Wizards of the Coast has a fansite policy?

Oh, you can bet its up now. A fansite policy. Reading it, you can tell one thing about Wizards.

THEY HATE THEIR CUSTOMERS! THEY HATE US!

Come on, Wizards, where is the love? What happened to the hippy movement in the 1960's. The Summer of Luv, the Winter of Luv? What happened to the pioneering movement of the Open Gaming License? I think you just threw all of that away. So, just . . . stick your license up your proverbial donkey!

What? You're hiding behind that stupid Copyright Law guaranteed by the Constitution? Uhm, Wizards, you've abused that Law one too many times to hide behind it now. Look at what happened. You've set a legal precedent for games that can't be stopped (the Open Game License). Anyone can create a game now based off the d20 system, you can't stop it. Why, do you say, its your legal perogative? Look, you {expletive censored for those with sensitive eyes} Intellectual Property is a myth so DEAL WITH IT!

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. :)

What if Hasbro gets itself out of the RPG business?

So, what would happen if the D&D brand fails and the RPG development department is suddenly out of a job due to Hasbro's corporate bullying and draconian tactics to protect its D&D sales? One thing for sure, people won't stop playing Dungeons and Dragons. Plus, a lot of talent from WotC will look to find work doing what they do best: create games.

Dungeons and Dragons is forever. There would be no official supplements, but it will be subsumed into the community. The community of gamers will support Dungeons and Dragons on the web and the internet. And various companies will fight to become top dog.

One person hopes that if WotC tanks due to Hasbro mis-management of the D&D brand, it would be sold to Iron Crown Enterprises and the Rolemaster revision of the game would be the 5th incarnation of the Game. Since wizards did everything to make D&D not D&D, Dungeons and Dragons is just a marketing brand if nothing else.

Just something to ponder . . .

Although, if WotC does tank due to mis-managment by the PARENT company; I do hope that D&D is sold to a company that understands how the D20 System and the OGL worked for Dungeons and Dragons. OR . . . even better . . . make it totally open sourced and COPYLEFTED; allowing anyone to produce work for the game with a simple game license like the OGL was.

What is Dungeons and Dragons anyway?

Greywulf's latest rant about WotC's policies has gotten me thinking. What is Dungeons and Dragons anyway? Dungeons and Dragons, at it's very core, is what you would call a "Gestalt" game. For Dungeons and Dragons to be successful, or any other roleplaying game, you need the collective energy of many creative people. Dungeons and Dragons requires the Creative Gestalt of its fans and 3rd party developers in order to thrive and be successful.

According to Greywulf's post, Wizards of the Coast has gotten itself some trouble over defending it's game: Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. It seems that Wizards has taked on 3rd party developers for developing items for 4th Edition D&D. I have only one thing to say to Wizards of the Coast about this behavior: BAD FORM!

Copyright and trademarks aside, Wizards of the Coast, nor Hasbro, does not have the right to tell anyone how they report their feelings on their products. This behavior, which I call Corporate bullying, is clearly against our Constitutional Right that guarantees free speech. There is nothing in U.S. Copyright or Trademark Law that proscribes this behavior. A company may justify such behavior by invoking these laws, but these laws were set up to protect both the Producer (Wizards of the Coast/HASBRO) and the Consumer (the Fans).

It is not stealing or infringement for fans to report on how they use Dungeons and Dragons privately in a semi-public venue (such as a Web Log, like mine right here). Not one trademark is used, and your Copyright is not violated. Like I said before, a game like Dungeons and Dragons depends on both fans and 3rd party developers to thrive, grow, and be successful. The Open Game License allowed the 3rd incarnation of Dungeons and Dragons to thrive and grow.

Take away the rights of the fans to talk about Dungeons and Dragons on the Internet; and you effectively kill your fan base. TSR, inc. failed in 1997 because it aggressively defended it's trademark, the Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition logo. And they did it right. But at what cost?

TSR, inc.; through its actions, FAILED to endear their target audience to their company. The fans completely became disloyal and TSR started to die. WotC, it seems, is playing the same game again. They are aggressively defending the D&D Brand -- which is what TSR had done. But instead of looking for actual culprits they are hitting the fanbase for some thing as inconsequential as this. Actions like these can actually estrange a company like WotC from its fan base. Something no company can AFFORD to do.