From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Faustus von
Goethe
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000 10:29 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [Open_Gaming] Non-D20 Reference Documents
<< You are again being very literal. You know you *can* win a lawsuit, but
still lose money, time, and public goodwill? IMO *any* lawsuit will shake
faith in the OGL. TSR "won" against Mayfair, but TSR AND the gaming
industry "lost" a great deal in the process. >>
Interesting theory: the conflict between intentions and consequences. And
you cite some plausible examples of how such might happen. Others disagree;
but I think you make a case for plausibility.
Now... Clark has made a case for the conflict between your intentions
(making a database of maximal utility to OGL developers) and a plausible
consequence (potential consumers downloading so much stuff from your
database as to make OGL commercially unviable). You may disagree; but I hope
you can see that Clark's concern in plausible.
And in BOTH cases -- the filing of the suit and the creation of the
database -- the acting parties would be entirely within their rights as
specified by the OGL. That does not make the consequences one less bit
serious, should they come to pass.
You will choose to do what you will. You may argue that the benefits for any
commercial producer outweigh the costs. But YOU don't get to decide that
(though I urge you to keep making your case, since we're all better off if
you're right). Clark does, for SSS. Steve does, for White Wolf. And so on,
and so on. And just as you urge people to avoid the law suit if they can,
because you fear the unintended consequence... they urge you to consider the
"reference list" database, because they fear the unintended consequence of
the "exhaustive" database.
Now I fear a different but related unintended consequence. As a D20
consumer, I fear that I'll see no more products like "Creature Collection"
or "Death in Freeport" or "Three Days to Kill". Why do I fear this? Because
I fear that, until things settle down a bit, the major commercial producers
are on the same verge that I as a wannabe commercial producer am on: ready
to chuck it all and go back to my home brew system, where the risk that I
will invest vast sums only to watch it all get downloaded away are less. Now
the potential benefits are less, of course: Percentile Curves is just not as
well known of a system as D20, and would make me happy to sell 100 copies.
But the major players have had to carefully balance risks vs. benefits
before sticking their toes into the water. Now your eager efforts to produce
an exhaustive database are changing that balance. I GUARANTEE that this
discussion is giving commercial producers doubts about the viability of this
endeavor. What none of us know is just exactly how much doubt will cause the
commercial producers to start the exodus. And just as you fear a consequence
you cannot quantify, and Clark fears a consequence he cannot quantify... I
fear that you may tip the balance past some unquanitifiable instability
point beyond which there is no return.
So while I would never try to tell you not to do what you can legally do, I
would ask you to consider carefully the concerns that others have raised.
Like your fears, theirs are not unfounded just because they cannot
definitively prove them well-founded.
Martin L. Shoemaker
Emerald Software, Inc. -- Custom Software and UML Training
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.EmeraldSoftwareInc.com
www.UMLBootCamp.com
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