dmccoy1693
Adventurer
Orcus said:I was worried friday. I have calmed down a bit. It isnt like me to get all freaky. But I do feel so very strongly that it is a huge mistake to not allow third party publishers to support 4E.
So I appologize for my public statements of concern. I dont retract them. I still have them.
But as I have said on my own boards, I shouldnt panic. (and to the extent I am causing that, I am sorry and should be more well behaved). In the end, I know there are good people who are trying to get this done. Scott. Linae. Et al.
And, in the end, this is the company that saved D&D, opened up open gaming and continued to support it. They certainly deserve the benefit of the doubt, despite my concerns.
I still believe the openness of 4E will be supported, whether by GSL or not and whether as open as I want it to be or not. Perhaps more restrictive than the OGL, perhaps not.
My faith remains! Go Scott, Go Linae! Go Wizards!
Clark
Orcus, you have to be the eternal optimist (not meant as an insult, merely an observation). Myself, I'm an engineer. My glass contains 50% water, 50% air. Here's how I see it. I see "vetting their policy concerning open gaming" as bad news. Here's why. Wizards is using tactics common to either a person or an orginization that is only learning the basics of PR. I will give Wizards this credit, they have learned alot about PR since the Dungeon/Dragon mags license catastrof***, but their still not a politician grade at PR. Here's what I see:
1) They announced bad news on a friday. Managers that don't know any better fire employees on a friday. The thinking is that they won't have to deal with the reprocussions if they do it on a friday. Studies have shown that that is the worst thing a manager can do. Reason being is that if you lose your job on a friday, a person has all weekend to sit and stew and get angry and show up to work on monday and cause some violence. Studies also show that those that lose their job Monday-Wednesday tend to polish their resume right away and more quickly make looking for a new job their full time job, usually the next morning. With most offices closed Saturday and Sunday, a fired person has nothing to do but sit and stew in their anger.
2) Their news was ambiguous. Your first reaction, Orcus, was that someone from wizards needed to come on right away and clarify it. Reason they say something ambiguous so they don't feel like the bad guys. Nobody wants to be the bearer of the bad news. So saying something that is not wholely one thing or the other "weasels" themselves out of being the bad guy (to borrow the term from Scott Adams). Their description was not as polished as a greater weasel, because initial reaction was negative.
(For the record, Scott Adams does not use the term "weasel" in a bad way, but merely defines it as the "gigantic gray area between good moral behavior and outright felonious activities." Usually only a greater weasel can spot a lesser weasel. So maybe that makes me a greater weasel then Wizards. I don't know.)
So what is it that I see? I have to agree with Joe Browning on this: Wizards is following a logical path that has a logical conclusion, which is no public license.