Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="dmccoy1693" data-source="post: 4419567" data-attributes="member: 51747">Crush, no.  Wear them down into a fine powder, yes.  I'm not a lawyer, but I am a strategist.  And to me Wizards actions (combined with the license) have been working towards very specific goals.   1) Increase the value of the D&D name while devaluing everyone elses. 2) Increase their own market share while making it harder for others to be on equal footing.  3) Make the environment as unfriendly as possible. 4) Untimately resulting in 5E with no free license. Allow me to explain.  (and remember, Wizards today is very different from the Wizards of the GSL) How do you increase the value of the D&D name?  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Get it out there.  In order for the name to have value, it must be recognizible.  So it has to be everywhere.  Creating the d20 logo was a mistake.  It made the d20 logo recognizible, not D&D.  So wizards is giving away their logo.  It helps sell their licensees books while making the D&D name more recognizible.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make sure the name represents consistant quality.  McDonalds isn't known for quality, but their IP has value because its consistant.  The GSL has quality standards.  Well, how many products need to be of low quality before the company is in violation of the GSL?  That is not spelled out.  Mongoose's early stuff was considered very low quality.  They got better, but would the current Wizards find them in violation of the GSL for their low quality?  I don't know, but hold that thought.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make your product a higher price.  This one is odd, but true nonetheless.  Microsoft's products aren't known for quality, but they sell.  And they're usually more expensive.  But if I see a $300 piece of microsoft software sitting next to some other company's software that costs $50 (esp if I never heard of the other company's software), I'm going to assume the Microsoft one is better, simply because it costs more.  My girlfriend is an IT person and she's proven to me time and again that that is not true, but it is a hardwired assumption.  Alea may make excellent products, but they are so cheap that one could assume that Wizard's products MUST be better (and that difference in pricing is reflected in their pricing).</li> </ul>How has Wizards increased their own market share and made it harder for other companies to be on equal footing.  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The rules were mostly ready back in Dec, when they said they were putting them into binders.  Hell, the rules were complete enough for them to go into beta testing in Sept last year.  But no 3rd party company saw them until customers did.  The license was mostly done, if not completely done in Jan, but no one saw it until after the rules were seen.  Why?  Companies turned in NDAs so they wouldn't have talked.  So what was the problem.  Wizards attempted (successfully?) to make 3.5 a dead market.  With every player and company waiting to see the 4E rules, few released products and fewer still bought products.  How many LGSs want to take a chance on going back to selling products for a system that haven't sold well in a year?  How many publishers want to try that?  (Necromancer does it as a hobby and Orcus doesn't even want to.)  Six months ago, if Green Ronin, Paizo and Necromancer all rejected this license, how many customers would be looking forward to 4E?  That was their plan.  It worked well for them.  Customers evaluated 4E based on what they saw instead of what their favorite company did.  Had companies seen the license back in Jan, their 4E PHB sales would have been sharply lower.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizards product catelog for next year includes power cards.  Does the GSL allow for 3PPs to produce power cards? No.  That's a big no no.  Wizards is still trying to launch their online version of 4E.  Will 3PPs be allowed to sell their products there?  GSL says no websites or online versions of their products, except PDF books.  Will the DDI be an exception to this?  I didn't see this in the GSL so until I hear otherwise, I'm assuming no.  Can you produce minis?  No.  Well can you produce minis of your stuff and just not have the logo on it?  No, there's no mixing of GSL and non-GSL products (as per the GSL).  So if you made a monster called an owllion, you can't make a mini of it.  So Wizards is going to be selling products in areas that their licensees simply cannot.</li> </ul>How do they make the publishing environment unfriendly?  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The GSL is a rather 3PP unfriendly document.  I've stated possible scenarioes in previous posts.  (I'm rushing since it's almost 1am here).</li> </ul>Lastly can you find a company that believes with all their heart that 5E will have a free license?  Can you find one that believes it beyond a reasonable doubt?</blockquote>

Verification