I was there. I usually listen rather than chime in, but there was nothing to correct about what they were saying.
I think that's worth examining!
It was all fact about how they have been issuing cease and desist letters with no guidance on what the community should actually be doing to comply with a game that has no actual way of compliance apart from releasing things under the OGL as a back door. There was talk of morning star, all of which had nothing positive to say about either company. There was comparison and contrast on how Wizards is conducting their game and Paizo theirs (which is to be expected in a conversation like this). There was talk about the silence we have gotten from wizards while other companies/games all have a fairly solid schedule, and make sure their relations are good within the community. The general tone I got about Wizards was... for lack of a better word.... oppressive.
Except, of course, that they aren't oppressive in any way, at all. They're doing exactly what they ought to be doing. It's a sort of twisted narrative that's been coaxed into being, here, when you can put forward the idea that a company choosing to simply release products and protect the content in those products somehow qualifies as "oppressive" and a handful of people actually agree with you!
I don't think you are understanding what I am saying. Posting on here about a perception, isn't a cop out. I don't even know what I'm copping out of.
Countering that perception with reality.
The facts are that people ARE talking about this.
Some, sure! And some of those people have some pretty silly ideas about what qualifies as oppression. Hint: Not being able to steal someone's content and sell it on the internet doesn't let you claim that you're being oppressed!
There ARE casuals who are getting exposed to this information. These people DONT go online to read the boards, they are friends who tag along to the shop and are being introduced to these games. Let me repeat again just to make it doubly clear THEY DO NOT GO ON SITES BECAUSE THEY JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS HOBBY.
Cool, so are you, as a well-informed individual who
does follow this sort of thing online, making sure that these misconceptions don't spread?
I agree with your statement about legality, they can do whatever they want, but things like this spread even though you think it is neatly contained in the internet's online community this is simple 100% untrue, by my evidence of speaking with these people both new and old to the game. It is also true that despite what the actual details are, what is being presented by internet gamers is what is being perceived by new players. Right? Wrong? Doesn't matter at all. Wizards has no PR department, which they should have. Instead we the internet community at this point ARE their PR.
You are very much in the wrong about WotC not possessing the equivalent of a public relations team. I'm not sure where you got the idea that they don't have one. It would be kind of inconceivable for a hobby game company responsible for, among other things, a wildly popular trading card game with an elaborate organized play structure to not have people responsible for interacting with the public. Now, some of that PR may be handled by an group external to the company proper, but that's hardly uncommon.
The reality is that you aren't being told the things you want WotC to tell you because they aren't interested in telling them to you.
If they want things to change, then wizards need to speak up and let us know what is specifically going on with the game,
Why? Why do they have to do this? We don't have the right to demand that of them, and it is simply not conscionable for us, as fans, to hold their decision not to lay their plans out to us as evidence of "oppression". You're essentially saying, "Yeah, they're not in the wrong, but public perception is that they're in the wrong, and I'm not going to bother correcting that perception until they meet my personal demands." How is that okay?
until then we can only infer for ourselves and draw conclusions however wrong they may be.
Or we can stop drawing conclusions. That's an option! It really is! I know it's tough to consider, but most people do it for most companies most of the time!
But no, gamers are
passionate. And our passion entitles us to hound companies for information, even though we have a storied history of being irresponsible with that information when it's given to us. And when we're not told the things we want to hear, it's
totally okay for us to assume the worst as a way of punishing WotC for keeping that which we are entitled to from us.
We simply have no other way to speculate. If your reply is "stop speculation" then this conversation has no point, because it is in humanity's nature to speculate and no amount of force can change that.
It's in "humanity's nature" to do a lot of things, but somehow we've risen above! I mean, can you imagine? "It is in humanity's nature to enslave weaker populations, and nothing will ever change that!" Is that really what you want to make the cornerstone of your moral position?
You have a slew of people in this very thread who have somehow managed to tame their inner savage long enough to decide that it's probably not reasonable to look at this situation and assume the worst possible outcome. Are the people around those gaming tables you listened in on incapable of that?
