WOTC, Scott, Where in the World is the GSL

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Where IS Scott Rouse anyway?

I have it on good authority (read: I just made it up) that he is currently beating up the lawyers responsible for delaying the GSL finalisation and publication.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I have it on good authority (read: I just made it up) that he is currently beating up the lawyers responsible for delaying the GSL finalisation and publication.

I just had an image of Scott Rouse in a puffy shirt hurling balls of fire into a screaming, scattering group of be-suited minions with briefcases.

HE IS LIKE UNTO A GOD!

 

[amysrevenge]

I posted this elsewhere - my guess is 10%. 10% of 4E sales of the core books probably means millions of dollars to WoTC. Whoever caused this delay at WoTC should be in danger of losing their job over this.

Whereas my guess is <0.01% lol


I know a lot of gamers (when you are into the convention scene you get to know a LOT of people, far more than someone who plays in their basement with the same people for 15 years), enough to possibly approach statistical significance. Some of the people I know, maybe 1 in 8, are not switching to 4e right away, for the various oft-repeated reasons that are well known to anyone who reads ENWorld. The number of people for whom the reason for not switching is "the delay in releasing the GSL" is exactly zero.

Mike

 

[GMSkarka]

It'll be interesting to see if WotC extends the exclusivity arrangement.

I certainly hope not. They mishandled the roll-out of GSL -- they shouldn't punish "Phase 2" (January 09) publishers because of it.

My personal view? They should eliminate the early buy-in. They'll lose the 5K per, sure, but they'll actually ensure more support as a result -- which is, after all, supposed to be the point.

It would be a goodwill gesture -- "we messed up the roll-out of the license, and as such we're not going to try to profit from it." That kind of thing.

 

[Vigilance]

I certainly hope not. They mishandled the roll-out of GSL -- they shouldn't punish "Phase 2" (January 09) publishers because of it.

My personal view? They should eliminate the early buy-in. They'll lose the 5K per, sure, but they'll actually ensure more support as a result -- which is, after all, supposed to be the point.

It would be a goodwill gesture -- "we messed up the roll-out of the license, and as such we're not going to try to profit from it." That kind of thing.

I agree.

Phase 1 made sense when what you were buying was GenCon launch and Christmas launch, now, if they push back the window, that would be a year from launch with only limited 3rd party support.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I just had an image of Scott Rouse in a puffy shirt hurling balls of fire into a screaming, scattering group of be-suited minions with briefcases.

HE IS LIKE UNTO A GOD!

I wish, I wish...

Cheers, LT.

 

[HyrumOWC]

I certainly hope not. They mishandled the roll-out of GSL -- they shouldn't punish "Phase 2" (January 09) publishers because of it.

My personal view? They should eliminate the early buy-in. They'll lose the 5K per, sure, but they'll actually ensure more support as a result -- which is, after all, supposed to be the point.

It would be a goodwill gesture -- "we messed up the roll-out of the license, and as such we're not going to try to profit from it." That kind of thing.

I'd lvoe to see that happen, but to me it's looking more and more like the GSL is just an afterthought for WotC; something they're doing to avoid the PR backlash they'd get if they had just killed it.

Hyrum.

 

[Bagpuss]

What were the lawyers doing all this time?

Getting paid by the hour?

 

[Cintra]

On the topic presented, the point that keeps resonating with me, is that Paizo is going to lose everyone that goes over to 4E. Every poll I've seen with any weight shows that more people are going to 4E than not--so it's a fair speculation that more of Paizo's market is going to move to 4E than not. It feels pretty unlikely that Pathfinder is going to bring in more players than Paizo has leaving for 4E.

And they do make some awesome adventures, I'm not in high-school/college anymore, and I don't have time to make long, expansive campaigns up. I learned the name Paizo when looking for pregen adventures! But I'm going to 4E, so I'll be looking to Necro, and hoping to see Paizo when the switch is over and the dust settles.

I'm one of the Paizo community members who has been strongly pro-4E for some time now. I'll be taking a look at Pathfinder RPG too, but my plan is to start running one of the Pathfinder adventure paths in 4E as soon as the rules come out. I'll also be posting conversion notes (along with a number of other folks) somewhere on the Paizo boards.

(Side note: one of the WotC people visited us at the Paizo boards a while back, and mentioned in passing that several groups of WotC employees were using Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords, converted on-the-fly, to run 4E in their playtest games. Apparently, while converting PCs is complex because abilities don't translate directly, converting adventures is fairly easy, because it's so easy in 4E to build exactly the monster/NPC you need. So I'm highly optimistic that the conversions will be not only possible, but very successful.)

I don't have time to make my own adventures from scratch, and frankly, I don't have the adventure crafting skills that many of Paizo's authors have demonstrated. I've been completely amazed by some of the stuff they've turned out recently - for example, "Entombed With The Pharoahs" may be one of the most imaginative, well-written adventures I've read in years. I'm also incredibly impressed by the just-released Guide to Korvosa, and the start of the newest adventure path. So whatever edition of D&D I'm ultimately playing, I fully intend to use Paizo adventures for as long as they keep publishing. (end shameless plug )

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I would be interested to see if they pull the $5K buy-in.

AFAIK, the 5K wasn't there to make WotC any money ... it was there specifically to keep small-press publishers from producing lots of product.

I imagine they'll push the dates out. I've always seen it as a move specifically motivated by a desire to suppress certain elements of the hobby publishing community by requiring a certain level of dedication from larger companies to ensure relatively few, relatively high-quality products in the opening phase of 4E.


--fje