There is no way in the world that designers and editors can be expected to do their job and keep track of the thousands of legal details the ogl dectates. These were honest mistakes that have caused Fast Forward to pull product off the shelves. Life happens.
Wow. I am really sad to see that.
First of all, it is flat out absurd. THAT IS THEIR JOB. Thats like saying you cant expect editors too catch spelling mistakes because it is too hard to keep track of all those thousands of words in the english language. Designers, editors, producers, whoever your company designates, SOMEONE has to be concerned and pay attention to d20/OGL compliance. So THAT IS someone's job. Sound like FFE doesnt have the proper checks in place to ensure compliance. Or they just figured it wasnt worth the time since no one was getting busted.
Second, the cavalier attitude is disturbing. Those were glaring and repeated mistakes and I had seen them called out about them in various discussion lists that you have to check if you are a part of this industry. So they cant claim they didnt have notice. Maybe WotC hadnt busted them before, but the community certainly had.
I think a lot of publishers have been a bit surprised, usually pleaseantly, at how much slack WotC is cutting us, collectively. Many of us have been waiting to see if WotC would ever really enforce the OGL. Frankly, it was getting a little annoying to see abuses go uncorrected, so much so that it was looking like the official message from WotC was that "compliance really didnt matter that much. Go ahead and do a Mongoose and move from good designations to crappy designations." That was the feeling by many. Why were many of us busting our ass and spending time complying when others were not caring? The answer is we did it because it was the right thing to do. It is nice to see some teeth to the rules. That will certainly encourage people to do a better job of compliance. Which will lead to better products. So in the end this is a good thing. I do hate to see someone become the cautionary tale, though. I wish people had just spent more time with this issue and not had problems.
Third, I just cant see why anyone wouldnt spend time worrying about and mastering compliance. There is no excuse for it. WotC has given us the keys to the kingdom and all we have to do is follow a few simple rules. SO FOLLOW THE FREAKING RULES! Learn them. Understand them. THEY ARE YOUR LIVELYHOOD. Those rules are the reason you get to be a d20 company. And it isnt like you cant learn quickly. There are tons of resources out there. ENWorld alone is a wealth of info. The discussion lists are also great. Heck, we have discussed compliance issues so many times my brain is starting to bleed. I've posted how I do it. Others have posted how they do it. We have called people out, used specific examples, solved problems, brainstormed. Many of us have agreed to review OGL designations and make suggestions. It is a friendly community willing to help others. There is no excuse for not being more on top of things. And it was common knowledge to anyone who was paying even the tiniest bit of attention that MM2 monsters are off limits.
I dont know Jim, but I really hope he was angry and wrote that post in haste. Because there is no way any reasonable person could say those things after calm reflection and mean them. I'm sorry he had to be the guy that got the hammer. It was coming. Maybe he is bitter because there have been other abusers and his is the company that got hit. But that is like the speeder doing 70 in a school zone complaining that other people were speeding too. It doesnt get you out of the ticket.
Clark
