D&D 5E Jury duty still ongoing...

[MerricB]

I pinged Mike Mearls yesterday to discover if the jury duty was continuing; alas, it was.

Merric: Is the jury duty still ongoing, or is everyone now back on deck?
Mike Mearls: still going on - very serious case

Unfortunately, there is also still no news on an OGL:

Kelly Clemmer: What's the likelihood of Wizards launching the Open Gaming License for 5th Edition in 2015?
Mike Mearls: sorry, nothing to share yet

Cheers!

 

[Sunseeker]

Perhaps WOTC should consider hiring a secondary to this position, so as to avoid these sorts of situations in the future?

 

[pukunui]

I pinged Mike Mearls yesterday to discover if the jury duty was continuing; alas, it was.

Well, he did say only a month or so ago that the case was going to take 4-6 months, so I'm not at all surprised that it's still going.

 

[MerricB]

The jury duty started in January, IIRC, so this is the four-month update.

Cheers!

 

[Celtavian]

I still don't think Hasbro executives that make the business decisions want an OGL. I have no idea what Mearls, Crawford, and the D&D crew think, though I'm inclined to think they would be ok with one. They seem like gamers that want to see D&D flourish and it flourishes when the entire community gets to participate. Business people are taught not to share branded products. To Hasbro D&D is a brand and they probably don't want to open it up like they did in 3E for obvious reasons.

I hope Mearls stays in charge for a long time. What he has done for D&D is nothing short of amazing. Even the surveys they are using for future product development are a great addition. Paizo does the same thing with their playtests. Mearls seems to have taken surveying the player base to an even greater level than Paizo to ensure product development is done in line with what the player base wants. I like that type of interaction. Makes for better products.

 

[delericho]

Merric: Is the jury duty still ongoing, or is everyone now back on deck?
Mike Mearls: still going on - very serious case

Well, he did say it would be four months, starting some time in January, which gives a projected end date of some time in May. We're not there yet!

Perhaps WOTC should consider hiring a secondary to this position, so as to avoid these sorts of situations in the future?

Perhaps, but it's too late for now - even if they had someone, that person would need some training to bring them up to speed on what was needed. Problem is, the guy who would have to do the training is the same guy who isn't available because of jury duty.

Basically, they've been hit with an unforeseen event that has caused things to get delayed. It sucks, but that's life. And yes, if they really had to, they could find a way to work around this, but doing so is always costly.

 

[pukunui]

The jury duty started in January, IIRC, so this is the four-month update.

When I asked Mearls about the conversion guides in March, he said the person who was handling it was on jury duty and would be out for six months. I assumed he meant for six months from March, not January. I figured the person had been called up for jury duty in January but the trial hadn't actually started back then. That happens sometimes.

Regardless, I think we're still looking at July or August at this point.

 

[MerricB]

When I asked Mearls about the conversion guides in March, he said the person who was handling it was on jury duty and would be out for six months. I assumed he meant for six months from March, not January. I figured the person had been called up for jury duty in January but the trial hadn't actually started back then. That happens sometimes.

Regardless, I think we're still looking at July or August at this point.

Have a look here at the earlier tweets from January, then the one after yours in mid-march: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?433703-Mike-Mearls-five-tweets-on-the-jury-duty-hold-up

Looks like 4 months from March...

Cheers!

 

[pukunui]

Looks like 4 months from March...

Right. So like I said, we're looking at July at the earliest.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

When I asked Mearls about the conversion guides in March, he said the person who was handling it was on jury duty and would be out for six months. I assumed he meant for six months from March, not January. I figured the person had been called up for jury duty in January but the trial hadn't actually started back then. That happens sometimes.

Regardless, I think we're still looking at July or August at this point.

The idea of a six-month trial blows my mind. Poor juror's brain must be long-melted by now.