalize it to suit the wants and needs of his campaign and player group, so alteration per se. is not a matter of concern to me. The whole pirpose of the world setting was just that, so quantification and over-structuring is a concern. To my thinking, those destroy the purpose of the work. Greyhawk was supposed to be a place where there were always more unanswered questions than there were known facts. A place of mysteries and anomalous things.
So there are my comments regarding this thread. Sorry not to have caught it sooner, but as I said, I am very busy.
Cheerio,
Gary
