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Very nicely done reply. I admit my error on copyleft, and only two points come to mind.

1: Copyleft should still compete with non-copyleft software and licenses--including proprietary software. A bussness, ideally, should choose somewhere between pure copyleft (where everything down to the company's trademark are free for the taking) and pure copyright (where they don't even use interfaces that they don't totally own.)

I find no moral problem with Apple creating an excellent GUI and configuring it to run atop a "non-copyleft" (BSD) licensed software. Especially when the major relevant copyleft licenses (GPL) would require them to reinvent their business plan into something far less profitable.

The key to this lack of moral objection is the value of sticking as close to the original "copymiddle'd" code as possible. Doing so allows them to tap into the network of programmers and hobbyists that write BSD, thus allowing them to focus on the things that are valueable.

While I support the FSF in theory (the best thing I can do with my money is put my own house in order right now), I disagree with a pure-freedom enviornment. Absolute freedom runs rampant over unpopular rights (How many people pay for Winzip? Since they have the "Freedom" of using it at the cost of either their conciense or their checkbook, many people simply do not pay for it.) Competition demands the ability to compete and be reimbursed when your efforts are valued and used by others.

Besides which, the FSF seems to work on moral authoirty--and moral authority has more credence when the line is "you should give these rights to everyone else" rather than "you must give these rights to everyone else."

2: As I've mentioned before, the best copyleft license is a limited-area copyleft. The Open Gaming License is such a license. It's the best I've seen where a Work can have both Copyleft (game rules and other hard numbers) and non-Copyleft (ficiton, characters, and trademarks) content.

If the GPL were modified to allow for all-new, non-derived components (like a GUI) to be added to GPL'd copylefted software components which could never be closed again, it would be a better license and many of the objections to the GPL would vanish, while still allowing it to retain all of its assets and moral authority.

Nonsense! Solitaire is mostly played by managers who don't really add any meaningful value anyway. Geeks are those who get the actual job done.

=)

I find it interesting that this got posted so near the C64 streaming audio story as there were a few mentions of M.U.L.E. in those threads.

Last time I played M.U.L.E. was about 4 years ago at the GenCon Game Fair in Milwaukee, WI (the RPG convention that TSR started); and it still holds up rather well. It may be simple, but it is a blast to play.

However the highlight games for Atari machines has to be MIDI Maze for the Atari ST. 16 player networked multiplayer first person shooter over the MIDI port. Basically you ran around a maze as a giant brightly colored smiley face and shot other smiley faces. Simple, but a lot of fun. I don't know if the are doing it anymore but the Milwaukee Atari club was maintaining a collection of Atari's just to run a MIDI Maze competition at GenCon almost every year.

If you go to GenCon see if you can hunt them down in the computer concourse.

If Gary is as approachable as he seems, would it be possible to have a Slashdot interview of him? I'd like to know what he thinks about the Open Gaming License.

Hey! Since when do us geeks have to be concerned with such trivial matters as this "Valentines Day" that you speak of? We have far more important things to occupy our minds.

There have been much bigger 'virtual economies' before, like Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars, etcetera etcetera... even baseball cards. What EQ and other MMORPGs have is similar in that game tokens acquire significant real-world value. Trading-cards have also been highly deflationary in the tournament scene, except for 'killer' rares that are in tightly limited supply, and potentially allow busted decks. And they get legislated out of play sooner or later.

Of course there are significant differences, like the CCG companies never claimed the cards were their property so as to clamp down on the secondary market.

Really the kind of 'economics' shown here in EQ is so like these traditional 'stamp-collecting' patterns of artificial scarcity control, I don't think it's interesting yet. If a MMORPG can get big, say half a million users or so in a contiguous environment, with no stupid restrictions on resale or internal trade, there might be interesting phenomena.

Just put the license on the back page of the game manual and you're set.

WOTC, upon purchasing TSR had sent out letters to what they considered "core" gamers, primarily via the E-Lists, asking them what they wanted to see. The single most overwhelming response was "Bring Greyhawk back!"
the second largest response was "Kill off your restrictive on-line policies", which is how the D20 license was born. You'll need to check WOTC's web site to read the D20 license.

corby stated that "Interplay is apparently the only company with rights to distribute games under the AD&D license" while this is only partially true.

I'm pretty sure that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro split the Dungeons and Dragons lines into several different developers' hands. Interplay owns only Forgotten Realms (which includes the Baldurs Gate games, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights) and Planescape.

Due to a grandfather clause, SSI (the company to first publish D&D games, including Eye of the Beholder, Shattered Lands, Menzoberranzan, Strahd's Possession) can still produce Forgotten Realms games. They publish through Mattel, NOT Interplay. Take a look at the Pool of Radiance site for more information. Oh, and Pool of Radiance will also use the D&D 3rd Edition rules (and is the first and only video/computer game out currently to do so).

I believe that other companies (not Interplay) have rights to other D&D worlds, such as Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Birthright (Sierra owned this one a few years ago but the line may be dead), and Greyhawk.

corby stated that "Interplay is apparently the only company with rights to distribute games under the AD&D license" while this is only partially true.

I'm pretty sure that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro split the Dungeons and Dragons lines into several different developers' hands. Interplay owns only Forgotten Realms (which includes the Baldurs Gate games, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights) and Planescape.

Due to a grandfather clause, SSI (the company to first publish D&D games, including Eye of the Beholder, Shattered Lands, Menzoberranzan, Strahd's Possession) can still produce Forgotten Realms games. They publish through Mattel, NOT Interplay. Take a look at the Pool of Radiance site for more information. Oh, and Pool of Radiance will also use the D&D 3rd Edition rules (and is the first and only video/computer game out currently to do so).

I believe that other companies (not Interplay) have rights to other D&D worlds, such as Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Birthright (Sierra owned this one a few years ago but the line may be dead), and Greyhawk.

MasterTools has not been "gutted". It's still in active development, and seems to be on track for release in the first quarter of 2002.

In fact, Ryan Dancey posted updated info regarding the project just two days ago on the WotC Message Boards.

Anyone interested in a cool strategy board game should have a look at RoboRally.
(It's a programming oriented out-of-print board-game...)

A friend of mine decided to contact WotC to implement this as a computer game for a final year project at his university, but they have as yet not replied to him (after about 1 year!).

Anyway, people interested looking at this, he is intending to release it as a Python application in the future, but it's currently a Beta Java application. (It was a Java course...)

You can download it HERE

Have fun, and remember: It's Beta, and comments welcome!

Me.

Anyone interested in a cool strategy board game should have a look at RoboRally.
(It's a programming oriented out-of-print board-game...)

A friend of mine decided to contact WotC to implement this as a computer game for a final year project at his university, but they have as yet not replied to him (after about 1 year!).

Anyway, people interested looking at this, he is intending to release it as a Python application in the future, but it's currently a Beta Java application. (It was a Java course...)

You can download it HERE

Have fun, and remember: It's Beta, and comments welcome!

Me.

Here is what we're talking about...Magic: The Gathering, the difinitive Customizable Card Game...

Wizards of the Coast (aka TSR) has their d20 Open Gaming system, covered by the Open Gaming License. It looks like it is turning out better than a lot of critics thought it would.

I agree: the vast majority of the flock--of ANY flock--doesn't know the message. And neither do the vast majority of the shepards, all too many of which are sheep themselves.

The Bible is a key that holds "all that is needed for salvation." However, it's a journey that all (wo)men must take themselves--sticking to your faith on, well, blind faith won't get you to where you say you're going. Searching for things to base your faith on, and finding the answers to all those "dangerous questions," will.

OTOH, any church that doesn't think it's got the message 100% right isn't worthy of the name. If only they'd stop falling into the Istarian fallicy.

As computer games advance, they allow users to descend into a reality of their choosing and completely immerse themselves within it. Networked RPGs like Ultima Online were the first generation then games like Asheron's Call and progressivlely more advanced games, each involving the user at a deeper level. There are people who spend their lives playing such games. They have become the Dungeons and Dragons of the technology era. Thankfully, we have not heard of kids killing themselves over computer games yet though.

The newest generation of networked RPGs out there go for complete immersion where the player will recieve faes phone calls and emails from game characters, and the games will effectively encroach on everyday life.

In short, no, I'm not suprised that players are upset about the loss of virtual posessions from a game universe (although I can see where the argument could be made that they paid for those posessions and should have tem returned). It's kind of a sad comentary on the human condition though.

--CTH

--

Yes.. have you seen it too? The new Magic release isn't all that bad.

(NB: Magic the Gathering.. CCG http://www.wizards.com/magic)
--
Azrael - The Angel of Death
posted with: Mozilla (0.9+)

WotC has done a wonderfull job with 3rd ed D&D.

They're also doing a pretty good job with 1st and 2nd edition. They're scanning most of the "classic" material into PDF files for electronic download. Some are available free at http://wizards.com/dnd/DnDDownloads_classics.asp and others are sold for $3.49 each. Maybe there's a CD set somewhere down the road, similar to the Dragon magazine set.

I wouldn't have described purchasing TSR as "cherry picking." TSR was clearly on its way out and without Wizards of the Coast (WotC) would have gone under. WotC had previously failed to turn a profit on role-playing games, and TSR's sad state was more evidence that role-playing games were a bad idea. It took alot of faith to buy TSR.

I was working for Evermore Entertainment in 1997. Evermore was developing for TSR the concisely named Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules CD-ROM 2.0. I met a number of TSR and WotC employees over the course of my employment. I got to hear, first and second hand, about the problems inside the company. I visited TSR's headquarters in Lake Geneva during the WotC purchase. I even met, as part of a larger group, with Peter Adkison.

I can vouch that Peter was still a huge gaming geek in 1997. It was clear that he wanted TSR because he loved it too much to let it die. Whenever Evermore met with him, he reinforced that he wanted our software to support as many quirk home-brew rules as possible, after all, it needed to work with his game. I got to hear about his plans for the Game Centers, a gamer's home away from home. It would have computers built into the tables to store and refernce notes; projector screens to show maps and monster pictures. While he hoped to make a profit, it was clear that he just wanted to share great things with all of the gamers of the world. (I also discovered that he is the most aggressive driver I have ever riden with, and that he likes lots of ketchup on his burgers.) He would be completely welcome at my gaming table, and I suspect most gamers would be happy to game with him.

Just before the purchase, TSR looked doomed. The previous owners had run the company into the ground. I later learned that the previous owners had detested gamers and the entire hobby. They had simply bought in for the money. They viewed gamers as cattle to be milked and treated as poorly as possible. Garbage like Spellfire (A tarted up version of the card game War with badly recycled art) was released with the belief if you make it, gamers will buy it. Games were kept bland and safe. Older gamers felt abandoned by the company and stopped purchasing products. No real effort to draw new blood was made, so new gamers ended up playing hipper, newer, edgier games like Vampire: the Masquerade. There was no new blood. Sales were dropping every quarter. Debts were piling up, thier printer refused further work until existing debt was paid. After the buyout, employees openly cursed the previous owners.

TSR's continued existance was an embarrassment. I would never had guessed that it could be saved, that its bad name could be salvaged. It was brave of WotC to purchase it under these conditions. Beyond the initial buyout of the company, WotC had to pay off TSR's creditors. Significant time, effort, and money were spent revitalizing the TSR product lines. The rescue of Dungeons & Dragons was amazing. D&D went from a has been contender that gamers looked down their noses at to relatively new and hip. Suddenly friends who haven't played D&D in years were back and enjoying the heck out of it. It was alot of effort to recover the D&D name, and I believe Peter Adkison's love of the game was responsible.

I wouldn't have described purchasing TSR as "cherry picking." TSR was clearly on its way out and without Wizards of the Coast (WotC) would have gone under. WotC had previously failed to turn a profit on role-playing games, and TSR's sad state was more evidence that role-playing games were a bad idea. It took alot of faith to buy TSR.

I was working for Evermore Entertainment in 1997. Evermore was developing for TSR the concisely named Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules CD-ROM 2.0. I met a number of TSR and WotC employees over the course of my employment. I got to hear, first and second hand, about the problems inside the company. I visited TSR's headquarters in Lake Geneva during the WotC purchase. I even met, as part of a larger group, with Peter Adkison.

I can vouch that Peter was still a huge gaming geek in 1997. It was clear that he wanted TSR because he loved it too much to let it die. Whenever Evermore met with him, he reinforced that he wanted our software to support as many quirk home-brew rules as possible, after all, it needed to work with his game. I got to hear about his plans for the Game Centers, a gamer's home away from home. It would have computers built into the tables to store and refernce notes; projector screens to show maps and monster pictures. While he hoped to make a profit, it was clear that he just wanted to share great things with all of the gamers of the world. (I also discovered that he is the most aggressive driver I have ever riden with, and that he likes lots of ketchup on his burgers.) He would be completely welcome at my gaming table, and I suspect most gamers would be happy to game with him.

Just before the purchase, TSR looked doomed. The previous owners had run the company into the ground. I later learned that the previous owners had detested gamers and the entire hobby. They had simply bought in for the money. They viewed gamers as cattle to be milked and treated as poorly as possible. Garbage like Spellfire (A tarted up version of the card game War with badly recycled art) was released with the belief if you make it, gamers will buy it. Games were kept bland and safe. Older gamers felt abandoned by the company and stopped purchasing products. No real effort to draw new blood was made, so new gamers ended up playing hipper, newer, edgier games like Vampire: the Masquerade. There was no new blood. Sales were dropping every quarter. Debts were piling up, thier printer refused further work until existing debt was paid. After the buyout, employees openly cursed the previous owners.

TSR's continued existance was an embarrassment. I would never had guessed that it could be saved, that its bad name could be salvaged. It was brave of WotC to purchase it under these conditions. Beyond the initial buyout of the company, WotC had to pay off TSR's creditors. Significant time, effort, and money were spent revitalizing the TSR product lines. The rescue of Dungeons & Dragons was amazing. D&D went from a has been contender that gamers looked down their noses at to relatively new and hip. Suddenly friends who haven't played D&D in years were back and enjoying the heck out of it. It was alot of effort to recover the D&D name, and I believe Peter Adkison's love of the game was responsible.

Until Satan sent down his dark minions, wizards, unto the coasts of the earth. These wizards of the coast perverted and distorted the works of The Lord, Gygax, and marketed them as trading cards.

It's dangerous to second guess the web designer. The 404 page may contain useful information for the user. Sure, most pages unhelpfully state "404 File Not Found" and little more, but it's possible for a page to be much more helpful. A site could have their 404 page automatically do a search to find the requested resource. Here is a good example at Wizards of the Coast. A site could present a list of resources the site does, since one of them is likely to be helpful. Perhaps the page is gone because the client's account was terminated. I'd like to receive a message like "This user violated our Acceptable Use Policy and has had their account terminated. The page you are looking for is gone for good."

The site has no link to the www.wizards.com, but it does have banners for places to buy their products, along with a message in big letters that they don't sell those products. In all, it's a reprehensible but fiendishly clever instance of cybersquatting. They have a legitimate claim to a domain name that's an abbreviation of their "real" name. Is it their fault you can parse it to be another company's name?

I think the card game Settlers of Catan is a more traditional board/card game that is also not zero-sum.

-m

A year or three ago, Last Unicorn Games acquired a license for new Star Trek RPGs. Strangely enough, just a week after GenCon in Wisconson, they were bought up in turn by Wizards of the Coast, the ever growing owners of AD&D.

• Robo Rally: Program your robot to tackle a dangerous factory floor full of escalators, pits, crushers and lasers. Not to mention other robots.
• X Net : Be the provider to offer the most popular content, be it games, recipes or pr0n. Buy a better connection to the backbone and serve even more!
• Mag Blast: Use your fleet to protect your mothership, while simultaneously trying to blast other players ships. It is require to make sounds simulating your attacks (Ptew Ptew! Put Put Put! Zap! Take that evil spacelord!)
• Illuminati: Secret conspiracies everywhere! Do you own the postal service? Who's the man behind the IRS? And what are those damn aliens up to now?
• Chez Geek: Name says it all really. Play with geeks, live with geeks, geeks everywhere
• Hacker: The computer crime card game (Anyone who even tries to remark that the game should've been named Cracker then will get his behind liberally kicked!) With an Interesting read on online free speech in practice.
• Silicon Valley Tarot Another 'name says it all, really' car game. Tell your own Silicon Valley future...

Slogan for Dungeons & Dragons: "This Is No Game"

Are those who forget the past doomed to repeat it?

But the truly sad part of this whole debacle is that DND does have the literary depth that those video games lack. Solomon's movie apparently didn't use any of it.

TSR owns enormous worlds full of stories the movie could have drawn upon, such as the Forgotten Realms. Anyone who's played any of the Bioware games has already been there. For example, some of the Icewind Dale novels made the NYT bestseller lists. I bet their author, R A Salvatore, would have been happy to write a decent screenplay instead of the neophyte hacks that Solomon hired.

I suspect the problem boils down to licensing. The movie probably didn't have rights to anything except the DND name. The question is whether TSR was unwilling to provide more, or did Solomon not bother to ask for help?

Another item from the I Swear I Am Not Making This Up department: Wizards of the Coast had to change the Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game logo -- it seems that the USOC owns any logo having five interlocking rings.
/.

Another item from the I Swear I Am Not Making This Up department: Wizards of the Coast had to change the Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game logo -- it seems that the USOC owns any logo having five interlocking rings.
/.

Anyway, after I graduated and entered the Real World I found I had much less free time. I could play out adventures on the computer, or with real people. Not both. So, I chose to play with people. (Do I lose geek points for saying that?)

Then I got married and had kids. I have approximately one hour a day of unstructured play time. I generally choose a mindless computer game, or I read a book. No, not an e-book, a real one. But I certainly don't have the time or energy for creating or solving intricate puzzles. Let me blow someone up, or slice them to bits, or have my army stomp on their army.

So why is adventure gaming dead? Personally, it's time constraints. In general I don't think it's dead, it just has a smaller following than glitzy FPSs.

One of the weirdest things I've ever seen in the computer game section of Babbage's is the Diablo II Adventure Game . It's a paper-and-pencil RPG using D&D rules in the world of Diablo. As the box says, "No computer necessary to play!" I gotta hand it to those guys at Wizards of the Coast -- They know marketting! And I hope this game does well and sucks more people into role-playing and adventure games, both on and off the computer.

And remember, PocketRogue is your friend!

Delta Green (and Call of Cthulhu in general) deals with how fighting evil can be bad for your mental health.

[A]D&D is a study in the rewarding career of breaking into people's homes and stealing their stuff.

And, lest we forget, the Sailor Moon RPG (as well as various other anime games) deals with the horrible psychological trauma that comes with having eyes that are WAY larger than the human average.

--john

I was assisting a charitable Jail and Bail program for Strive Media Institute, helped by the Klingon Assault Group, and the convention atmosphere was remarkably upbeat, cooperative, and rich with humor. And while I didn't spot the obese woman clad in chain mail, there was an oriental woman in a slit dress whose image is pleasantly burned onto the retinas of many attendants.

STAR TREK GAMES
When FASA stopped producing the Star Trek Role Play Game, many felt abandoned. Many new Star Trek games, both RPGs and starship combat simulations, are now being produced by Last Unicorn Games... which it turns out was just bought up by the big ol' Wizards of the Coast. Live demonstrations of their RED ALERT ship combat gave a nice taste of a rather fast-paced tactical game.

When a reporter focuses on 'smelly teens' and he wigs out over costumed attendants, it seems he lacks a sense of adult fantasy and imagination. The T-Rex sized dragon skeleton and Wizards castle are just the beginning for a lengthy list of amazing production values.

This product is being developed by Bioware: not Lucasarts or Black Isle or Interplay

It will feature a new engine not based on Omen

The game is currently being developed as single player

It is unconfirmed whether or not the game will use D20 or not, D20 is currently being used in the yet to be released Star Wars RPG from WotC

This product is being developed by Bioware: not Lucasarts or Black Isle or Interplay

It will feature a new engine not based on Omen

The game is currently being developed as single player

It is unconfirmed whether or not the game will use D20 or not, D20 is currently being used in the yet to be released Star Wars RPG from WotC

Whilst I know that I'm going to find scant support amongst a demographic known for its irreverance and disdain for tried and tested knowledge,

and a plethora of trolls who wouldn't know tried and tested knowledge if it bit them on the butt.

(But hey, I'm bored...)

I have to say that I'd honestly thought that Dungeons & Dragons had gone the way of the dodo many years ago.

That's why there's not one but two computer games based on the game system, with more to come?

When was the last time that anyone heard anything about D&D or its equally dubious successor, Magic the Gathering?

Well, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the 3rd edition for Dungeons and Dragons in about 2 weeks, so expect to hear more about it. As for Magic the Gathering, well, they show the tournaments on EPSN2 of all places.

I had thought that roleplaying was an eighties fad whose time was thankfully past,

Not bloody likely.

Now the cycle of fantasy starts again, as this is sure to turn more youngsters from wholesome persuits to playing a game which teachings that violence and dark arts are tools for success, and that the acquisition of wealth makes you a better person.

God would I have loved to have been the first to post with the NFL crack, but there was a good point -- there are far more "socially acceptable" hobbies and interests which teach some rather poor morals.

In fact, Tracy (Dragonlance trilogy co-author) Hickamn wrote an excellent essay on morality and role-playing that I show to people whenever this topic comes up.

I'm with BADD on this one - these games teach dangerous morals to the people that are most vulnerable.

It's funny you should mention BADD -- Michael Stackpole (genre author and part of the Industry Watch segment of GAMA, the gaming industry's trade association) compiled The Pulling Report which investigates the claims of Pat Pulling (the founder of BADD) and rather expertly debunks her allegations and attacks her credibility as a "cult crime investigator".

For more on GAMA's point of view, check out their Q&A about role-playing games, with the rather interesting factoid:

"One of the more persistent claims is that role-playing games has caused teens to commit suicide. The Center for Disease Control conducted an extensive study of teen suicide and found no evidence to link role-playing games with suicide. Investigations by the Association of Gifted and Creative Children (Dublin, CA), the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (the Bronx, NY), and the American Association of Suicidology (Denver, CO) have likewise found no evidence that games encourage suicide.

Moreover, researchers point out that the most heavily weighted factor in determining a child's suicide potential is whether or not he is a loner. Participation in a group activity of any sort sharply reduces that potential. It also provides a circle of friends who can pick up on any unusual behavior and encourage their friend to get help when there is a crisis."

Jay (=

Whilst I know that I'm going to find scant support amongst a demographic known for its irreverance and disdain for tried and tested knowledge,

and a plethora of trolls who wouldn't know tried and tested knowledge if it bit them on the butt.

(But hey, I'm bored...)

I have to say that I'd honestly thought that Dungeons & Dragons had gone the way of the dodo many years ago.

That's why there's not one but two computer games based on the game system, with more to come?

When was the last time that anyone heard anything about D&D or its equally dubious successor, Magic the Gathering?

Well, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing the 3rd edition for Dungeons and Dragons in about 2 weeks, so expect to hear more about it. As for Magic the Gathering, well, they show the tournaments on EPSN2 of all places.

I had thought that roleplaying was an eighties fad whose time was thankfully past,

Not bloody likely.

Now the cycle of fantasy starts again, as this is sure to turn more youngsters from wholesome persuits to playing a game which teachings that violence and dark arts are tools for success, and that the acquisition of wealth makes you a better person.

God would I have loved to have been the first to post with the NFL crack, but there was a good point -- there are far more "socially acceptable" hobbies and interests which teach some rather poor morals.

In fact, Tracy (Dragonlance trilogy co-author) Hickamn wrote an excellent essay on morality and role-playing that I show to people whenever this topic comes up.

I'm with BADD on this one - these games teach dangerous morals to the people that are most vulnerable.

It's funny you should mention BADD -- Michael Stackpole (genre author and part of the Industry Watch segment of GAMA, the gaming industry's trade association) compiled The Pulling Report which investigates the claims of Pat Pulling (the founder of BADD) and rather expertly debunks her allegations and attacks her credibility as a "cult crime investigator".

For more on GAMA's point of view, check out their Q&A about role-playing games, with the rather interesting factoid:

"One of the more persistent claims is that role-playing games has caused teens to commit suicide. The Center for Disease Control conducted an extensive study of teen suicide and found no evidence to link role-playing games with suicide. Investigations by the Association of Gifted and Creative Children (Dublin, CA), the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (the Bronx, NY), and the American Association of Suicidology (Denver, CO) have likewise found no evidence that games encourage suicide.

Moreover, researchers point out that the most heavily weighted factor in determining a child's suicide potential is whether or not he is a loner. Participation in a group activity of any sort sharply reduces that potential. It also provides a circle of friends who can pick up on any unusual behavior and encourage their friend to get help when there is a crisis."

Jay (=

D&D is currently facing its thrid incarnation (not including the various "AD&D" flavors, as was announced at GenCon(World's largest gaming convention) last year.

Magic the Gathering(tm) is not a successor in anything but devoted fans (addicts), as it is a card game, not a roleplaying game.
(Us purists do make distinctions between these things.)

The real issue is Wizards of the Coast, who make M:tG and who bought out TSR (makers of D&D) early last year. Seattle-based WotC became so profitable from its loyal Magic junkies that it decided to start buying up other companies. The fate of D&D (and the profits dervied therefrom) now rest solely in Wizard's court.
BTW, wasn't there an article about "open source" D&D posted not too long ago?

But, IIRC West End Games already has role playing system based on the Star Wars universe.

West End Games has gone bankrupt, and while it is trying to reorganize, Wizards of the Coast really does now own the rights to Star Wars.

But, IIRC West End Games already has role playing system based on the Star Wars universe.

A D&D Movie is in production. See D&D's new owners' website.

It stars Jimmy, the young photographer from 'Lois & Clark', and one of the chicks from Sliders, as well as Jeremy Irons (obEvilBritActor, bad guy in 'Die Hard with a Vengeance').

D.

This is almost certainly being picked up/pushed as a lead in for the movie release. See IMDb and the official WOTC pages for more info.

--

Can I sell an improved version of the Player's Handbook under their D20 license? No. Can I compete with their core rules while still leveraging the available third-party source material as a result? No.

The D20 license is akin to SCSL: you get to look at the source, and if you make complementary products, great. If you want to make and distribute core changes, though, HOW DARE YOU!

And I quote, from the article:

"The other great effect of Open Gaming should be a rapid, constant improvement in the quality of the rules. With lots of people able to work on them in public, problems with math, with ease of use, of variance from standard forms, etc. should all be improved over time. The great thing about Open Gaming is that it is interactive -- someone figures out a way to make something work better, and everyone who uses that part of the rules is free to incorporate it into their products. Including us."

Remember, this is a proposal. If this thing ever gets off the ground, I for one will count myself lucky.

--

Incidentally, WOTC just picked up a comprehensive license for Star Wars, as West End Games lost it while trying to keep its head above water. I believe Lucas has a sizeable stake in Hasbro these days....hmmmmmmm.....

Mmmmm....kill JarJar with Paladin....

Incidentally, WOTC just picked up a comprehensive license for Star Wars, as West End Games lost it while trying to keep its head above water. I believe Lucas has a sizeable stake in Hasbro these days....hmmmmmmm.....

Mmmmm....kill JarJar with Paladin....

It strikes me that a perfect market for paper-based computers is trading cards, such as for sports or collectible card games.

Companies like Topps and Wizards of the Coast have extensive experience in manufacturing trading cards, which can consist of multiple layers of card stock bonded together with metalic foil imprints. Plus, they also have huge audiences of collectors/players/traders.

It also strikes me that collectors would most likely hang on to such cards, so they wouldn't end up in a landfill somewhere.

Another possibility is disposable hand-held video games, anything from keychain up to Gameboy-sized.

Of course, worn-out paper computers would be discarded, but perhaps they could be sold with a deposit like glass bottles, which would be refunded in the same fashion.

Aryeh

From www.memepool.com:

Hasbro just bought Wizards of the Coast -- adding them to a harem which already includes Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill, Microprose, Playskool, and others. This means that a single company now produces Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons and Dragons, Civilization 2, Pictionary, Scrabble, Clue, Tinkertoys, G. I. Joe, Furby, the Supersoaker, and, um, wait, what's that game about acquiring all the properties on the board?

-Andrew

From www.memepool.com:

Hasbro just bought Wizards of the Coast -- adding them to a harem which already includes Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill, Microprose, Playskool, and others. This means that a single company now produces Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons and Dragons, Civilization 2, Pictionary, Scrabble, Clue, Tinkertoys, G. I. Joe, Furby, the Supersoaker, and, um, wait, what's that game about acquiring all the properties on the board?

-Andrew

From www.memepool.com:

Hasbro just bought Wizards of the Coast -- adding them to a harem which already includes Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill, Microprose, Playskool, and others. This means that a single company now produces Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons and Dragons, Civilization 2, Pictionary, Scrabble, Clue, Tinkertoys, G. I. Joe, Furby, the Supersoaker, and, um, wait, what's that game about acquiring all the properties on the board?

-Andrew

Being in regular contact with the WotC/TSR guys (playtesting and whatnot), they are saying that for now it's business as usual, in web policy et al. I'm personally glad to hear that, having registered a domain relating to the new setting coming out for alternity, I would hate to lose it. More worrisome, though, is the Hasbro moral stance, as someone mentioned. If they start censoring D&D, Alternity, and other products based on the irate cries of ignorant parents, just because a product mentions a "devil", I'm going to be rather unhappy. According to the WotC website, Peter Adkison (founder, CEO) will be chatting on their chat server tomorrow at 11:00 AM Pacific time. I've never had much luck with their chat server, though :(