The 4e GSL Topic

[brainface]

I imagine they're trying to drum up goodwill now, instead of waiting till it's finally announced? It's not like they're very good at getting final license announcements out the door quickly.

Conversely, they want 3rd party publishers to know the license is changing before they shift everything away from 4e publications. (The only reason I can imagine the license changing is because 3rd party companies haven't really been too excited about it so far. I may be wrong.)

[Elemental_Elf]

However, I wonder what changes they will make... Then again, I'm sure we're all wondering that. Which is why I speculate this announcement is a bad idea. People will invariably hope for the best and when their hopes are dashed, WotC will take a lot of heat on the Internet.

[SA]

I love WotC.  They're cunning bastards and shrewd monopolists, and they know how to work the system.  I for one don't think the problem is with them - if it's anywhere (and who's to say it is), it's with us.  There are thousands of systems out there, many of them pretty great, yet so many folks are obsessing about this one.  Wizards owns it.  Fair and square.  You want to use it, play by their rules or find a new toy.

As for their company-owned fluff, how many stunningly original intellectual properties do they own that are really worth getting frustrated over? Mostly they've monopolised the most cliche, tired and unimaginative concepts we've got going in the fantasy genre (many of them giving fantasy its undeserved bad name).  If they want to be the lords of mediocrity, they can go right ahead.