Wizards: Musings on the new DDi disaster

[Scribble]

As an entertainment lawyer, I giggle back.

No US copyright case has ever been decided solely on the strength of the boilerplate in a ToS agreement. In fact, boilerplate between parties to a contract who are demonstrably of radically unequal bargaining power is generally either interpreted most strictly against the contract drafter or ignored altogether.

I'm not saying to ignore such language, just don't get too scared by it.

Yeah... generally I find these are in there to protect the company in the result of them making something that resembles your thing by coincidence, more then them actively looking to steal your character build...

They don't want every gamer left of the Mississippi suing them because they released an NPC that closely resembles a certain 1000' tall halfling thief they made.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't think there is any one apocalyptic event that will destroy the hobby, I think it may keep dying little deaths as it has done since its peak in the 80's. If you are WotC, you have to realize that every sale is important, especially in these economic times, and they just can't afford this mismanagement.

And with every one little death... there is an equal and opposite little birth.

If WotC was truly "dying" as you and others are trying to imply (if not outright say for a few of you)... why is the D&D game still on sale, still being published, and new and better extras still being created for it? Might it be because for every ENWorlder who posts in these forums that they've been "lost" as a customer... another new customer has been created elsewhere and has just not yet found the time or desire to come to a place like this to trumpet that they've just started the game and are enjoying the heck out of it?

I know it must pain a few of you to realize it... but us messageboarders are only a small segment of the D&D population... and just because we're able and willing to come here decrying the state of the Character Builder a mere 35 minutes after it gets released to the public... doesn't mean we are the overwhelming voice of all D&D players out there.

Perspective, people... it's all about trying to maintain a little perspective.

 

[Blastin]

I was gonna write a long post on my feelings about the current situation....but instead I'm gonna get on the CB and make up a Mage

 

[Herschel]

In my case it is an example of how sharing of the CB gained a player for a 4E game rather than that player just not playing at all.

......New online format, there isn't a thing that says:
"January 1, 2011 - WotC announces they are releasing 5e on January 2, 2011."
And they simply flip the switch on the Online CB for 4.0 to 5.0.

First, your understanding of American Copyright law is......shall we say extremely limited and inaccurate.

Secondly, gaining a player who isn't a customer is useless to them. As long as you aren't a potential buyer, your opinion means essentially nothing.

Thirdly, it would be shocking, and shockingly stupid (and impossible) for them to get cleared through any channels. There would be no hype build-up, not marketing campaign AND they would be giving away their new content for "essentially" free to every subscriber.

 

[evilref]

Ah, US copyright law, your failure to understand it makes me giggle, and also makes me sad.



Enjoy giving WotC your characters.

Edit: DannyAlcatraz has already made my point in a more stylish way. But then as an American lawyer he gets bonus style. Only barristers get to look good in court over here.

 

[P1NBACK]

@P1NBACK Fair enough! Really I was just interested in your logic.

[MENTION=23977]Scribble[/MENTION] It's all good. Was a good question.

As an aside, I think I sent you a friend request on Xbox Live. Hit me up for some Black Ops, Halo, or something some time.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

I'm astounded at how much anger there is in this thread. When I tried out the new character builder, it crashed after a little while. I went "oh well, I'll get back to it after a few weeks" and wiped the matter from my mind. There was a slight disappointment, but nothing radical. I almost feel like, for some people, their like of a particular game is decided between the actual playing on one hand, and the "war on the boards" on the other; the constant meta-discussion of the game, the company that makes it, the state of the edition, and so on. If the tone gets too negative, that negativity somehow spreads out into the game (they still enjoy to play), and so they stop playing it. I'm not saying that this is the way it works for all people, and I'm definately not saying that WoTC doesn't make mistakes, but I think people should just take it easy.

 

[Scribble]

It's all good. Was a good question.

As an aside, I think I sent you a friend request on Xbox Live. Hit me up for some Black Ops, Halo, or something some time.

Yeah I accepted it last night... Will probably be waiting till Christmas to get either of those... I'm behind the times I know- but I just got a Kinect, so my fun money is in rehab for a b it.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

I have used the new CB for approximately 5 to 6 hrs over the past 2 days. I have had 3 crashes but all of them happened when importing previous characters from the old CB. I have as of yet got to to crash other than that.

It does take some getting used to since it is so unlike the previous CB. But once you get past that it as worked well for me on both Firefox and IE. I have as of yet to try it on Chrome.

 

[the Jester]

Ah, US copyright law, your failure to understand it makes me giggle, and also makes me sad.

You say this as if you are an attorney. Are you?

Your assertion:

If WotC were to say "we officially announce that any rule, any character, any world you create with out system is ours." then they would be legally within their rights.

I maintain that they would not be legally within their rights. An entertainment lawyer has already weighed in against your perspective. The fact is, game rules cannot be copyrighted, only their presentation. (That's the seed of the OSR movement.) The reasoning for having a clause like that in the TOS has already been laid out- basically, it's a legal protection against claims that WotC "stole" your stuff.

If I homebrew a campaign, your assertion is that WotC can claim ownership over it? If I write up homebrewed paragon paths and epic destinies and magic items and powers, your assertion is that WotC can claim ownership over them?

IANAL, but I think you are completely wrong.

Now, if you mean that anything you post to their server would become their property- well, you'd have more of a case, but I still wouldn't agree. But your assertion seems to be that anything created for 4e belongs to them.