4th edition

[Arjan]

On 8/17/07, Arjan <brnetboard@birthright.net> wrote:
> This means official websites will not have a purpose anymore.

Doesn`t mean your website can`t continue, Arjan. There are a ton of
fan websites, and only a handful are "official".

well it depends on what they do with the official website license. Current activities are pretty much in the direction that wotc wants to get everything back to one single point of interest.

the gleemax forum is going to be a major hub for everything D&D related.

loosing the license will mean the end of BRnet.

ps, this aint my website.. just keeping it alive

[Arjan]

there was already a discussion on the official website webmasters mailinglist whether we were able to continue or we have to worry and have to prepare for some kind of transition.

wotc couldnt give us a straight answer to that (back in may)
now that gleemax has been launched and the 4th edition has been announced i have reopened that discussion on the webmasters mailinglist

[Riggswolfe]

loosing the license will mean the end of BRnet.

Why? Even without a license I doubt you'll get some kind of cease and desist letter. WOTC seems to be pretty savvy about not angering the fans with stuff like that.

[Arjan]

Why? Even without a license I doubt you'll get some kind of cease and desist letter. WOTC seems to be pretty savvy about not angering the fans with stuff like that.

quite simple..
take a look at the license.
http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/ind...ense_agreement

[Riggswolfe]

I can see a couple of areas for concern, namely:

Official sites must not create their own community sections that duplicate those services and features offered by the Wizards of the Coast website.

So, I guess you're worried you'd be considered in competition with gleemax

And probably this as well:

Have only a single source for all official content, that being your site. Other sites that wish to be listed as part of the IP will be directed to the official website.

I don't know. I still don't see the reason to worry really. Gleemax is already up and running and it's not like they're telling you you're now competing. I just don't think WOTC will shoot itself in the foot by closing the fansites or anything.

[Arjan]

reply from WotC to my concerns:

Arjan, I think you’re making some pretty big leaps here. The first, and obviously incorrect, one is that OGL is going away. That’s just not true, and we said so yesterday at GenCon.

Frankly, we have discussed the end of the “official” websites, but only in the sense that they would no longer be “official.” We really appreciate all the hard work and time that all the site administrators have put into their worlds, and we don’t see a reason to take any of that away. Even if we did revisit an old campaign world, we wouldn’t ask someone else to take down their fansite dedicated to it. That site might gain some competition from us, but that’s about it. Unfortunately, my “reform WotC’s fan site policy” ship ran aground on the Legal Department rock. Legal wants to make one policy for all brands, and I don’t have the clout to get other brands to make it a priority. They don’t have the same issues that the D&D brand does.

Gleemax poses no new threat to the official fan sites. That threat already exists – that someone else might create a fan site and you lose traffic to it. Gleemax makes it easier to create such a site and to reach other fans, but I don’t know of any plans for us to create “official” sites within Gleemax. In fact, there won’t be anything stopping the official sites from moving content to Gleemax as far as I know.

So I hope that clarifies some misconceptions. If site administrators have questions, they should ask me as you’ve done and as several others have over the last five years. That way misinformation, like that about the OGL, doesn’t spread.

Rich Redman
Assistant Brand Manager, Licensing
Wizards of the Coast
425-204-7224

[Riggswolfe]

Yep, that's about what I figured. The "official" tag goes away but the site remains and all is well.

[kgauck]

Wizards needs our free labor to maintain interest in stuff they can't pay someone to work on.

[geeman]

Riggswolfe wrote:

> Yep, that`s about what I figured. The "official" tag goes away but the
> site remains and all is well.

Not to toss this in anybody`s face or anything, but that would seem to mean
the "official" tag would also go away from fan produced materials created
under the aegis of sites that are themselves no longer "official" doesn`t
it? I mention this because it seems as if that`s been a big motivator for
folks, so it could interefere with the amount of fan-produced (or, at least,
fan-posted) materials and the ability to organize through a particular site.

I should note that personally a 4th edition won`t affect me in particular.
It`s just another rules set. From my POV the "4th" edition is really
somewhere in the neighborhood of the 12th edition if one were to number all
the incarnations of the system that have come out properly. I`ll take what
I want and discard what I don`t. Come to think of it, that`s what I do with
"official" materials too....

Gary

[blitzmacher]

Does this mean that I better get off my butt and get my BRCS MRQ conversion finished. Before they go changing more rules on ogls.