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

[Dragonblade]

I will add that right now there is no evidence that anyone other than Nick Logue is affected, unless others want to come forward?

I would presume that this has more to do with him actually being a Paizo employee and not just because he is a 3.5 writer.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

The GSL frightens me more and more, when I hear things like this. Is this really the kind of environment I want to help develop 3rd party games or adventures for? I really would like wotc to comment on what happened here, because if they don't, I can only assume the worst.

 

[DaveMage]

No offense to takasi, but I think before we pass judgment we should hear what Nick has to say.

I'm guessing there's a misinterpretation somewhere here.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

It's one thing for WotC to tell their full-time employees that they can't freelance. I don't like that, but I can understand why they wouldn't want them to do so.

<SNIP>

EDIT: Looking back at the OP, this seems to be WotC's reaction to Nick's employment at Paizo, rather than his freelancing. In that case, this is slightly more forgivable, though I still think it's ultimately a bad idea. Lending fame to someone's name doesn't seem like it'd be more important than putting out a good book that could sell a large number of copies.

If you hire someone as staff to develop intellectual property, then it is somewhat of a conflict if they develop similar intellectual property for another company.

Now I can understand that you might want to extend to other companies in the field the courtesy of not creating a similar conflict of interest.

Now I don't know the details. I don't know the extent of anyone's employment here.

 

[Cadfan]

If they are saying "you support 3.5, so you can never work for us again", well, then I personally think that's stupidity and pettiness trying to masquerade as good business sense.

But Logue is NOT supporting 3.5. He's supporting an entire independent competing roleplaying game that happens to market itself as a 3.5 update, and which is being created for the express purpose of skimming off a crop of 3.5 players who might have otherwise switched to 4e.

Disclaimer- I'm not saying that Nick Logue or Paizo are bad for this. Its business. Paizo didn't create the Pathfinder RPG for the benefit of Wizards of the Coast, and Wizards of the Coast didn't create 4e for the benefit of Paizo.

 

[kenmarable]

You seriously over-estimate how many people care about WoTC's business decisions when it comes to writers. Only the die-hard roleplayers who visit places like ENworld and Paizo daily (or very often at least) will ever know, and of those, a majority won't care. Normal gamers will never know, and even if they did, a vast majority won't care at all.

Fair enough. I'm just saying bad PR in this industry, can quickly become VERY BAD PR. Just consider TSR in their cease and desist era. Of course, that was directed at the fans rather than writers, but also nowadays with more open communications, writers have a much larger interaction and are less faceless than they were in the past.

*shrug* So who knows. Either way, it's just a second-hand rumor at this point, so I'm not certainly going to get worked up over it. There's some interesting discussion, but nothing to get emotional about yet. (Besides, I also realize it might coincide more with Nick starting his own company than his work with Paizo. I can kinda see not wanting to have the president of another gaming company doing freelance work for you, but technically Ari is co-founder of Lions Den Press. And, again, this has always been a small, tightly inter-related industry that doesn't necessarily operate as big business would.)

 

[Jason Bulmahn]

Hi there all,

Mike's post over on the Paizo boards is correct. No one at Paizo has gotten any freelance from Wotc since 3.5 production came to a halt. The only exception to this was a single Dungeon Tiles piece I got from them a few months ago.

I, personally, do not think this is wrong on the part of Wotc. I can completely understand them not giving out their new system to a bunch of freelancers who are paid employees of other game companies. That just makes sense. The unfortunate side of this, is all of us freelancers who happen to work for other game companies have been completely shut off from that process now for many many months, with the delay tied directly to the GSL problems. I, for one, am hoping that these issues get sorted out soon so that I can get back into the loop.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Freelance Designer

 

[Alzrius]

If you hire someone as staff to develop intellectual property, then it is somewhat of a conflict if they develop similar intellectual property for another company.

WotC isn't hiring Nick Logue to develop IP's, though. They're saying that they can't contract him as a freelancer to write books that they've already decided upon, made notes for, and gotten art contracts for, etc. Freelance writers are hired to put text to the company's existing ideas, is all. 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.

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.

 

[DM_Jeff]

The more you tighten your grip Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

-DM Jeff

 

[Thyrwyn]

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.

Anyone who cares to argue that Paizo has not positioned themselves as such, feel free.