WOTC, Scott, Where in the World is the GSL

[Lizard]

I still plan on paying the buy-in. I would hope they would consider extending the period or perhaps reducing the total buy-in, but that is their call. I am still strongly interested in advanced copies.

With under three months to go? At what point does getting them early cease to be worth it? Two months? One?

A six month lead has dropped to (at best) a three month lead. This despite a three year development cycle for 4e, and I'm guessing that changing the OGL was an imperative pretty early on.

The original plan would have seen a flood of quality product for GenCon, a bunch of cool 'must buy' stuff from favorite publishers, helping to 'lock in' 4e. At this point, it's looking more like XMas, and while Pathfinder isn't a serious threat to initial 4e sales, it's going to send the message of "You won't be abandoned if you like 3x, so the only thing you have to factor into your buying decision is how much you like 4e, not whether or not there'll be continuing support for the old version." This will change some people's adoption plans.

 

[Vigilance]

With under three months to go? At what point does getting them early cease to be worth it? Two months? One?

A six month lead has dropped to (at best) a three month lead. This despite a three year development cycle for 4e, and I'm guessing that changing the OGL was an imperative pretty early on.

The original plan would have seen a flood of quality product for GenCon, a bunch of cool 'must buy' stuff from favorite publishers, helping to 'lock in' 4e. At this point, it's looking more like XMas, and while Pathfinder isn't a serious threat to initial 4e sales, it's going to send the message of "You won't be abandoned if you like 3x, so the only thing you have to factor into your buying decision is how much you like 4e, not whether or not there'll be continuing support for the old version." This will change some people's adoption plans.

Agreed 100%

 

[Teflon Billy]

No one has paid the $5000 fee yet.

So, did they not have even one taker?

Or was it a "payment upon delivery of the licene" type thing?

 

[mhensley]

So why haven't we heard from anyone at wotc about this turn of events yet? No one was stirring, not even a Rouse...

 

[Brown Jenkin]

So, did they not have even one taker?

Or was it a "payment upon delivery of the licene" type thing?

The later. No one had to pay until they could read the GSL first. No GSL yet, so no-one has paid yet.

 

[Relique du Madde]

So why haven't we heard from anyone at wotc about this turn of events yet? No one was stirring, not even a Rouse...

I'm willing to bet that Hasbro's lawyers have them all tied up at the moment and that next week they will pop out of a hat and say "TADA! We have SGL!!! Paizo Jumped then gun so now they can't play with us any more.

HA HA They suck. Don't worship the flawed ideals of OGL and 3.x and the community it creates, worship WoTC and the Rouse instead! To foster in the new era of WoTC, we brought in a new supervisor who gave the Rouse a new puffy shirt and we are cleaning him up so that he looks corporate and presentable to even the most staunch parents or die-hard religious fanatics who might try and say that D&D 4e is the devil's brainchild.

To show our target demo that we like them, we are even adding shinny stickers to the packaging that saids "New and Improved! Not your Father's D&D!" and "Now Compatible with the Internet!"

Oh yeah, btw.. SGL means you can only now make adventures, classes, feats and monsters. No new rules or attachable systems because third party game developers messing around with D&D makes Hasbro nervous."

 

[Orcus]

So, did they not have even one taker?

Or was it a "payment upon delivery of the licene" type thing?

You dont have to pay until you get to see the license. There are tons of takers, just no license yet.

 

[Orcus]

So why haven't we heard from anyone at wotc about this turn of events yet? No one was stirring, not even a Rouse...

Please remember that even after the GSL is distributed for our review, we are all under NDAs so you likely wont hear anything for a while.

 

[Orcus]

With under three months to go? At what point does getting them early cease to be worth it? Two months? One?

A six month lead has dropped to (at best) a three month lead. This despite a three year development cycle for 4e, and I'm guessing that changing the OGL was an imperative pretty early on.

The original plan would have seen a flood of quality product for GenCon, a bunch of cool 'must buy' stuff from favorite publishers, helping to 'lock in' 4e. At this point, it's looking more like XMas, and while Pathfinder isn't a serious threat to initial 4e sales, it's going to send the message of "You won't be abandoned if you like 3x, so the only thing you have to factor into your buying decision is how much you like 4e, not whether or not there'll be continuing support for the old version." This will change some people's adoption plans.

I'm not saying the current situation is my preference. I would rather have gotten the rules back in November or even January of this year. But the question was would I still be in now, and the answer is yes. Would I ask if they would reduce the fee or increase the window? Again, the answer is yes I would. But if they didnt do that, would I still be in. The answer is yes.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Please remember that even after the GSL is distributed for our review, we are all under NDAs so you likely wont hear anything for a while.

Forgive me if the answer to this is obvious (I'm not in the industry), but can someone explain (or speculate) as to what WotC's goal is, or what they hope to gain by having an NDA for the license itself?

Edit- Nevermind. The purpose is the whole early adopter deal. I was just being thick I guess