GSL questions for Scott Rouse and Mike Lescault

[Eridanis]

Hossrex - posters at ENworld are entitled to their opinions, as long as they are couched in polite terms. Whether you agree with someone or not, please treat them with courtesy. The FAQ page can help if you have questions, or feel free to email me directly.

 

[carmachu]

I was a bit grouchy today, and it came through in my posts. I posted some thoughts I was having. But that shouldnt change the fact that I trust the people at Wizards to do this and to do it right. I know Linae and Scott are good people. I know this will get ironed out.

I keep hearing that from you and others, adn I'll take your word for it. But perhaps you're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking/saying you trust the folks at WotC, do you trust Hasbro to come through? Ultimately they pull the strings.

 

[carmachu]

Take Games Workshop for example. They are a very successful company that makes business decisions that make perfect business sense, they just end up destroying whole swaves of the RPG market. They have just completely cut the most successful RPG of this year (at least in the UK it was outselling D&D 4:1) Dark Heresy because it doesn't fit in with their short-term business plans anymore. I see the same one day happening to D&D after they have alienated so many of us that no-one buys it anymore.

Games workshop is a very bad example. They've been tanking the last several years(ie- sales have been going down each year iwth an exception in '04, according to their public records), their stock has tanked badly, and have bad several business decisions that might NOT make perfect business sense at all.

Thats not including Dark Heresy....which has been liscenses/picked up by another party I believe....

You might want another example.

 

[Orcus]

I keep hearing that from you and others, adn I'll take your word for it. But perhaps you're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking/saying you trust the folks at WotC, do you trust Hasbro to come through? Ultimately they pull the strings.

Yes, I do. Good question. And I guess we'll just see whether or not my faith is well placed or not. I still think it is primarily a Wizards/D&D question. I dont think the dreaded "Hasbro suits" are as involved as people like to speculate. That is just my feeling from my conversations with people. I have no inside info on that.

Clark

 

[Orcus]

Oh, I totally agree.

1. They'll make sure and delay the "closed" announcement till after June (because they want to sell books to people that wouldn't buy if they heard "closed" but will give in when it's "undefined".

2. They'll wait till after gen Con so they don't have flash mobs chanting "OGL! OGL!" at the Wizards area in the dealer room all the time.

3. Then they'll announce that no, it won't be open, and that there's some super secret licensing scheme that they'll discuss with "reputable companies." They'll then extract money from the big 3ps to put out D&D branded stuff.

All this is decided now, it's just being timed so as to avoid "unfortunate side effects", like havingto deal with the fact that a very large percentage (20%, according to the poll) of their customers don't like this.

OK, I say 4E is open, to some degree such as a GSL. Maybe not all the way as the OGL. But I dont think it will just be by super-secret individual licenses.

Dinner at GenCon. Takers?

 

[Lizard]

OK, I say 4E is open, to some degree such as a GSL. Maybe not all the way as the OGL. But I dont think it will just be by super-secret individual licenses.

Dinner at GenCon. Takers?

Can we define 'open' as "No fee required for production of supplements after some reasonable date"?

 

[Orcus]

Can we define 'open' as "No fee required for production of supplements after some reasonable date"?

Sure. Other than a "preview buy in" that they already announced, my money goes that there will be a publically available license for free.

 

[catsclaw]

Dinner at GenCon. Takers?

Just to be clear: I can take the bet, fully expecting to lose, and my penalty is being able to take you out to dinner at Gen Con?

That seems to be a rather big loophole, right there.

 

[Orcus]

Just to be clear: I can take the bet, fully expecting to lose, and my penalty is being able to take you out to dinner at Gen Con?

That seems to be a rather big loophole, right there.

Yeah, but you have to buy and I like sushi--lots of sushi.

Oh, and Seanchi is coming along

 

[Lizard]

Yeah, but you have to buy and I like sushi--lots of sushi.

Oh, and Seanchi is coming along

I like sushi too.

Is there an all-you-can-eat Sushi bar in Indy? I mean, gods, we have one in Louisville, for Ghu's sake...