The Sundering has launched...

[DaveMage]

What they did with the 4E realms killed any interest I have in it going forward.

(Unless, of course, it was all just a dream. Ha!)

I'd *love* it if they went back to where it was at the start of 3E.

 

[Derren]

It was TSR's own friggin rulessystem and setting, how much more can you contribute?

-YRUSirius

Story, Design, Coding,...

 

[Morrus]

And what exactly will you disagree with?

I feel like I've just gone back in time. Didn't we just have an entire thread about that? With all due respect, I don't particularly fancy starting the whole conversation again from the beginning!

 

[Derren]

I feel like I've just gone back in time. Didn't we just have an entire thread about that? With all due respect, I don't particularly fancy starting the whole conversation again from the beginning!

Most of the time you talked about IP ownership and edit etiquette. So no, we didn't had that already.
Just say if my assessment of your point is true or not. If it is then everything has been said. If not, feel free to correct me or not. By now you should know how I feel about this Sundering - Baldurs Gate connection and the only ones who can change my feeling is WotC in case they manage to pull it of really awesomely which I doubt.

 

[YRUSirius]

And what exactly will you disagree with?
That it is bad style to use a product someone else made and you ignored for 15 years to promote your product does look a bit desperate?

TSR/WotC licensed their products (the D&D rules and the Forgotten Realms setting) to Bioware, so Bioware could use WotC's successful products to promote and sell their own.

Now WotC is using their OWN products (The IP of Baldur's Gate is theirs) to promote and sell their own products.

If you ask a roleplaying newbie what rulesset the computer game "Baldur's Gate" is using, what do you think will be their answer?

-YRUSirius

 

[YRUSirius]

Story, Design, Coding,...

So you want a computer game programmed by Ed Greenwood et.? Nice.

-YRUSirius

 

[Morrus]

. By now you should know how I feel about this

Oh, believe me, I don't think anybody is the slightest doubt about how you feel about this!

 

[GSHamster]

I kind of see what Derren is getting at. Bioware took parts of FR (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Bhaal) and did the heavy lifting to make them popular. The face of TSR/WotC's FR at the time was Waterdeep, Icewind Dale, Cyric and Mystra. There's no question that Bioware built off a lot of TSR/WotC's work, and now WotC is building off Bioware's work.

To use a different example, consider Knights of the Old Republic. It's clearly based off Star Wars, but it's also it's own entity. If the next Star Wars movie came out in the KotoR time period and referenced Revan, it would be clear that Disney is building off Bioware's work.

However, I don't see anything wrong with that. Bioware expanded those universes with style, and I think it's great that the parent company would use those expansions.

 

[Morrus]

I kind of see what Derren is getting at. Bioware took parts of FR (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Bhaal) and did the heavy lifting to make them popular.

Companies don't license their IP to others in order to make them less popular. That's a licensing arrangement which clearly had exactly the desired effect - for both parties.

 

[Derren]

However, I don't see anything wrong with that. Bioware expanded those universes with style, and I think it's great that the parent company would use those expansions.

It would have been great if they used it 15 years ago. Using it now seems cheap to me, as if WotC is digging in their closet to find something they can use for promoting the Sundering.