Why I only buy open content

[philreed]

I will try and push publishers to be more open for the same reason I try to push coders to be more open; so that we all benefit.

All you (and by you I don't mean just you but this thread and others in the last few days) have done is led me to start using a more restrictive OGC declaration. If you want to encourage publishers to release OGC starting by trying to give it all away free is not going to help you to reach your goal.

This isn't a utopia. This is a world in which people work to survive. Just because some of us work on games doesn't mean that we don't work.

 

[Nellisir]

All you (and by you I don't mean just you but this thread and others in the last few days) have done is led me to start using a more restrictive OGC declaration. If you want to encourage publishers to release OGC starting by trying to give it all away free is not going to help you to reach your goal.

This isn't a utopia. This is a world in which people work to survive. Just because some of us work on games doesn't mean that we don't work.

Well, that's your right. I'm not obligated to support your business decisions with my wallet, though. That's really the point of this thread.

Cheers,
Nell.

 

[philreed]

Well, that's your right. I'm not obligated to support your business decisions with my wallet, though. That's really the point of this thread.

Are you saying that you never buy any products from Mongoose, Malhavoc, or any other publishers with restrictive OGC declarations?

 

[Nellisir]

Sure it does. It grants everything. I imagine that's what you're saying, though--it's an all or nothing (at least as far as non-OGC goes) kind of thing. You didn't want the whole thing, just one.

Right. "X" seemed like a cool little addition to the rules, and something that could easily be a) expanded on, to the benefit of gamers everywhere, and b) fit into my campaign/ruleset (which may or may not ever be published, in part or in whole, between now and the end of Existence As We Know It).

It was awhile ago (AU, not AE), and I don't think I have the license anymore. But maybe I'll think about it again in awhile. It was a nice idea, and it seems a shame for it to just get lost and die.

All that said (and I'm sorry if this is harsh), making other publishers happy ultimately isn't really all that important to me. ... At every step of the way, every word I write, I think about players and DMs. But never other publishers.

I don't care about blasting people.

Everyone ends up the villain in these threads. The publishers are evil because they won't open up everything, and the people asking for stuff to be open are evil because they just want to put the publishers out of work.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[DanMcS]

All you (and by you I don't mean just you but this thread and others in the last few days) have done is led me to start using a more restrictive OGC declaration. If you want to encourage publishers to release OGC starting by trying to give it all away free is not going to help you to reach your goal.

This isn't a utopia. This is a world in which people work to survive. Just because some of us work on games doesn't mean that we don't work.

Phil, you've been threatening this for quite a while, and nobody is surprised to see you do this. Nothing about the situation has changed; the OGL says the same thing as it did a couple of days ago, and people could have put all your OGC online last month, they same as they can today.

The only thing that has changed is you, and your cynical attempt to blame your closing of content on other people.

Apparently, you never really supported the OGL in principle in the first place. If you had, then you wouldn't be closing content now, because the situation regarding republication of OGC hasn't changed. You liked it because it let you publish d20 products, and you were enjoying the little bit of free marketing you could get by saying your entire product was OGC, while simultaneously not wanting anyone to reuse your content.

You make your living off of open game content, but now you don't want to contribute back as OGC more than you are abolutely required.

 

[philreed]

You make your living off of open game content, but now you don't want to contribute back as OGC more than you are abolutely required.

Does this make me unique in any way?

 

[DanMcS]

But the license didn't grant the mechanic X I was interested in, except as a sort of adjunct to a larger (and very generous) grant, and an email to you confirmed that while the concept of mechanic X was OGC, the specific implementations were not.

The specifics, in this case, formed a sort of basic foundation that I felt I would have to recreate, but without actually looking at your work. Frankly, it was a bit dicier legally than I wanted to try.

Ironically, something very similar has happened with a mechanic in Iron Heros.

And that's the nice thing about game mechanics, for you. They aren't copyrightable, as they are an idea, and ideas can't be copyrighted. The description of them is, as is any substantial creative work.

You don't have to have never seen his work. Just implement the idea on your own, and you're good.

And, if more and more publishers start using more and more restrictive declarations of OGC, writers will be forced to resort to this more and more. And Iron Heroes, for example, won't appear in section 15 of your product where it would have before.

 

[DanMcS]

Does this make me unique in any way?

No, but you don't have anywhere near the moral high ground you seem to be trying to claim. Just because you make your living this way doesn't make you a martyr if someone else wants to reuse your OGC.

 

[philreed]

No, but you don't have anywhere near the moral high ground you seem to be trying to claim. Just because you make your living this way doesn't make you a martyr if someone else wants to reuse your OGC.

I'm not trying to be a martyr.

I want people to reuse my OGC to create new works. Take a look at Grim Tales -- that's a case where someone used my OGC to create something very cool.

I'm not objecting to reuse when it's for a reason that's other than "we want everything to be free."

Am I to be singled out and punished because I was generous and am now changing to adapt to constant pressure?

 

[Piratecat]

Everyone, please keep your tempers in this thread and don't allow it to degenerate. Personal attacks on either side will in no way be tolerated.