What does the go D20 ruling mean for the living campaigns?

[ascendance]

Ryan Dancey tried to do that with Organized Play. I don't know any specifics, but I heard that they weren't doing to well in a business sense.

Organized Play is a completely separate company that has nothing to do with RPGA beyond supplying the RPGA with the software that they use. Organized Play supports a number of other gaming events, including various AEG CCG games, including Warlords and L5R.

 

[bondetamp]

White box?
I remember when all ya needed was imagination and a bunch of dice and some paper to write on (maybe a pencil hahaha). The Books were memorized and if not ..then you needed those books too.
ahhhh simpler days....

Ah. I remember when girls were married off at twelve, people rarely lived past their forties and poaching was a hanging offence.

A golden age for mankind. I'm getting nostalgic just thinking about it.

 

[pogre]

This move reminds me of when White Dwarf went from an RPG magazine to a house organ for Games Workshop. Cannot say I liked it, but it did make sense.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Just to chime in on this topic I'd like to say the move has turned me off the RPGA. I've been flirting with the idea of joining and trying to play at some con's, but if non d20 games won't be supported then it makes little sense to me.

I'm currently DMing a long running D20 DnD campaign, but I would really like to play in a well run Shadowrun campaign. I love the system but don't have anybody in my current group that can DM. I love the oriental flair to L5R, but again have nobody in my current game to DM and my players can't remove themselves from a western mindset enough to get into it. Playing these types of things are what enterested me the most in the RPGA, without them it's simply another group to play DnD or a clone of DnD with. This I already have.

I understand the business side of this decision. But as an EDS employee, I think it sounds a lot like our management when they fire the only person supporting a system as part of a head count reduction, and then loose the contract (with penalties) because there's no one to do the work.

 

[Dismas]

Re: all about da Benjamins

Well, one thing that i've not noticed mentioned is that the Open License that previously applied to d20 has been or is being changed to net Wotc/Hasbro more money for d20 systems, ...

Please can you elaborate on this?

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I understand the need for WotC to make money. That is why Hasbro purchased the company,to make money.

Speaking from the perspective of a long-term gamer, I still find it disturbing that WotC/Hasbro is seeking to eliminate all other gaming systems from the marekt, and this is just one more step to accomplish this goal.

Smart business decision, but just a little too monopolistic for my tastes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that WotC wants to be the equivalent of Microsoft in the gaming world. Dominant, aggressive and ready to destroy the competition if necessary.

I can seriously see why quite a few gamers don't like the way this sounds. Gaming for most of its existence has been a fringe activity with little corporate influence, and now, a big corporation has entered our little world and demanded that "profit" be the primary motivation behind product and marketing decisions.

Though profit was always a motivation for creating games, I still believe most of the original game designers had a passion for what they were doing. They would do it even if they weren't making the most money possible.

But Hey, what can you do. In the modern day, its all about the almighty dollar. WotC will do what they must to make the most money.

I truly expect them to start charging license fees if some OGL book comes out that cuts into the sales of their Big 3 core books.

 

[village6]

Organized Play is a completely separate company that has nothing to do with RPGA beyond supplying the RPGA with the software that they use. Organized Play supports a number of other gaming events, including various AEG CCG games, including Warlords and L5R.

Uhh, this is not correct. I think you may be confusing OP with someone else. OP is a company created by Ryan Dancy specifically to run the Living City campaign, which OP purchased from WotC/RPGA for a substantial sum of money. To my knowledge, which is not 100% with regard to CCGs, OP has no operating interest whatsoever in anything other than Living City.

It looks, to me, like OP is not long in this world, as LC's player base is shrinking. They have made some questionable decisions the negative effects of which have been exacerbated by moves that the RPGA has made. Specifically, OP bought LC with the intent of charging players to play. This was done at a time when RPGA membership was $30 and LC was the flagship campaign of the RPGA. Soon after the OP buyout, RPGA launched Living Greyhawk and membership free. Thus, the gaming community was faced with 1) paying $30 to play LC or 2) playing LG for free. That's a no-brainer. The practical effect of those decisions has been to evaporate any potential player growth for OP/LC as anyone new coming into the Living campaign arena will choose the free product over the costly product. In addition, OP maintained a centralized (National) administration structure, while RPGA/LG utilized a regional structure which gave players the feeling of empowerment.

Those decisions have killed OP while RPGA has drastically increased its membership and campaign play. Of course, OP is trying to make money, while RPGA is a fully funded marketing entity, so their aims are different. However, they are competing for the same slice of the gamer market...I'm not sure that any for-profit company can stand up to a bigger competitor that is tasked with servicing the same customers for free.

Be seeing you...
- 6

 

[seasong]

Except that it won't work. Kicking Shadowrun out just kicks out the Shadowrun players - it doesn't magically make them want to play WotC's game, and is more likely to make them bitter towards WotC since they feel excluded.

 

[WizarDru]

Re: Re

I understand the need for WotC to make money. That is why Hasbro purchased the company,to make money.

.....................

But Hey, what can you do. In the modern day, its all about the almighty dollar. WotC will do what they must to make the most money.

I truly expect them to start charging license fees if some OGL book comes out that cuts into the sales of their Big 3 core books.

I don't believe the OGL would allow them to do that, as currently written, but I'm no expert on it.

Let me be honest: I played with the RPGA exactly once. While it wasn't the worst game I'd ever played, it was in the top 10. It was made worse by the fact that my friends all went to play in a non-RPGA game that they enjoyed a great deal. But here's the thing: there were plenty of non-d20, non-RPGA games running at the same convention. WoTC had no influence on said games, either way.

The RPGA is a nice idea, but I don't know that it does as much to promote RPGs as it perhaps once did. On the other hand, thanks to the 'net and other places, I think we have much less need for such an organization, unless it can function as more than just a mutual matching service and score-keeper.

Perhaps if the RPGA did things like run sponsored seminars on how to play or learn specific RPGs, for example. Things that would do more than just give gamer services to existing gamers, which is all I've ever felt the RPGA actually does. I'm not saying that helping existing gamers is bad, quite the contrary...but if the RPGAs intended goal is to attract new folks, then I'm not sure how they're doing it.

And if I, a gamer and RPGA member don't know, I tend to think that the average casual gamer or non-gamer has no idea. I'd like to be wrong about that.

 

[Leopold]

business is business and it appears that the RPGA is catering to the masses that DO play D20 games and NOT non-d20 games. As indicated above we have seen that there are "thousands playing d20" while only a "few hundred non-d20" gamers are left out.

So in essence RPGA is saying "Look you can come in and join freely and partcipate but just change your rules to suit the system that most people like to play" as is evident by the amount of folk that sign up and play d20 than non-d20 games...

the screaming minority will no doubt cry foul but in the end the silent masses win this one...