The reason litigation is such a common theme is that this is a relatively
new concept in the game industry.. therefore, WotC is gambling that people
will follow the rules they have established and make the experiment
worthwhile. However, I would fully expect them, or any other company to go
hell bent after anyone who was violating the rules.. it is just the way of
business. More thoughts below:
----- Original Message -----
> world, waiting to swing the axe? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Open
> Sourcing supposed to be about eliminating the need for endless legal
> wrangling? Information Is Free (or is that Fee?) and all that jazz? And
if
> that isn't what the OGL is about, WotC's intentions aside, then I guess I
> may as well sign off this list, because I want no part of it.
The sad part is that you are wrong in this regard. Information isn't free.
Open Gaming isn't about eliminating legal wrangling, but more in line with
establishing CLEAR boundries that people should be able to work within.
Unlike 'Open Source' where everything is more or less free, Open Gaming is
about establishing a baseline of attributes for the game world that can be
used by others. Think of it as html.. If you want to make your html page
readable by the entire world, you must follow the basic rules of html 2.0 or
so. This is what the d2STL appears to be doing.. providing the basic tags,
etc needed for a core product. If you want to spice up the html, you can use
later specs, or browser specific stuff, but can't claim it is compatible
with everything.
There are no free lunches.. Open Gaming isn't unending license to do
anything you want and not fear legal issues. Again, as I said above, it is a
carefully worded, very limited framework of rules that allow specific uses.
> Yes, so that a select crowd of individuals, i.e. lawyers, could make their
> living interpreting the law for the likes of you and me. Thank you, oh
> great Lawyers of the World, for charging me the equivalent of 1/4 of a
press
> run to de-Babelize the complex intricacies of a 1-page document. What
crap.
> I can write a technical manual (and do!) for software that analyzes the IR
> spectra of chemical samples so that a kid with a high-school diploma can
run
> the machine and the software with maybe 8 hours of training. But when it
> comes to the OGL, let's make sure it's as obscure as possible, because
hey!
> I might be able to one day use the OGL to knock the crap out of some
> would-be competitors who try and eke a living out the RPG market using my
> system. Hooray!
There is a vast difference between a tech manual (aka: the 2-4 FAQs on OGL)
and a technical spec.. which is what the OGL is. I am sure you can write a
tech manual that someone can read and use, but can that same person read the
tech spec for each component in your complex product? Will they be able to
read the schematics for the board your product intergrates with? Or
understand the tech specs on the ROM chips in your product? The
'convoluted' OGL isn't to keep you from being able to make a living with an
RPG, but rather, designed to make sure WotC can continue to make a profit
while you make a living with an RPG product. As near as I can see, if you
dislike this model, there are four choices:
1) Hate it, but go along with it
2) Hate it, and not do an RPG
3) Love it and go with it
4) Make your own game system and release it 'open sourced' for everyone and
hope it becomes the #1 game system in the world, or at least widely used
enough that people know it exists.
And for the record, I don't think anyone was intentionally mocking your
desire for plain english interpretation of the OGL, as much as mocking the
simplicity of which you were making your stance. The 'it should be free to
all, and easy to read' discussions have run through several times, and by
now some of the normally kinder folks are likely to have forgotten that not
everyone is familiar with the pro and cons of simplification, etc. Pardon
us if we stomped on you too harshly, I am sure most people didn't mean to do
so..
Except maybe Faust, because he is evil.. (Indeed!)
-Rob
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
