New Character Builder from WotC!

[UngainlyTitan]

It has little to do with ideas I'm afraid and more to do with IP ownership in WoTC as attack dog to protect themselves in these cases.

I am afraid I do not follow, could you explain please?

 

[evilref]

The simple answer is yes.

Proving they stole your idea, OTOH, is another matter entirely.

The problem with the fearmongering touched on in some of the posts leading to this one, and with rampant tinfoil hattery on the wotc boards is that you need an understanding of copyright law and how it's applied to understand how ludicrous the 'they want to take our stuff' argument is (aside from the many difficulties involved in it). And for those who want to use it in their latest mud-throwing contest, it appeals to fear and people's uncertainty. Like political attack adds, the attack is easy, disproving it is hard.


Take for example the boilerplate 'You grant us the right to use anything you write on our forums'. Unless I've missed it (which could happen but my search was fairly extensive), this has never been succesfully used as a defence for a company taking someone's idea/writing and using it for themselves).

In assorted jurisdictions it wouldn't even be accepted as a defence. It's also open to all sorts of issues whereby the rights for X are owned by Y and the creator cannot give X away to Z in the first place because Y owns it.

What the boilerplate does is help protect the companies that have it from frivolous law suits. It means if they show a screenshot of their bulletin boards and it happens to be your forum post, then they have a stronger defence case if you try and sue them for it.

What amuses me most about the 'they're going to take our stuff' idea (aside from the very idea that said stuff is worth taking in the first place), is that that boilerplate is seen on thousands of websites. Such as Paizo's.

 

[Herschel]

Things to remember:

D&D is WotC’s legal property, not ours.

Any idea you or I have is shared by (minimum) scores of others independently. None of us are uber-original creative masterminds. We’re unique, just like everyone else.

WotC has to account for as many gamers as possible, which includes the vast number of incredibly cheap/entitled ones.

This is going to cause suckage for many others. It’s unfortunate it has to be this way.

There is good and bad in every option. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad for more people than not.

 

[rjdafoe]

If WoTC is reduced to using my monsters and my campaing ideas then things are bad.

Gleemax was an interesting set of ideas badly executed. It is interesting that WoTC are still seeking to implement some of those ideas. There is some evidence that they are learning from their mistakes. It is a pity that htey are making so many of them.

It is hard to remember what is fact and fiction right now but even if this was not said by WotC, it would not be hard to do and would not require a person any time besides running a reporting tool against the data. Now, separating good things and bad is another story.

I have read they have already said they are going to mine the data for future products. For instance - if a particular build of a class is popular they have said that they would come out with more stuff for it.

So it exists already, as a tool that mines the data that you are saving.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It is hard to remember what is fact and fiction right now but even if this was not said by WotC, it would not be hard to do and would not require a person any time besides running a reporting tool against the data. Now, separating good things and bad is another story.

I have read they have already said they are going to mine the data for future products. For instance - if a particular build of a class is popular they have said that they would come out with more stuff for it.

So it exists already, as a tool that mines the data that you are saving.

I do not really see a connection between your post and the one of mine you are quoting. I do not really disagee with your thesis but it has little to do with the position of others on the value of their character ideas or campaign concepts.

 

[rjdafoe]

I do not really see a connection between your post and the one of mine you are quoting. I do not really disagee with your thesis but it has little to do with the position of others on the value of their character ideas or campaign concepts.

The data is all their to be mined - adventure information, monster information, etc.

I expect the same rules to apply as they did on Gleemax. They can use any of your ideas that you put out there.

 

[mudbunny]

At the risk of inflaming further unfounded (IMO) worries over IP theft, Paolo has said that one of the things that they will be able to do is to look at how many people are making (for example) Mul fighthers, and be able to adjust upcoming gragon article accordingly.

 

[rjdafoe]

At the risk of inflaming further unfounded (IMO) worries over IP theft, Paolo has said that one of the things that they will be able to do is to look at how many people are making (for example) Mul fighthers, and be able to adjust upcoming gragon article accordingly.

I beleive that is what I was saying, I just couldn't remember hwo had said it. I also beleive the terms will be like Gleemax so yes, some people will have a problem with it.

Chances are the CB will not have much data to mine, but the MB and (if) any other Adventure Tools - that is a legitimate concern for some people.

IMO that was one of the failures of Gleemax.

 

[evilref]

The data is all their to be mined - adventure information, monster information, etc.

I expect the same rules to apply as they did on Gleemax. They can use any of your ideas that you put out there.

And today Senator Bob did not deny he stole money from a baby.

A) Mining doesn't mean read. The time to actually read 'stuff' rather than go 'how many fighters are using tide of iron...click' is exponentially higher.

B) Why are you fearmongering without substance?

C) Where's your fearmongering on Paizo for having exactly the same language on their forums? (Or Apple, or Sony or...)

 

[Scribble]

Chances are the CB will not have much data to mine, but the MB and (if) any other Adventure Tools - that is a legitimate concern for some people.

IMO that was one of the failures of Gleemax.

My guess is they are not interested in stealing people's ideas for use. I'm thinking it's entirely about protecting themselves from lawsuits from enraged gamers who thought they stole their idea.