On Sun, 17 Sep 2000, Ryan S. Dancey wrote:
> Therefore, to suggest that because I happen to work for Wizards of
> the Coast, each and every single thing that I do in my private life
> must therefore be an extension of Wizards of the Coast corporate
> policy is not only inaccurate, but indeed highly insulting.
Hm. Ryan, you have spoken about Open Gaming as an official
representative of Wizards of the Coast -- explaining the corporate policy
of which the OGL is a part. Meanwhile, the OGF website deleted references
and links to Dominion Games which were once there -- coincidentally around
the same time as they decided not to go with the WotC-written OGL. There
is no mention of the other open-license games which predated the WotC
push. Furthermore, you have judged for yourself that the largest
other open-source-like game (FUDGE) does not match the Foundations
criteria which you wrote -- and thus do not support it.
While I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,
I think the long list of coincidences between WotC policy and your
personal judgement is at least grounds for suspicion. As an example,
you gave an interview with rpg.net where you said:
"We make more revenue and more profit from our core rulebooks than any
other part of our product lines. [...]
The logical conclusion says that reducing the "cost" to other people to
publishing and supporting the core D&D game to zero should eventually
drive support for all other game systems to the lowest level possible
in the market, create customer resistance to the introduction of new
systems, and the result of all that "support" redirected to the D&D
game will be to steadily increase the number of people who play D&D,
thus driving sales of the core books."
I personally would feel better if the OGF website would list the
Foundation's membership and include in this what their affiliations
are. As far as I understand, at this point in time you are the sole
member of the OGF. Those who subscribe to the mailing lists may
express their opinions, but - for example - you have control over
the OGF website content and have written all of the current text
about its goals and opinions.
- John
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
