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Notice from White Wolf:
This today from Phillippe Boulle, cross-posting at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
whitewolf_lj:
14th July, 2005. 10:08 am.
(Here's a cross-post from the MET forum on the White Wolf homepage.)
All-
First of all, let me thank everyone who has posted and emailed on this topic, both here and in a variety of other forums. Obviously, the reaction to our pay-for-play policy has been vocal and largely critical, but believe it or not, I'm happy about that. Getting feedback and comments from our fans, customers and fellow-gamers is very important to me, and in many ways negative comments are the most useful. It's also heartening to see and hear from people who obviously care very deeply about their hobby. My apologies to those I haven't had the chance to respond to personally.
Clearly, I have failed to communicate our intentions and goals with this policy -- both in discussions online and off, and in the wording of the policy itself. White Wolf has no interest in closing down, regulating or otherwise stifling the countless small, ad hoc and home-run games that have always been the heart's blood of the gaming hobby (tabletop and live-action both). The so-called "pizza scenario" is the last thing we want to have any say on.
We are interested in building a larger community of World of Darkness players and in supporting the various Storytellers and organizers who are putting on great events. We envision a time when all World of Darkness players have easy access to a panoply of organized games, when they can freely and easily communicate, when they can get neat benefits from us and from their fellow fans, and if they choose to organize games of their own, they have plenty of tools to make them successful. Likewise, we are interested in making sure that when a World of Darkness fan has to shell out her hard-earned money to play a game, she can be reasonably sure that this game lives up to the standards she has come to expect.
Based on all your feedback, it's obvious that the policy as currently worded is not going to accomplish these goals. So, we are pulling it off the table as a blanket policy. I realize that the proverbial genie can't be shoved back in the bottle, but the guidelines I handed to a few people at ORIGINS and posted here last week clearly need to be reworked and rethought, so please consider them withdrawn.
I expect to chat with some of the major LARP organizations running World of Darkness games in the coming weeks in order to hammer out license terms that address their needs and ours, and don't penalize the player community that has made the World of Darkness what it is (and that pays my salary).
Sincerely,
--
Philippe R. Boulle
Marketing Director
White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
1554 Litton Drive
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
404-292-1819 x203 (vox); 678-382-3882 (fax)
So there you have it. Opinions?
whitewolf_lj:14th July, 2005. 10:08 am.
Withdrawal of Proposed Pay-for-Play Policy
(Here's a cross-post from the MET forum on the White Wolf homepage.)
All-
First of all, let me thank everyone who has posted and emailed on this topic, both here and in a variety of other forums. Obviously, the reaction to our pay-for-play policy has been vocal and largely critical, but believe it or not, I'm happy about that. Getting feedback and comments from our fans, customers and fellow-gamers is very important to me, and in many ways negative comments are the most useful. It's also heartening to see and hear from people who obviously care very deeply about their hobby. My apologies to those I haven't had the chance to respond to personally.
Clearly, I have failed to communicate our intentions and goals with this policy -- both in discussions online and off, and in the wording of the policy itself. White Wolf has no interest in closing down, regulating or otherwise stifling the countless small, ad hoc and home-run games that have always been the heart's blood of the gaming hobby (tabletop and live-action both). The so-called "pizza scenario" is the last thing we want to have any say on.
We are interested in building a larger community of World of Darkness players and in supporting the various Storytellers and organizers who are putting on great events. We envision a time when all World of Darkness players have easy access to a panoply of organized games, when they can freely and easily communicate, when they can get neat benefits from us and from their fellow fans, and if they choose to organize games of their own, they have plenty of tools to make them successful. Likewise, we are interested in making sure that when a World of Darkness fan has to shell out her hard-earned money to play a game, she can be reasonably sure that this game lives up to the standards she has come to expect.
Based on all your feedback, it's obvious that the policy as currently worded is not going to accomplish these goals. So, we are pulling it off the table as a blanket policy. I realize that the proverbial genie can't be shoved back in the bottle, but the guidelines I handed to a few people at ORIGINS and posted here last week clearly need to be reworked and rethought, so please consider them withdrawn.
I expect to chat with some of the major LARP organizations running World of Darkness games in the coming weeks in order to hammer out license terms that address their needs and ours, and don't penalize the player community that has made the World of Darkness what it is (and that pays my salary).
Sincerely,
--
Philippe R. Boulle
Marketing Director
White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
1554 Litton Drive
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
404-292-1819 x203 (vox); 678-382-3882 (fax)
So there you have it. Opinions?
The Pay-to-Play Policy
The stink it raised wafted all over the boards, not to mention travelling as far as WolfSpoor, ELN, Shadownessence, RPG.net (the thread of which was described as a "train wreck"), and even Slashdot.
It even got immortalised as a comic page on Something Positive, so go figure.
If you dig back in my entries, you'll find it behind the cut on my July 9 posting "White Wolf have blown it." There are links.
There are other links here (http://forums.white-wolf.com/viewtopic.php?t=19702), here (http://forums.white-wolf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20069) and, concerning the withdrawal of the policy, here (http://forums.white-wolf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20161) and here (http://forums.white-wolf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20186).