wingsandsword
Legend
I really don't like this turn by WotC. It smells suspiciously like a pointy-haired boss at Hasbro getting too invasive, and while AV may have been technically within his rights, he should have known he would have been pushing it and drawing their ire with his little font trick (was he really going to do that?).
However, even with this WotC is still nowhere near as bad as T$R was back in the Bad Old Days. With OGL games, even non-d20, there are things that the Evil Empire of Gaming would have never allowed. Don't forget, they tried to trademark "Nazi" for their Indiana Jones RPG, they also tried to assert trademark over "Spell", "Orc" and a myriad of other generic fantasy terms, and prevent any other game from using them. (I've been told that over and over, it's either true, or one heck of a gaming Urban Legend).
Sex themed rules have a place within third-party support of D&D. When I first came to college, and I wanted to learn how to play, I typed in "D&D" into a search engine (Fall of '96, and I don't remember which engine), and the first thing that popped up was the "D&D Net Book of Sex". That was one heck of an interesting introduction to D&D! I've played in campaigns that had carnal activities, and sometimes they were slightly juvenile, and other times they were relatively tasteful. Never were they graphic or obscene (the GM at least had the good taste to hint and imply rather than give graphic details.)
The worst thing I can think of is that WotC repeals the d20 STL totally. Well, OGL games like Everquest have shown that you can make a fine, self contained game using the same system as "Third Edition" (not gonna call it by it's die type for this). That genie is out of the bottle and they legally couldn't repeal the SRD's (I am not a lawyer, but I've heard that said many times).
It just reduces brand recognition for less d20 branded product, and means WotC has less of it's Player's Handbooks sold.
Oh, e-mail campaigns are easily ignored. If you want their attention, phone them. Or much better, mail. Good old fashioned "snail mail" gets attention, especially from Pointy-Haired Corporate types. It's harder to ignore baskets and baskets of mail filling up a mail room than a pile of electronic messages.
However, even with this WotC is still nowhere near as bad as T$R was back in the Bad Old Days. With OGL games, even non-d20, there are things that the Evil Empire of Gaming would have never allowed. Don't forget, they tried to trademark "Nazi" for their Indiana Jones RPG, they also tried to assert trademark over "Spell", "Orc" and a myriad of other generic fantasy terms, and prevent any other game from using them. (I've been told that over and over, it's either true, or one heck of a gaming Urban Legend).
Sex themed rules have a place within third-party support of D&D. When I first came to college, and I wanted to learn how to play, I typed in "D&D" into a search engine (Fall of '96, and I don't remember which engine), and the first thing that popped up was the "D&D Net Book of Sex". That was one heck of an interesting introduction to D&D! I've played in campaigns that had carnal activities, and sometimes they were slightly juvenile, and other times they were relatively tasteful. Never were they graphic or obscene (the GM at least had the good taste to hint and imply rather than give graphic details.)
The worst thing I can think of is that WotC repeals the d20 STL totally. Well, OGL games like Everquest have shown that you can make a fine, self contained game using the same system as "Third Edition" (not gonna call it by it's die type for this). That genie is out of the bottle and they legally couldn't repeal the SRD's (I am not a lawyer, but I've heard that said many times).
It just reduces brand recognition for less d20 branded product, and means WotC has less of it's Player's Handbooks sold.
Oh, e-mail campaigns are easily ignored. If you want their attention, phone them. Or much better, mail. Good old fashioned "snail mail" gets attention, especially from Pointy-Haired Corporate types. It's harder to ignore baskets and baskets of mail filling up a mail room than a pile of electronic messages.
