Eternalknight
First Post
So the .lst files from previous versions will work with the current realease?
What were the 3 software developers ordered to cease and dissist?
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Twin Rose
First Post
Campaign Suite
We just got back from GenCon, too, and what a GREAT show it was! There is no problem at all with Campaign Suite, and I'm surprised people even thought there would be. We have a d20 logo on our product, which gives us and WOTC each certain protections - such as grace periods, and times of breech and cure.
I assume, then, that PCGen will register the Open Gaming License and become fully compliant? I'd like to see how this is done...
I don't know who all got hit, but I've been following this very closely and working with the folks there at WOTC, and will be continuing to do so to ensure that we can all have great software products to make our games easier.
I'd like to hear exactly what does come of this, in terms of distribution, and I think that it should be warned that being too public about distributing trademarks and copyrights on Kazaa could very swiftly help throw a monkeywrench in the entire process AND in fact hurt us software developers who are trying to prove to WOTC that their copyrights are safe...
By all means, support the community, but don't distribute what you don't have a right to distribute.
We just got back from GenCon, too, and what a GREAT show it was! There is no problem at all with Campaign Suite, and I'm surprised people even thought there would be. We have a d20 logo on our product, which gives us and WOTC each certain protections - such as grace periods, and times of breech and cure.
I assume, then, that PCGen will register the Open Gaming License and become fully compliant? I'd like to see how this is done...
I don't know who all got hit, but I've been following this very closely and working with the folks there at WOTC, and will be continuing to do so to ensure that we can all have great software products to make our games easier.
I'd like to hear exactly what does come of this, in terms of distribution, and I think that it should be warned that being too public about distributing trademarks and copyrights on Kazaa could very swiftly help throw a monkeywrench in the entire process AND in fact hurt us software developers who are trying to prove to WOTC that their copyrights are safe...
By all means, support the community, but don't distribute what you don't have a right to distribute.
Cergorach
The Laughing One
Re: Campaign Suite
Shouldn't it be "AND in fact hurt us software developers who are trying to make a buck on it..."? Something i have absolutely no problem with, but don't beat around the bush. If you have a great product that i will use a lot i'll try to support it financially when i can.
The problem is that there' currently no way to get it from someone who has the rights to distribute it in any form or for any program. It's not even available for e-tools. That gives us no other way to effectively use RPG software with any WOTC material that isn't in the SRD. Some might say "Ah, ain't that a shame... Life with it punk!", i generally don't accept that.
The alternative is to input the data into datafiles yourself, i don't know about you but i don't have the time to input all those books into a format that is readable by a RPG program. I might do a part, but certainly not all. I have been making 50-60 hour work weeks and now that i have a couple of days off i'm bussy making my phpshop, i'm happy enough if i and my friends can find the time to play a D&D game once a week for a few hours. Now let's say that i would have taken the time to input everything in, can i now expect my group of four players to do the same? Because i technically am not allowed to let them use my files, although they have all the books i inputed. Thus, no offense intended and no harm intended, but unless someone comes with a good alternative we're stuck with doing things that are murky at best...
Twin Rose said:
Shouldn't it be "AND in fact hurt us software developers who are trying to make a buck on it..."? Something i have absolutely no problem with, but don't beat around the bush. If you have a great product that i will use a lot i'll try to support it financially when i can.
Twin Rose said:
The problem is that there' currently no way to get it from someone who has the rights to distribute it in any form or for any program. It's not even available for e-tools. That gives us no other way to effectively use RPG software with any WOTC material that isn't in the SRD. Some might say "Ah, ain't that a shame... Life with it punk!", i generally don't accept that.
The alternative is to input the data into datafiles yourself, i don't know about you but i don't have the time to input all those books into a format that is readable by a RPG program. I might do a part, but certainly not all. I have been making 50-60 hour work weeks and now that i have a couple of days off i'm bussy making my phpshop, i'm happy enough if i and my friends can find the time to play a D&D game once a week for a few hours. Now let's say that i would have taken the time to input everything in, can i now expect my group of four players to do the same? Because i technically am not allowed to let them use my files, although they have all the books i inputed. Thus, no offense intended and no harm intended, but unless someone comes with a good alternative we're stuck with doing things that are murky at best...
Ok, so evidently WOTC has asked PCGen folks not to distribute WOTC IP material.
Will WOTC have a double standard? Will WOTC allow Fluid to distribute IP material? Will WOTC allow other people to post splatbook material for e-tools on there websites?
If they allow the above it would be quite easy to develop programs that use this as there data back end. Or you could say write a program to pull all the information out and format it however you want say .lst files for PCGen or Paradox for RPM.
Will WOTC have a double standard? Will WOTC allow Fluid to distribute IP material? Will WOTC allow other people to post splatbook material for e-tools on there websites?
If they allow the above it would be quite easy to develop programs that use this as there data back end. Or you could say write a program to pull all the information out and format it however you want say .lst files for PCGen or Paradox for RPM.
Nothing wrong with allowing Fluid to distribute WotC material. It's theirs to do with as they wish.smetzger said:
The interesting part will be if they condone and host import material from other D20 publishers. That would put them in effectively the same position as PCGen, unless the 3rd party material is specifically designated as open content.
Oh yes. I've waited a long time to offer an E-Tools import from RPM. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you own both, that's cool.
Do you offer an access database in your programme, Luke? If not than I'm afraid you're SOL.
This whole thing would be moot if WOTC had expanded their SRD like they said they would, in Good Faith, mind you. But as I've said, the SRD is a tool for them to get OUR material, not open up theirs, so they can fire off more game designers/writers and let us do all the work. I mean seriously, it's sad when the creative personel at a game company are outnumbered by the business managers.
As for Twin Rose's CS, I wasn't aware that you had the legal right to create non-SRD files. I thought you were using the same method as PCGen and depending on the community to make the lists for you. If so, you are in violation up to your eyeballs by letting these'IP Pirates' distribute content for your software. What's the story?
This whole thing would be moot if WOTC had expanded their SRD like they said they would, in Good Faith, mind you. But as I've said, the SRD is a tool for them to get OUR material, not open up theirs, so they can fire off more game designers/writers and let us do all the work. I mean seriously, it's sad when the creative personel at a game company are outnumbered by the business managers.
As for Twin Rose's CS, I wasn't aware that you had the legal right to create non-SRD files. I thought you were using the same method as PCGen and depending on the community to make the lists for you. If so, you are in violation up to your eyeballs by letting these'IP Pirates' distribute content for your software. What's the story?
Fast Learner
First Post
Nathanael said:
No, that's wrong. E-tools exports XML very nicely. It's a comparitively trivial task to import XML of people's characters and monsters compared to somehow keeping synchronized with a full E-tools database.
It's one of the best things about E-tools: beautiful, relatively clean XML exporting.
Oh, and for further clarification, Luke's app doesn't need to "offer an access database" even if he wants to read directly out of E-tools since a free control from Microsoft would allow him to read from and write to it at will. That's the beauty of an Access back-end.
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