OK, since this is going to end up going round and round... Let me interject a few things here.
First I must give a little history lesson of the activity of the list up until just prior to Thanksgiving last year. Please try and read the entire message, before trying to comment on any one section. Once upon a time there was born a Yahoo Community Group called Free20 -- the that it was given, was based on an idea someone once had of an altruistic vision of creating 100% Open Gaming Works. When it was first born, it provided a haven for people that wanted something other then what was being provided here, and on the other OGF lists. A haven for people that wanted to do things that the "commercial publishers" or "WotC" frowned upon. Thus it attracted many people. Some of which wanted to create an Open Gaming Logo, others that wanted a 100% Open Logo, some that wanted an alternative d20 Logo because they were planning on including "forbidden fruit" in their product, some because they wanted something anti-WotC, some because they wished to create open projects that weren't DnD, people that wanted to create Computer Software, and many others which I'm sure I'm leaving out. Almost everyone came to the group for their own personal reason, which was in some way related to being Open Gaming, but not WotC d20 Logo. Almost immeadiately this group broke down into three major factions. 1. The Open Gaming Logo people. (Inluding the 100% Open) 2. The "Alternative" to WotC d20 Logo 3. The I want to build a Open Game people (included people who wanted chargen/exp rules, and software people) Each member generally held clear illeagence to one of these catagories, but usually had sympathies for the other groups. But almost each and everyone came in with "Blinders" -- seeking a particular goal, not really caring if other peoples goals would be met. The vast majority of the group was interested in d20 compatible systems, so the "alternative" open gaming people pretty much got side lined, except for vocal supporters of such an item. Thus there were only 2 groups. Once the "general open gamers" were put to pasture, we hi-jacked the "Free20" logo to create a new shade to the existing d20 Network, a shade that allowed the restricted elements, and provided support for Software programmers. At the same time the people looking to "complete" the d20 SRD, and reflush it out into a complete game (rather then a dictionary of rules) began hunting for a name for this system. It was determined that the "Free20" logo would be used to indicate compatibility with this system, which being >initially< just d20 SRD -- would accomplish the goals of the "Logo People" -- after an exhaustive search for a name for our system, it was decided that we would also use the name Free20 for our system -- thus was born the "Free20 RPG System" So we had boiled it all done to just one trademark, Free20, which would serve multiple purposes. During this entire time, there were people interested in "writing our complete SRD" that kept asking us to stop talking about stupid Logos, because "we don't need a logo if we don't have something to put it on." Which all the "logo people" would respond to with, "we don't care about some stupid RPG System, I'm using the WotC SRD." As these descussions began to heat up, about a dozen different things happened all at the same time. The original sidelined "other open gaming license" people showed back up on the scene and said "Hey where is our logo!?" The actuall graphics for the Free20/Open20 logos showed up, people started brain storming logos like the Openbox, and generally all hell broke loose. The list went dead. Well practically dead. When it woke back up, no body could agree on where we were, what we were trying to do, and where we were going. Arguments broke out. It was decided that there needed to be someone to try and give focus to everything. I was elected to be that patsi (sp?) ur, I mean that leader. So I stepped in and decided there should be Three Things. 1. Support for open gaming in general 2. A "Complete RPG System" based on the SRD, and a logo that could be used to indicate compatiblity with it, and through it's connection with the SRD, to the rest of the d20 System network. 3. A logo for indicating compatibility with the Free20 system, while also supporting and expanding open gaming by requiring a higher level of openness then publishers were at the time providing. Thus was born the new meaning of the OpenDie (1), the Open20 (2), and Free20 (3) Logos. I have generally failed to make it clear to everyone these facts. That added to the fact that some members of the Free20 group are only concerned about meeting their specific goals, has created a lot of confusion. Because any single member stating what they think "Free20" is will produce a tainted opinion, based on their own goals. In this process, it was determined that a non-profit corporation should be formed to 1) provide a shield to protect our asses, I mean personal assets 2) provide a single entity that could hold the copyrights and trademarks of the effort, that was not "owned" by a single person 3) to provide a level of legitamcy to the whole thing. To that end we have formed a non-profit corporation entitled -- "The Free Gaming Association" -- FGA. We became legal, in the state of Washington, this last week. The Board of Directors will take what I have outlined so far, including numerous draft licenses, the artwork, our Free20 RPG System and the various history of the Free20 list and will decide on a direction for our group. Please stay tuned, as we hope to make announcements regarding the Board of Directors, the General Makeup and Goals of the Free Gaming Association over the next week or two. Thank you for your time. Sincerly, Michael Cortez Free Gaming Association http://www.freegamingassociation.org _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
