JoMaC2k wrote:
> >At this point, it precludes nothing. You are free to reprint the license
> >with WotC's permission.
>
> In other words, WotC can decide what we can and cannot print based on
> whether or not they allow us to reprint the license. Sure sounds open to me.
> I very slowly becoming disheartened with this open-gaming concept.
You are not alone.
So who are we supposed to ask permission of? WotC in general, or Ryan,
or who? The comment by Christopher about WotC not being too heavily
involved seems pretty clear to me. I feel that Faust is more than
justified in his stance and protest on the issue. It is open, as long
as you abide by their License, which you have to get permission from
them to use. They aren't involved????? They are running the show, but
trying to do it with puppet strings from above, the only problem is that
those puppet strings look like steel cables to me.
What is happening here is that WotC is now avoiding having to produce
the "high risk/low profit" products that tend to bring down their bottom
line, while luring the little guys to take over those same "high
risk/low profit" portions of the market, and at the same time, playing
up the marketing value that goes along with a "new and improved" product
that is released under a supposedly "open" format.
Personally I agree with Faust. Unfortunately WotC is doing what they
need to do (despite many of us not liking or agreeing with it), after
all they are in business to make money, and they have just maneuvered
their business position in such a way as to maximize this (and at the
same time making a feeble attempt at pulling the wool over the general
publics eyes.
But the biggest problem that I have is the bit that Faust mentioned:
"The Open Gaming Foundation is a private organization, and it not
managed by or overseen by Wizards of the Coast or any other game
publisher."
Which is intended to lead you to believe that they have no control over
the OGF, despite them making the rules that govern it (WotC legal
department wrote and approved the OGL) and then requiring you to ask
permission to use those rules (i.e. the O. G. License).
Picture them as the "Adepts of Hermes" from "Illuminati" (or maybe more
accurately the "Bermuda Triangle", after all their system is erratic and
doesn't always make a lot of sense, and is in no way the best RPG system
out there). With the puppet strings dangling down into the OGF.
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
