I still dont know what the GSL will allow us to do. I mean, they say they want to allow us to make monsters and classes and stuff. But I dont know what the
restrictions will be. Until we see the restrictions, we cant commit money to the project--like art, for instance. So Ari and I have written stuff, Scott and I
have done stuff for Tome, the Iron Tower team is chugging away, I am working on Winter's Tomb, but we dont have art contracted or done. So the publication
horizion is getting pushed back further and futhre the longer we have to wait for the GSL.
I am pro-Wizards. I am glad that 4E will allow 3P support (note, I didnt say 4E is "open" because it isnt). But they have really bungled what could have been a truly great support system for 4E, like what 3E had. It shows either (1) ineptitude or (2) a corporate culture that doesnt want 3P porducts but is unwilling to suffer the backlash for outright precluding such products. I think it is a mix of both. The GSL/whatever will be a simple license. Its not that hard to do. I've whipped up several drafts in a day. So it not being ready yet is just embarassingly lame. How it is that this wasnt done months ago with 3Ps ready at launch to provide support products is mind bogglingly inept to me. But that matches alot of what I have seen from Wizards re 4E--the return of that old TSR arrogance that "we make D&D and you all have to do it our way or screw off." Very troubling.
So...
Bottom line: no product updates until after the GSL is out.
AND no updates next week at all, likely, as I will be out of town taking my wife and daughter to Disneyland for the week. So I wont be reading emails or GSLs or anyhting until at least Monday, June 16th, when I get back in town.
Which sucks. I was hoping to have had the GSL on 6/6 AS PROMISED (yet another broken promise in a long line of them) so I could review this stuff and make some announcements before I went on vacation. But I have just come to expect that Wizards wont do what they say they are going to do in the time they say they are going to do it. And, of course, it is just freaking inept to not have the GSL done and up by this point. I dont blame Scott and Linae, I know they are working hard. But sending us a couple copies of the core rules in advance isnt going to stop me from saying this whole process has been disappointing and embarassing. Hell, I'd get fired for missing deadlines like that.
So see you all when I get back from Disneyland, having (almost certainly) OD'ed on all things princess related.
Clark
I am pro-Wizards. I am glad that 4E will allow 3P support (note, I didnt say 4E is "open" because it isnt). But they have really bungled what could have been a truly great support system for 4E, like what 3E had. It shows either (1) ineptitude or (2) a corporate culture that doesnt want 3P porducts but is unwilling to suffer the backlash for outright precluding such products. I think it is a mix of both. The GSL/whatever will be a simple license. Its not that hard to do. I've whipped up several drafts in a day. So it not being ready yet is just embarassingly lame. How it is that this wasnt done months ago with 3Ps ready at launch to provide support products is mind bogglingly inept to me. But that matches alot of what I have seen from Wizards re 4E--the return of that old TSR arrogance that "we make D&D and you all have to do it our way or screw off." Very troubling.
So...
Bottom line: no product updates until after the GSL is out.
AND no updates next week at all, likely, as I will be out of town taking my wife and daughter to Disneyland for the week. So I wont be reading emails or GSLs or anyhting until at least Monday, June 16th, when I get back in town.
Which sucks. I was hoping to have had the GSL on 6/6 AS PROMISED (yet another broken promise in a long line of them) so I could review this stuff and make some announcements before I went on vacation. But I have just come to expect that Wizards wont do what they say they are going to do in the time they say they are going to do it. And, of course, it is just freaking inept to not have the GSL done and up by this point. I dont blame Scott and Linae, I know they are working hard. But sending us a couple copies of the core rules in advance isnt going to stop me from saying this whole process has been disappointing and embarassing. Hell, I'd get fired for missing deadlines like that.
So see you all when I get back from Disneyland, having (almost certainly) OD'ed on all things princess related.
Clark
