Quick question: does the prohibition on online play affect your playtest?

[keterys]

Huh, hadn't noticed that. Guess I'll find out if it affects the online playtest group I've been doing. With my friends in Seattle. One of whom works for WotC. *scratches his head*

If there's a vote for getting the restriction removed, I vote remove it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I find it poor conduct on Wizards' part in trying to require something of me that I never agreed to. They had a chance to get me to agree to those terms, but never asked. I don't see why anyone should really care about the online restrictions that don't actually exist.

 

[Ajar]

I would definitely have tested them online. I'm not sure if my live group will be interested.

 

[hafrogman]

I find it poor conduct on Wizards' part in trying to require something of me that I never agreed to. They had a chance to get me to agree to those terms, but never asked. I don't see why anyone should really care about the online restrictions that don't actually exist.

But they do exist, assuming you agreed to the OPTA. If you didn't agree to the OPTA, then you shouldn't have the documents in any case. *shrug*

You agree to execute any further documents and take any further actions requested by Wizards to assist it in validating, effectuating, maintaining, protecting, enforcing, perfecting, recording, patenting or registering any of its right, title and interest in or to the above.

 

[Iron Sky]

Our old D&D group is scattered all over MT and CA - only 2 of us in the same town anymore - so our play would have been entirely online.

I have a meatspace group but one of the gamers is a designer of Epic (playing with the game's designer for the win!) so I doubt we'll be playing 5e.

 

[Agamon]

Huh, hadn't noticed that. Guess I'll find out if it affects the online playtest group I've been doing. With my friends in Seattle. One of whom works for WotC. *scratches his head*

If there's a vote for getting the restriction removed, I vote remove it.

Lol, I might be persuaded to follow the letter of the law in this case...I'm chaotic good, not stupid.

 

[Fanaelialae]

One of my groups has a Skype player (he lives 2 hours from the rest of us and has a 4 month old, so he can't usually make it in person as of late). The restriction is certainly an inconvenience for us particularly given that, aside from myself, he's probably the most enthused to participate in the playtest.

 

[Andor]

It might effect me. I have one player who wants to join by skype, while the rest of us are here in meatspace.

Here's the thing though: I don't see anything in the Playtest Agreement that forbids it. Nor in the Conduct Code, Terms of Use, Nor Privacy Policy that are cited in that document.

All there is is one line in a FAQ and a FAQ is NOT usually a legally binding document, nor is it in anyway mentioned in the Playtest Agreement. If it were I would heed it, but it's not.

So as it stands, without a modification to the OPTA itself or one of the cited documents I can't think of any reason to pay attention to something as notoriously unreliable and prone to being out of data as a FAQ. You'll note there is nothing on the FAQ page to indicate that it is an official and binding part of the playtest rules either.

 

[shamsael]

What I don't understand...

If I get on skype or irc or whatever voice or text chat of my choice and play a session of the playtest, how would WotC ever know?

Aren't unenforceable contracts supposed to be invalid?

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

This massively affects my playtesting. During the F&F playtest, I playtested with roughly three groups, for a total of maybe 15 players, all of whom had signed the NDAs. Out of those groups, two, with a total of roughly 10 or 12 players, were entirely or mostly Skype based. Those were the groups that I expected to participate in the open playtest with. (Ironically, the face-to-face group has mostly dissolved because of the end of the school year.) Without the FAQ interpretation, I would expect to play heavily using the playtest rules.

Assuming that the FAQ is incorporated into the agreement (not obvious to me) and that the prohibition is intended to include private playtest groups, not just to prohibit posting a general invitation to playtest D&D Next on Google Hangout or whatever, this rule will essentially eliminate my participation in the playtest, along with the participation of roughly a dozen other active playtesters who provided extensive feedback.

(As an additional aside, it makes sense to test D&D in all of the ways that D&D is played. And today, one of the major ways in which D&D is played is via Skype, virtual tabletops, Google Hangouts, and other forms of communication.)