D&D 3E/3.5 WotC Rejecting 3.5 Writers?

[LowSpine]

He is working for a competitor that is working on a competing product.

Can you imagine the Allies letting a German employed nuclear scientist come into to their lab to help them do some work on their H-Bomb and then saying here is some cash and then letting him go back to Germany.

It would just be stupid. It is nothing to do with licenses. It is just a case of not being an idiot. The same if they kept a closed shop - at least until 4E took off.

 

[Cadfan]

The implication is now that, since Nick's working for Paizo, putting his name on a WotC book would draw more attention to him personally, and Paizo by extension, which is bad for WotC. This strikes me as being a bad idea, since he's a very talented writer, and his books would be good ones that would sell large numbers, making WotC money.

This is only a concern if there is no adequate Nick Logue replacement available to WOTC.

In fact, I think that makes even less sense since Paizo is going 3.5E, which is a different RPG than 4E; I don't think that indirectly and unintentionally making people more aware of him and Paizo will make those 4E customers suddenly switch their purchases to Pathfinder instead.

Its not a competition for predeclared, locked in 4e customers. Its a competition for people who might buy 4e and might not. Pathfinder RPG is an alternative product.

 

[Wormwood]

You do not hire competitors as freelancers.

Yeah, still trying to figure out the controversy here.

 

[takasi]

I feel like I've made a mistake by posting Nick's name here, and I asked the mods to please delete this thread.

He responded to me when I asked if he was going to do any material for Eberron when it comes out next year. I was very sad to hear that he won't be writing for the setting.

On the plus side, he does have one more Eberron module coming soon in Dungeon, and he recently started Sinister Adventures.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

Warp core breech!!!!

KABOOM!!!!!

 

[Baka no Hentai]

From the perspective of someone who has never really followed the whole 3rd party publisher movement, I'm surprised at how surprised a lot of you are over WOTC's decision to do this. From what has been said in the thread so far, Nick is a paid employee of a publisher that has recently put itself in the position as a direct competitor with WOTC's upcoming product. It makes less business sense IMO to hire someone in that situation.

Now, if this applies to all true freelancers (meaning those who are not employees of competing companies) then I could understand the shock, but theres no evidence of that at this time.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I am with DragonBlade on this one:
IF Nick is a Paizo employee (not just freelancing for them), then WoTC has done what any sensible company would do to to preserve their intellectual property and product. You do not hire competitors as freelancers. Period.

1) Yes, Logue has accepted a position with Paizo.

2) Companies do contract work out to their competitors all the time. When I worked at a hotel chain during college, if we did not have enough room for all the customers (i.e. airplane grounded and there is not enough room at our hotel) we sent them to our competition. When I was an process engineer for a insulation company, if we had more orders then we could fill, we contracted that out to our competition and we accepted work from our competition.

Many 3.0/3.5 WotC books were written by Paizo employees while they were working for Paizo. Mona has a greyhawk speciality like few at Wizards. So guess who's name is on the cover of Expedition to Castle Greyhawk? Take a look at the rest of your WotC books.

 

[Cyronax]

I think much of this is premature. Wait until the 4e line comes out in June and maybe through the convention season as well as the GSL release 3rd party products.

I think WotC's just in a pressure moment right now and need all their men accounted for.

Of course what do I know?

C.I.D.

 

[Rykion]

Now, if this applies to all true freelancers (meaning those who are not employees of competing companies) then I could understand the shock, but theres no evidence of that at this time.

This is the internet. When given a small amount of information, it's always the way of the internet to jump to the worst conclusion possible.

 

[Simplicity]

I doubt it has anything to do with GSL or OGL. I think it has something to do with the fact that Paizo has created a direct competitor for 4th edition while riding the 3.5e gravy train that Wizards was mainly responsible for. And that Paizo put a pretty big crack right down the middle of the RPG community.

Then again, Wizards did cancel Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon contracts way in advance so that they could do this whole DDI thing badly. And that annoyed a lot gamers too.

Then again, Paizo had already begun branching out with GameMastery products that put them in a competitive position... That probably annoyed no one except for the suits at Hasbro.

I bet they're all still really BFFs though. BFFs who love to kick each other in the nuts.