Licenses and Lawyers?

Ever heard of the new game, Licenses and Lawyers? You haven't? It's the game we play when we play Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. There is a good reason why I didn't buy into 4e yet, and that reason is simple enough.

My gaming group is against it. However, over the past few months, a new reason has cropped up. WotC has jealousy. Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of HASBRO) is showing how jealous they actually are of their customers.

WotC is incredibly, and incredulously, jealous. This zealous feel of making everything in the Monstrous Manual theirs shows how jealous they actually are of their customers. And with the GSL, they also show how jealous they are of their customers. The Licenses and Lawyers game we are playing with them makes them reak of jealousy. And we put up with the crap. We put up with the crap because the U.S. Constitution guarantees Copyright protection -- and it's abused in this case.

Well, if you look at it literally, you can tell that they are jealous. WotC is run by Bean Counters and not by the people in the RPG R&D department. It's the Bean Counters who are jealous of their customers, not the RPG R&D department. I've talked to a number of RPG designers in WotC, and they are quite happy, wonderful guys and gals. However, I have not talked to the bean counters over them to get their side of the story.

I think it's an awful thing that WotC abuses the guarantees of the Copyright provisions in the U.S. Constitution to make us play Licenses and Lawyers. It would have been easier just to take the GSL away and tell everyone that D&D is closed again. :)