Open Gaming Should Mean Open

[Reynard]

Well, this is way off topic for the thread, but you're saying you'd have preferred to copy and paste stuff rather than write stuff for your client, given that they paid you the same either way? I'm just not sure I see what the problem is. Writing words you're being paid for isn't 'extra' work it's just 'the' work. I'm not sure it's WotC's job to write your commissions for you.

I think I'm just misunderstanding some context here.

All I am saying is that it was extra work that would not have been there is they had a full SRD (like doing work for Pathfinder). We set rates and assume value based on expectations is all.

It's weird that I need to explain this to someone who hires freelancers, to be honest.

 

[Morrus]

It's weird that I need to explain this to someone who hires freelancers, to be honest.

We're both finding this exchange weird. On that I agree.

 

[Alzrius]

As a professional writer your demands that my content be available to everyone for free means I can no longer be a professional. Virality doesn't necessarily mean it's good for the people who labor.

Paizo puts the lie to this. All of their content goes up on sites like the Archives of Nethys and d20PFSRD very shortly after release (usually taking a couple of weeks, I believe), and rather than being a stone around their necks, that's been a boon to their profession.

 

[bedir than]

Paizo puts the lie to this. All of their content goes up on sites like the Archives of Nethys and d20PFSRD very shortly after release (usually taking a couple of weeks, I believe), and rather than being a stone around their necks, that's been a boon to their profession.

A boon so strong that they don't pay a living wage.

 

[Alzrius]

A boon so strong that they don't pay a living wage.

You're suggesting that if they didn't use "open virality" (to coin a shorthand) in their products, they'd be making more money and paying their employees higher wages?

It might be a counterfactual, but I feel fairly confident in saying that there's (circumstantial) evidence to suggest that the opposite would be true. If they weren't making their content not only open, but viral, they'd be making less money as a company, and so have fewer employees and/or paying them even less.

 

[mamba]

Paizo puts the lie to this. All of their content goes up on sites like the Archives of Nethys and d20PFSRD very shortly after release (usually taking a couple of weeks, I believe), and rather than being a stone around their necks, that's been a boon to their profession.

can you back that part up with data or is this more a ‘why else would they do it’ kind of scenario?

 

[Alzrius]

can you back that part up with data or is this more a ‘why else would they do it’ kind of scenario?

Can you define what you mean by "data," or are you suggesting that unless we can see their sales numbers it's all just pointless speculation?

 

[mamba]

Can you define what you mean by "data," or are you suggesting that unless we can see their sales numbers it's all just pointless speculation?

data means any hard numbers (and their sales numbers don’t help, they do not show the impact, only the status quo), but I prefer anything you can offer over what so far appears to be pure speculation

 

[Alzrius]

data means any hard numbers, but I prefer anything you can offer over what so far appears to be pure speculation

If you'll only accept "hard numbers," then you should be asking Paizo themselves what their sales figures are. I'm sure they won't mind sharing them with you.

As for why I think their use of open virality has been good for their company, rather than bad, I suppose we can skip right past the whole "if it was hurting their bottom line, they wouldn't keep doing it (to the point of creating their own license to enable it and then voluntarily publishing under that)" and instead skip right to the correlation between them being one of the biggest and most successful tabletop RPG companies out there while also making 100% of the new rules they make open and viral. It wasn't a coincidence that, during the OGL crisis last year, they were (as far as we know) the company that benefited the most, selling out of months worth of products in weeks. They were also the strongest supporter of the OGL, announcing that they'd fight for it in court if they had to and subsequently their intent to make their own open, viral license.

You don't get to be that successful if, as was declared earlier in the thread, open virality makes it impossible for professional writers to be professionals (i.e. that it undercuts their economic viability).

 

[Reynard]

A boon so strong that they don't pay a living wage.

You keep saying this so I want to know what you mean. Living wages to whom? In what aspects of the company? Are they skirting the law, or are they headquartered in an area where costs of living are astronomical. Are you equally concerned with what WotC pays? Do you even know?