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moths posted:I wouldn't put much stock in that, it's literally impossible to know what was going on in his mind but the internet loves to make estimates (that coincidentally reinforce their own worldview) anyway. Yeah like I said, speculation. It's one of those ideas where, it'd make sense that the pressures involved would have been a factor, but we have no actual evidence to say that. TheAnomaly posted:yeah, the original plan was a subscription service to D&D that included the ability to use all the books in character creation, a virtual table top similar akin to VTT with ability to purchase adventure modules for use (which would come with all the maps/tiles/enemies pre-loaded etc. A truly random dice roller (this one is really hard, btw. Roll20 publishes their stats and proves that they have random distribution, but people are so used to using physical dice that random distribution seems off by comparison), ebooks for every physical book you actually bought. I think there were a few more promises thrown in there too, and the character builder actually was all options available before they shelved it (because people would subscribe for a month, let their subscription lapse, then download the updates from :warez: sites supposedly). That's right. And its been said that Wizards had a revenue target for D&D Insider that was necessary to hit in order to get Hasbro to invest more into the digital tools stuff, but it was something really high like $4m in revenues? Which might have been possible if the first set of digital tools, in particular the VTT, had actually been delivered. With a VTT, Insider subscribers would have had reason to keep up their subscriptions, beyond the one month sub needed to download the entire backlog of Dungeon, and Dragon magazines, all the supplements, the character tool, etc. What was actually delivered was the character tool, a lightweight DM's encounter design tool, and all those downloads. And by most accounts, D&D Insider still had quite a lot of subscribers and at least a couple mil in revenues. But after Batten died, with morale really low and facing no practical way to continue the full VTT suite, Wizards settled for the online-only character tool. Which really rubbed a lot of D&D 4E players the wrong way (myself included). While the full offline client supported full customization - that is, you could add your own custom items, powers, etc., and clone/modify existing ones, the online tool on release lacked a lot of those features. It was also a time when wifi wasn't nearly as ubiquitous; lots of folks just couldn't use the web client at their gaming tables. So there was instantly a push by D&D players to keep the offline client alive, and a lot of folks (again, myself included) canceled the now-worthless Insider subscription and just used the final version of the client, along with all the community-created support for it. It's become increasingly difficult to keep using it, but if you google around, there's sites that have everything you need, and it can still be used. Naturally you can't do that with the web client, which is reason #2 for why folks didn't like the web client in the first place: we didn't want to invest time and resources into using a product that could be discontinued/modified into uselessness/etc. at any time. So, to what degree did Batten's murder/suicide kill the 4e tools? I personally can't say. I'm not super clear on the timing of things myself, my memory isn't perfect for when all these things went down, but I think it was likely a contributing factor to the ultimate death of Insider and maybe even part of the decision to go a different direction with 5e.
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Jun 4, 2020 02:13
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5e's virtual tools prospects weren't looking too great for a while at first, either. The original semi(?) official character builder WotC was working on with a third party contractor was apparently hot garbage and they cut ties with them. Then actual play streaming brought in a surge of interest in online games, and suddenly working Twitch (now Fandom) on a virtual tabletop platform (where they didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting) and supplying similar official resources on Roll20 was looking like an excellent idea.
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Jun 4, 2020 05:07
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Nuns with Guns posted:5e's virtual tools prospects weren't looking too great for a while at first, either. The original semi(?) official character builder WotC was working on with a third party contractor was apparently hot garbage and they cut ties with them. Then actual play streaming brought in a surge of interest in online games, and suddenly working Twitch (now Fandom) on a virtual tabletop platform (where they didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting) and supplying similar official resources on Roll20 was looking like an excellent idea. That character generator, Codename Morningstar, was also supposed to do the same things that they wanted to do with 4e - full integration of the vtt and an exclusive market place for adventures. The character generator was buggy, so WotC dropped them. The company pivoted to OGL and tried a Kickstarter that came up $350k too short. They tried a more modest Kickstarter which was cancelled when it wasn't going to fund and the owners pulled the plug on the whole company. It's a shame because it probably delayed the 5e SRD and DMs Guild by a year.
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Jun 4, 2020 05:44
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Zurui posted:https://twitter.com/LawrenceHarmon/status/1268255676150820872?s=19 quoting this because I feel it might've been missed by the page snipe.
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Jun 4, 2020 15:49
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Zurui posted:https://twitter.com/LawrenceHarmon/status/1268255676150820872?s=19 It probably wasn't intended when this card released but doesn't the student here end up becoming an incredibly powerful planeswalker? edit: this isn't a defense of it, just asking cause I don't know anything about magic
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Jun 4, 2020 16:00
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Teferi is just about the first major PoC character that was in Magic, even back before the modern card layout and universe sorta-reset. They built an entire modern card block around his world and family and brought him back as a planeswaker for cards and such. Still, that is some shockingly bad card art.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:06
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That post refers to Teferi as an example of Magical Negro and... hrm. I don't know how much that applies in a story where everyone is magic...
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Jun 4, 2020 16:09
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That set was a flashback to an earlier time period. His older self was already referenced as a god-wizard but not actually depicted in cards yet. The letter doesn't touch on this but MtG used to have a lot more Latin American and Eastern European pro-players when WotC was willing to pay for travel expenses, but that was discontinued in 2008 I think.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:11
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paradoxGentleman posted:That post refers to Teferi as an example of Magical Negro and... hrm. I don't know how much that applies in a story where everyone is magic... 'Magical Negro' has nothing to do with magic. It has to do with the position of a character in a narrative, specifically a black person (usually male) who offers folksy wisdom to the white (usually male) protagonist that helps them move along with their character arc, but the black person isn't so much a character in their own right as a wisdom dispenser. Similarly, Manic Pixie Dream Girls are not literally pixies.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:13
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Nuns with Guns posted:Teferi is just about the first major PoC character that was in Magic, even back before the modern card layout and universe sorta-reset. They built an entire modern card block around his world and family and brought him back as a planeswaker for cards and such. Still, that is some shockingly bad card art.  paradoxGentleman posted:That post refers to Teferi as an example of Magical Negro and... hrm. I don't know how much that applies in a story where everyone is magic... It's also notably bad in modern Magic because in earlier sets that wasn't Teferi's role. It's just all they've been able to think of for him since bringing him back.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:15
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Conveniently a new young black male main character to join the main mtg cast was spoiled yesterday.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:19
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Personally I think a lot of Magic's problems recently have been a direct result of having the Gatewatch as their main characters. Instead of focusing on actual natives of each plane who are invested in the weird poo poo happening because its their home and directly affecting them, we're following a bunch of very generic super heroes who stumble into the problems in their planewalking.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:23
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Ratoslov posted:'Magical Negro' has nothing to do with magic. It has to do with the position of a character in a narrative, specifically a black person (usually male) who offers folksy wisdom to the white (usually male) protagonist that helps them move along with their character arc, but the black person isn't so much a character in their own right as a wisdom dispenser. Similarly, Manic Pixie Dream Girls are not literally pixies. Terrible Opinions posted:It's specifically wrt his role in the story, particularly the modern story of being a wise old teacher to the younger white characters. Which he is VERY guilty of now, in large part due to WotC having a lot of difficulty giving anyone besides their tiny cast of main characters any storyline. Ah, that's fair. To be honest I only half followed the plot of Dominaria, but I do believe that's pretty much what he does, just act as a vague instructor from afar. At least he gets his hands dirty in War of the Spark...
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Jun 4, 2020 16:35
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One of the comments on that open letter was about Huatli and it's got me thinking that's a real can of worms. They're complaining that she sounds vaguely British in voice acting and not Hispanic at all, which... isn't she from a society currently resisting conquistador occupation? Why would she sound Hispanic? Her accent should be Nahuatl-inspired if anything. Or is Nahuatl influence like found in Oaxaca just under the Hispanic umbrella now? Granted British is definitely not right and I haven't heard any of her spoken dialogue so what do I know.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:57
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Leperflesh posted:So, to what degree did Batten's murder/suicide kill the 4e tools? I personally can't say. I'm not super clear on the timing of things myself, my memory isn't perfect for when all these things went down, but I think it was likely a contributing factor to the ultimate death of Insider and maybe even part of the decision to go a different direction with 5e. It's probably reasonable to infer that whatever was on his mind for the two months between him doing that and the actual killing, the 4E tools weren't his top priority. So from the perspective of people working on that team they already had the pressure of the stuff being late, and then your project head not having his mind on the job, then your project head killing someone who probably a bunch of you knew, and then himself. So I think it must have been a contributing factor, likely a major factor, maybe even the decisive factor, because it happened at what would have been the moment of maximum stress for the team.
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Jun 4, 2020 17:46
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https://twitter.com/nkertzner/status/1268480100565168129?s=19 What the gently caress?
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Jun 4, 2020 18:25
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Terrible Opinions posted:Personally I think a lot of Magic's problems recently have been a direct result of having the Gatewatch as their main characters. Instead of focusing on actual natives of each plane who are invested in the weird poo poo happening because its their home and directly affecting them, we're following a bunch of very generic super heroes who stumble into the problems in their planewalking. Yeah. Some of the online story bits they put up were interesting and then it pivots to These Random Assholes who are concerned but not involved until they're drawn into things. And then there's pale-skinned red-haired Chandra Nalaar from the plane of magicsteampunk India.
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Jun 4, 2020 18:29
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Argas posted:Yeah. Some of the online story bits they put up were interesting and then it pivots to These Random Assholes who are concerned but not involved until they're drawn into things. Argas posted:And then there's pale-skinned red-haired Chandra Nalaar from the plane of magicsteampunk India.
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Jun 4, 2020 18:38
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MadScientistWorking posted:https://twitter.com/nkertzner/status/1268480100565168129?s=19 Oh hey gently caress Paizo
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Jun 4, 2020 19:50
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Don't be too fast to denounce them as irredeemable for this one - Erik Mona showed up in their replies to make things right after the fact. Not that I mean to give them a free pass, since obviously it shouldn't have ever happened in the first place. Edit: clarified my stance. SilverMike fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 20:32
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The fact that it took a very public protest to even get any attention from someone in power and, when he did see it, he responded with "I'll look into it" is a little topical at this very moment.
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Jun 4, 2020 22:00
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I'm willing to buy that there's more to this story. Legal anything can be a headache, and altering anything on a contract could get you to the back of the line for as long as the lawyers are stupid.
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Jun 4, 2020 22:44
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As someone who deals with these sorts of contracts regularly, adjusting it would simply involve removing all pronouns whatsoever from the contract, which is also standard loving practice because pronouns are ripe for misinterpretation once you get into litigation. A co-worker once spent four hours in arbitration arguing over two instances of "it."
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Jun 4, 2020 22:50
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This reads like Natalie went a different direction, and someone erroneously said sign the form or pound sand. E: Reading over Twitter, it looks like Natalie refused to sign Paizo's contract, Paizo refused Natalie's, and then Natalie just went ahead and did the work with no contract. I assume they then butted heads over "we can't pay without a signed contract" and that got us here. moths fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 22:52
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Zurui posted:As someone who deals with these sorts of contracts regularly, adjusting it would simply involve removing all pronouns whatsoever from the contract, which is also standard loving practice because pronouns are ripe for misinterpretation once you get into litigation. A co-worker once spent four hours in arbitration arguing over two instances of "it." Another casualty of the overwhelming amateurishness that permeates the whole RPG industry then?
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Jun 4, 2020 23:27
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e: nm
Absurd Alhazred fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 00:17
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moths posted:This reads like Natalie went a different direction, and someone erroneously said sign the form or pound sand. Natalie notes in the responses that she also tried to materially change the contract in negotiation, with a financial penalty to Paizo if they didn't pay her within 30 days after completion. It was apparently more than just a pronoun change.
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Jun 5, 2020 00:24
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Slaanesh approves of all gender identities Khorne does not discriminate, all skulls for the skull throne Papa Nurgle is about life, in all its teeming buzzing crawling squirming forms, he doesn't discriminate even if you're a virus or infectious bacterium Tzeentch, uhhh, Tzeench knew this was going to happen all along, and also... wants you to be a bird maybe?
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Jun 5, 2020 00:26
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Pelgrane Press' statement clears the bar of naming police violence, including calling George Floyd's death a murder in the full linked statement: https://twitter.com/PelgranePress/status/1268667595873325056
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Jun 5, 2020 00:28
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Arivia posted:Natalie notes in the responses that she also tried to materially change the contract in negotiation, with a financial penalty to Paizo if they didn't pay her within 30 days after completion. It was apparently more than just a pronoun change. Is that tweet still there? I didn't see it earlier and couldn't find it just now.
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Jun 5, 2020 00:42
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moths posted:Is that tweet still there? I didn't see it earlier and couldn't find it just now. It's buried in the replies: https://twitter.com/nkertzner/status/1268566697356734465
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Jun 5, 2020 01:09
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Leperflesh posted:Tzeentch, uhhh, Tzeench knew this was going to happen all along, and also... wants you to be a bird maybe?
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Jun 5, 2020 01:11
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Leperflesh posted:Tzeentch, uhhh, Tzeench knew this was going to happen all along, and also... wants you to be a bird maybe? we are all an essential part of Tzeentch's beautiful plan, and in this way we are loved
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Jun 5, 2020 01:19
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Arivia posted:It's buried in the replies: https://twitter.com/nkertzner/status/1268566697356734465 Oh holy poo poo, no. Yeah they're absolutely not going to let anyone establish a precedent of writing their own contract. I doubt you'd find a publisher anywhere who would. Framing it as pronoun oppression seems disingenuous af.
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Jun 5, 2020 01:25
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I've had a couple of opportunities fall under because I very heavily insisted on there even being a contract let alone using one of my own. Good riddance. I like to actually have my time not be wasted. Just like how I told a dude to gently caress off that wanted tons of custom vector artwork done but would only be paying me in royalties up to the first 100 sales.
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Jun 5, 2020 02:29
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Arthil posted:I've had a couple of opportunities fall under because I very heavily insisted on there even being a contract let alone using one of my own. Yeah I don't disagree with the sentiment of writing fair contracts, but things are being very very badly misrepresented here.
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Jun 5, 2020 02:35
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moths posted:Framing it as pronoun oppression seems disingenuous af. Disingenuous seems kind
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Jun 5, 2020 02:43
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Leperflesh posted:Slaanesh approves of all gender identities Nagash says trans rights 
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Jun 5, 2020 05:14
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Zurui posted:As someone who deals with these sorts of contracts regularly, adjusting it would simply involve removing all pronouns whatsoever from the contract, which is also standard loving practice because pronouns are ripe for misinterpretation once you get into litigation. A co-worker once spent four hours in arbitration arguing over two instances of "it." Is your co-worker Bill Clinton?
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Jun 5, 2020 05:56
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Is your co-worker Bill Clinton? I am not surprised that happened. After all, this actually happened, too: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/verbatim-what-is-a-photocopier.html?_r=0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE
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Jun 5, 2020 06:09
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