Went to the “publisher’s meeting” about the future of the OGL and d20STL yesterday evening. I had quite a few problems with how it was handled:
1) No effort was made to get the word out to publishers. Those of us in attendance had to find out via word-of-mouth.
2) They scheduled the meeting for 6. The dealers hall (you know, where the PUBLISHERS ARE) didn’t close until 6. So, those few publishers who DID know about it, weren’t able to show up until well after it had started.
3) At the room, the meeting was billed as an “Open discussion of the future of the OGL” — in other words, not specifically for publishers. 80% of the room was J. Random Gamer, who of course took up most of the time offering their important opinions on our business model.
4) For a product that is launching in May, I expect to hear more from the Brand Manager than “we really haven’t decided how we’re going to handle the STL — What do you guys think?” No, I’m not kidding. That was a direct quote. Which, of course, was then turned over to the floor, where most of the time was spent hearing what non-publishers thought should be done……about publishing issues.
Sweet cheese-flavoured Jesus on a low-sodium cracker.
Finished the evening by attending the ENNIES (enjoyable, if overlong), and having a few discussions which are making me consider asserting my creator’s rights to HONG KONG ACTION THEATRE!, to get it back in-house, where I could release a third edition.
Lots to think about.