White Wolfs pay to play deal...

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Copyright, Intellectual Property, Fair Use, "Content" ... oi. It's the computer world all over again.

There's a strong push in the corporate sector for more control over content that they've provided to users. You buy a DVD of a movie, but that DVD is region-locked (no purpose other than to discourage cheap piracy from China), DVD-decoders for computers are being squashed by the hollywood legal engine (both commercial and freeware), the movie industry wants broadcast flags stuffed into all TV so that devices like TiVo and your neighbor's MythTV box can't record movies onto hard-drive from the Television. DRMs on everything you touch, these days, from PDFs to MP3s to images.

Apparently the gaming industry is going there as well. Hrmmmmm ... A PRM on my RPG books (Physical Rights Management)? Where will it end? Where will it END?!

But I think it'll generally be a non-issue.

--fje

 

[Wystan]

Luckily they're not charging people to pay if they are a) not charging people or b) collecting only enough money to cover the costs of the event itself, like location rental, etc.

read it again....any collection of monies is a no no and requires a license. Even just paying for the rented location....

Q. All I charge my players is a share of the fee the facility where we play charges us. Do I still need this license?
A. Yes. Even though you aren’t making a profit, you are still collecting and disbursing money — money earned through the use of White Wolf games and settings.

 

[DanMcS]

Luckily they're not charging people to pay if they are a) not charging people or b) collecting only enough money to cover the costs of the event itself, like location rental, etc.

b) is not true, according to the text of their "license" and answers to questions from WW staff. If it costs you money to rent a room to play in, and you pass that cost on to your players, they want this to apply to you.

It's bull, of course. They can't retroactively put a license agreement on their games. They're just trying to get as many people as possible to send them the money.

 

[reveal]

Really, they just want to bully as many people as possible into sending them a yearly membership fee. That's all this can possibly be.

Are there any organizations out there that create LARPs for a living? What I mean is, why would anyone organize a LARP and then charge more than the costs of recouping what they spent organizing it? To me, that sound like someone's taking advantage of others wanting to have fun LARPing. Those someones are the only people this new licensing program applies to.

BTW, let me just say right now that I have never played any White Wolf product beyond a Werewolf one-shot, so I really don't have any strong feelings one way or another about the company.

 

[reveal]

read it again....any collection of monies is a no no and requires a license. Even just paying for the rented location....

Ah... Didn't see that part. Ya, that sucks.

 

[wingsandsword]

Are there any organizations out there that create LARPs for a living? What I mean is, why would anyone organize a LARP and then charge more than the costs of recouping what they spent organizing it? To me, that sound like someone's taking advantage of others wanting to have fun LARPing. Those someones are the only people this new licensing program applies to.

Yes, but not White Wolf larps (that I know of). I know of many fantasy/mediieval larps that are for-profit, and have large fan bases that happily pay $40 or more for a weekend event, which partially goes towards site fees and operating costs, but some of it is profit. Now, I know of nobody getting rich off of this, but it's enough to support a small family, and everybody is cool with it being for-profit.

Different arms of the gaming subculture, different accepted ethics I guess.

 

[reveal]

Yes, but not White Wolf larps (that I know of). I know of many fantasy/mediieval larps that are for-profit, and have large fan bases that happily pay $40 or more for a weekend event, which partially goes towards site fees and operating costs, but some of it is profit. Now, I know of nobody getting rich off of this, but it's enough to support a small family, and everybody is cool with it being for-profit.

Different arms of the gaming subculture, different accepted ethics I guess.

Well, if people want to do it, more power to them. I don't agree with it, but then I just don't do it so there ya go.

 

[Templeton580]

*

 

[reveal]

On the funny side, check out the RPG.net thread where developer Justin Achilli once more reminds everyone, on behalf of his company, why White Wolf deserves none of my gaming dollars. Seems they'll always find a way to shoot their own foot. And if they can't find a way...there's always Mr. Achilli and his DSL access.

Link?

 

[Templeton580]

Added it in...