News: Bruce R. Cordell Leaves WotC

mcbobbo · July 18, 2013, 11:35:43 AM

He certainly should have gotten a bonus for a job well done. He wasn't a freelancer.

As for the IP thing, it also keeps you from saving your best stuff for yourself. Say you have a great idea that you think would really make the game rock, but the committee doesn't like it. In a world where you can't print it yourself, you'd probably fight harder to get it in there.

Bedrockbrendan · July 18, 2013, 11:41:23 AM

Quote from: Sacrosanct;671919Not true. Do you think he's going to get a bonus depending on sales or something? I doubt that. Like we said, it's most likely because he doesn't want WoTC to take control of his personal projects and doesn't want them taking the profit from his own creation.

We can't know his reasons (he may have a better job opportunity or a personal matter to tend to). It is his business, but I do share some people's surprise over another departure (especially this close to the end of the design process). I think it is noteworthy.

RandallS · July 18, 2013, 11:54:29 AM

Quote from: jeff37923;671639That is standard for WotC, though. Long ago I was considering writing for Dragon, then I read their Writer's Guidelines. There was a clause in them that states that any submitted material, whether published or not, becomes the intellectual property of WotC to be used however they wish in whatever medium they wish that exists or will exist in the future. If I got a new monster published by them and they decided to create a show in the newly invented smellovision 25 years from now and it makes millions, I'd get nothing because it has been declared WotC intellectual property.

I will not write for places like that. If I write for a US magazine, the only rights I'm willing to sell are first North America serial rights. I had a magazine that really wanted me to write something for them some years ago but demanded all rights for the going rate for first North America serial rights. The editor got very annoyed when I would not allow their corporate policy of buying all right to override my policy of not selling all rights. :rolleyes:

Benoist · August 16, 2013, 12:06:03 PM

Well. The suspense is over: http://brucecordell.blogspot.ca/2013/08/bruce-r-cordell-is-joining-monte-cook.html

Novastar · August 16, 2013, 02:14:32 PM

Quote from: Benoist;682053Well. The suspense is over: http://brucecordell.blogspot.ca/2013/08/bruce-r-cordell-is-joining-monte-cook.html

So, in other words, pretty much what everybody expected.

Benoist · August 16, 2013, 03:17:14 PM

Quote from: Novastar;682089So, in other words, pretty much what everybody expected.

Absolutely. No surprise there at all.

crkrueger · August 16, 2013, 04:12:04 PM

Monte Cook Games, it will be cool if it becomes a serious contender to Paizo and WotC. It will be even cooler if they decide to publish role-playing games.

James Gillen · August 17, 2013, 02:00:16 AM

Quote from: Benoist;682109Absolutely. No surprise there at all.

It's like when you're stuck at the shitty, cheapskate, head-up-ass, thinking-by-committee corporation and you notice that all of your co-workers are leaving and they're all ending up at the same competitor.

JG

jeff37923 · August 17, 2013, 10:47:38 PM

You know, in the area of RPGs, WotC has made a habit of creating their own market competition and giving them a head start by alienating their customers in the process.

James Gillen · August 18, 2013, 12:36:39 AM

Quote from: jeff37923;682523You know, in the area of RPGs, WotC has made a habit of creating their own market competition and giving them a head start by alienating their customers in the process.

Capitalism, working as intended.

JG

RPGPundit · August 19, 2013, 01:39:04 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;682135Monte Cook Games, it will be cool if it becomes a serious contender to Paizo and WotC. It will be even cooler if they decide to publish role-playing games.

I think I see what you did there...

trekkiebob · August 19, 2013, 03:22:59 AM

Quote from: thedungeondelver;671738I worked for a company here as an IBM systems guy then later as a LAN guy and both departments had pretty strict no-compete clauses. Anything I developed as far as financial aid software, EFT software or the like was theirs, period. And I understand why, too: the systems and software I'd have had access to to test those are simply unavailable to the common person (or they were in 1996). A full blown IBM-MVS testing environment running CA/7, JCL, etc. etc. doesn't simply grow on trees.

To build a new piece of software for an environment like that would require using that environment either at the office or dialed in from home.

I didn't find it intrusive or offensive.

Except that Wizard's policy would be better described as follows: if you decide to write a poem about how pretty the butterflies outside your window are, the software company you work for owns the rights to your poem. Wizards' terms were that ANY creative output people produced, RPG related or not, became their property.

Edit:
Just to provide a bit more context, from http://www.stannex.com/?p=2054

QuoteWhen two V.P.s come to an impasse, the only way to resolve it is to go to the CEO. And I am given to understand that this is exactly what happened. Three members of upperest of upper management spent some amount of time discussing whether or not it was okay for me to retain the rights to cartoons and write children’s books that I create in my spare time, and the answer turned out to be “no.”

Dirk Remmecke · August 19, 2013, 06:01:03 AM

Quote from: Exploderwizard;671609It goes beyond that. The contract seems to state that any creative project worked on even at home using personal computers while under contract at the company becomes the property of the company.

Wasn't that the reasoning why TSR was able to go after Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys, a game that couldn't possibly be seen as a copy/re-engineering/clone of AD&D?

thedungeondelver · August 19, 2013, 08:07:15 AM

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;682901Wasn't that the reasoning why TSR was able to go after Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys, a game that couldn't possibly be seen as a copy/re-engineering/clone of AD&D?

They went after DJ because it had Gary's name on it - they tried to force him to sign a piece of paper stating he wouldn't put his own name on any future RPG products he worked on because it would infringe on TSR IP.

He didn't sign it.

Lynn · August 19, 2013, 11:03:04 AM

Quote from: jeff37923;682523You know, in the area of RPGs, WotC has made a habit of creating their own market competition and giving them a head start by alienating their customers in the process.

They are not unique in this regard. It happens all the time.