WotC to Revise D&D 4th Edition GSL and SRD

[Mercule]

Can we now put to bed the ridiculous idea that WotC wanted to get rid of 3pp support?

Hope springs eternal.

 

[Ginnel]

I'm also totally stunned by the lack of professionalism and, IMO, hypocrisy from some in this thread. They really seem to enjoy putting the screws to "the man", taking this from professional disagreement to a dedication to shame individuals and their employer in public as much as possible.

Fine. I've also made some notes of who has said what, in this thread and others. They won't have my support as a customer, even if they're a contributor for a product of another publisher. You drag the hobby down. It's one thing to be understandably skeptical, but some here are just over the top. I bet that neither Scott nor Lidda nor a single employee at WOTC have ever been so rude, in such a personal fashion, to their colleagues in this industry as some here have been to them.

You should keep in mind that as "indie" (or small company) publishers, writers and designers, you are marketing youselves with every post you make. As far as I'm concerned, some in this thread blundered far more in the past day or so than WOTC has all year. Hope it was worth it to you.

OTOH, others are showing real class under the circumstances. I bet your enthusiasm and professionalism carry through to your products. I've noted that too, and I look forward to purchasing them.

A well written post, echoing my sentiments almost to a tea.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No, that's *snip*

Comeone, Charwoman Gene, don't be so bitter. Eriks choice of words were... poor, but let's be "better" than that. It also keeps the mods happy...

 

[Ourph]

I'm also totally stunned by the lack of professionalism and, IMO, hypocrisy from some in this thread. They really seem to enjoy putting the screws to "the man", taking this from professional disagreement to a dedication to shame individuals and their employer in public as much as possible.

Fine. I've also made some notes of who has said what, in this thread and others. They won't have my support as a customer, even if they're a contributor for a product of another publisher. You drag the hobby down. It's one thing to be understandably skeptical, but some here are just over the top. I bet that neither Scott nor Lidda nor a single employee at WOTC have ever been so rude, in such a personal fashion, to their colleagues in this industry as some here have been to them.

I would just like to add my +1 to this sentiment. When 4e was first announced, I was very skeptical about the changes. I looked into Pathfinder as an alternative and saw some stuff that I liked. But the behavior of some of the Paizo fans and contributors both here and at the Paizo boards really soured me to the game and even motivated me to reconsider my stance on 4e - which I eventually ended up buying and liking. Since I started running a 4e game, at least 3 of my other gaming friends have also changed their minds about 4e and, knowing them, if that hadn't happened they likely would have bought into Pathfinder as well. I count that as 4 lost Pathfinder sales because people associated with Pathfinder chose the low road.

 

[Vocenoctum]

So the half on this poll here http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=235481 who are not switching are non-representative?

900 votes? I'm not even sure that's representative of what ENWOrld thinks, let alone what the players overall think.

How about the 150+ people I talked to a week and a half ago at the convention in Spokane where I was a guest, half of whom didn't have very positive things to say about 4E? Or how about the local game store where I'm seeing the same trend? I suppose that you'd count that as anecdotal, or better yet, question my integrity since I've made up my mind about which game I'm playing.

You know it's anecdotal, and you also already remarked in this thread about dismissing Internet "evidence". (While disregarding amazon ranking and such of course.)

Integrity is whether you're presenting information you know to be flawed as accurate in order to further your goal. Only you can say whether that's true.

 

[mechascorpio]

I would just like to add my +1 to this sentiment. When 4e was first announced, I was very skeptical about the changes. I looked into Pathfinder as an alternative and saw some stuff that I liked. But the behavior of some of the Paizo fans...

I just want to be clear about my original statement. My sentiment has nothing to do with edition numbers or Paizo or anything other than common courtesy and professionalism. I've yet to look at Pathfinder and haven't really encountered its fans, so my comments weren't motivated by that. I'm simply saying that if I were to see colleagues in my own industry (broadcast video) act like this, I wouldn't see them as very professional, nor think much of their products and publications, nor the companies that chose to work with them.

 

[catsclaw227]

<snip>
A number of LPJ posts in this thread
<snip>

Wow... I just pulled three sidetreck adventures OUT of my rpgnow shopping cart.

You just lost another customer. And I have spent over $3000 on 3.x PDFs.

 

[Delta]

900 votes? I'm not even sure that's representative of what ENWOrld thinks, let alone what the players overall think.

Whether it's representative or not has almost nothing to do with the number of votes cast.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Wow... I just pulled three sidetreck adventures OUT of my rpgnow shopping cart.

You just lost another customer. And I have spent over $3000 on 3.x PDFs.

For what? Speaking the truth? Have you hired a lawyer lately?
And who can deny the GSL (as it stands) was a bad business decision?

 

[catsclaw227]

I know that sounds rather awful (and quite possibly selfish), but when the current GSL debuted, it made a lot of companies who would have produced 4E materials balk, and in some cases kept them in the 3.5 camp. Needless to say, for those of us who had no interest in switching editions, this was a great thing, as it kept some of our favorite companies producing the materials we wanted to see. However, solidarity fades away if there's a lack of opposition, and I'm worried that if the new GSL is friendlier, those companies will drop their 3.5 support for 4E. I don't want Kobold Quarterly to become a 4E publication. I don't want Paizo to let Pathfinder go in favor of a new 4E venture (though in all honesty that seems unlikely now anyway). I want third-parties to continue producing 3.5 materials, rather than 4E materials - but without a GSL that heavily penalizes them for it, they may now go ahead with the 4E plans they originally had.

In some weird Alice in Wonderland way, I can totally understand this and feel what you are saying.

But jeeeeeeez. Isn't there ENOUGH 3.x material out there already? I currently have enough quality 3.5 material to DM for the rest of my life. Is there really a need for more? It's one thing to wish for support when your options are limited, but my goodness.... Just in adventures and campaign source books alone I don't even think I could read it all, let alone DM it all.