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  #1  
Old 07-31-2016, 12:03 PM
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Brionac Brionac is offline
 

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Default Wizard map consent - Yes or no?

There are some wizards whose content will be travelling to IWyvern, and some thus far will not. I suppose I'm curious to hear why wizards let their content go, but I may be more curious as to why some wouldn't. I understand I could ask wizards one by one, but some may have a lengthy reason for saying yes or no and PMs do in fact have maximum characters. So if you're willing to share I'm sure we are willing to listen.

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Old 07-31-2016, 12:24 PM
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Arilou Arilou is offline
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As you may have noticed, I spent the past few years explaining that I was retired, but, when the game came back up, I would do whatever managerial work needed to be done, adding things that were never added, removing problem stuff, etc. Then I'd be gone, but if there was an issue, I'd be available by email and I'd come back to either fix it, or if the problem was too extensive to fix in my retired state, remove it. In addition to explaining this all to you guys, I explained it to Rhialto via email and I feel that I made myself very clear.

Then, as I’ve stated previously, I got an out of the blue email in January saying that he would be asking us to sign over the rights to our content. Any content not submitted to the core files (that is any content under wiz/<wizname>) belongs to the wizard who made it. Rhialto's terms stating so are the reason I decided to come work on Wyvern in the first place and the reason I created most of the content that I did. I'm not entirely against the idea of creating content for a company to own. It’s not my preferred working situation, but as arch wizard I submitted several things to the core files, including the redone Temple of Life and the Minath Monster Arena, knowing that doing so meant it became the property of Cabochon Technologies. However, when you do that you hold back. There are certain ideas and concepts that you would put into something that you own entirely that you would never put into something that you intended to give up the rights to. Well, I never held back creatively with my private content because I never had any intention of submitting it so, not all of it, but a lot of it falls into the category of things I would never want to lose the rights to.

Amita is, essentially, my grandparent's place. The idyllic grassy land surrounded by all this mysterious and wonder filled forest, the creek, the broken stone pathway, etc. All of that represents my childhood imaginings come to life. It's deeply, deeply personal.

Forgotten Oak is the basis for a massive fantasy world in and of itself. I always wanted to build it up to the point where it contained a whole Zelda game (for example) worth of content, where you're traversing this massive island, going from village to village, place to place, and unraveling a story of epic proportions. Although you don't necessarily see much of that, I've spent years dreaming that up and it is such a detailed place in my head that I have also always thought it would be a good place to set fantasy stories written in prose. There’s a blog post of mine where I allude to that. It’s the one with the image of the different adventurers assaulting monsters in Oaken Village.

Well, I’m at the point now where I am preparing prose for publication and, although I’m not doing fantasy and may never again, I very much want to keep the door open to being able to bring Forgotten Oak to life in that medium. However, if I give up this small sliver of an area that is a poor shadow of my entire vision for it, I have to forever give up on all the years of imagination that went into developing Forgotten Oak into the fantasy world that it is, not on paper, but in my head because I’d lose the rights to its foundations.

Amita also has a deeper fantasy story that I alluded to but didn’t fully develop. For example, there’s supposed to be a four part quest that explored the area’s political situation. Therefore, I might also want to do something with Amita in prose and, again, I can’t do that if I give up my intellectual property so you can play in a partially finished area.

Prose presents a path to allowing these ideas to come to life as they were intended (not as they are in their partially finished state) based on years of imaginative thought. However, if that never happens I’m fine with that as I also rather they live only in my head than be corrupted. As the rights owner to my content I can protect it from being tampered with by others. Giving up those rights means Rhialto (or, if the game is sold, someone else) can let anyone, without my consent, do whatever. Since they’re not finished areas, I view it likely that someone will come along and try to finish my works based on their interpretation without knowing my true intent since I have no intention of returning to the game to do that myself as I have moved on to other creative pursuits. These areas that I am talking about are like children to me. I gave them life and spent a great deal of time mapping out their future development. What I described happening would be like someone taking my child from me and raising it as they saw fit, forever crushing everything I hoped for it. Most people won’t understand this. To them it’s just an area to play in, but it’s much more to me.

Some people also think I’m trying to spite Rhialto or some such nonsense. No. I am not that type of person. I feel this is largely a case of projection; some who say this appear to be the types who, when they get banished, yell/scream and try to "punish" the game by engaging in chat abuse or something to that effect.

In my case, the only condition under which I would have removed my content was if I felt it needed to be removed because it didn’t hold up or was problematic in some way. I’m not someone who would remove my content because I didn’t get my way or because I felt mistreated. Besides which, the things that Rhialto said, he said in response to wizards telling him they didn’t want to give up the rights to their content, not before.

Really, this isn’t about removing content or allowing it to be “kept” in the game. This is about resubmitting my content to something new under entirely different terms than the ones I agreed to previously. Terms that I am not comfortable with and would never have agreed to make most of my content under to begin with. If the old terms applied, this would be an entirely different conversation and if they ever apply again you may see some of my old content in the game again.

I’ve discussed this rights issue with Rhialto at length and it’s a complicated situation. I’m not going to explain how because that’s for Rhialto to tell people in his own time and in his own way. I’m only even saying there’s a rights issue now because I’ve already said that much before talking to him in April. Nevertheless, this is the situation we’re in. I don’t view it as Rhialto’s fault. It’s just how things are right now. And although other people weren’t happy about this either, my discussions with Rhialto helped you to get the content that you will be getting at launch. I even went out of my way to provide Rhialto with contact information for old wizards so he could, if he wanted to, reach out to them and let them decide for themselves.

Again, I am not trying to punish anyone. I am only doing what is important for my artistic integrity. Not everyone feels the same about their work as I do. Some made content solely to be wizards and their content means nothing to them. Some created content primarily for the enjoyment of players and so what matters most to them is that they are enjoyed. I made content primarily for me. I have creative urges that I wish to pursue and I used Wyvern for that end for some time. I then put some of my work out there and if people liked it, they liked it and if they didn’t, they didn’t. I also did a lot of work for the good of the game as a way of giving back and to help people who have helped me, but the core of my work (namely, Forgotten Oak and Amita) primarily exists for me and not for anyone else.

If that line of thinking is not relatable to most of you, I understand. I would, though, encourage you to read, in full, the article on plagiarism that I mentioned in the following thread: http://www.wyvernrpg.com/forum/showt...1306#post61306 It deals with situations where plagiarists just go and steal people’s ideas/concepts for their own ends and how emotionally distressing that is on the writers. For our purposes, the important part isn’t the plagiarism aspect, but the connection that the writers have to their work. Some of these things are out of print, but I’m sure those writers hold out hope that they might get a second run some day or that they might, in some way, use what they created there in a future work. And even without those considerations it doesn’t mean it’s not distressing simply because many have an emotional connection to their stories and the work that they put into them.

Some individuals may nevertheless want to trivialize my connection to my work due to its fantastical nature. And while I do not claim to be in the same sphere as someone whose work is inspired by real life trauma, that doesn’t mean that I should have no connection to my work and freely give it to whoever wants it. I’m not a material person. My world is centered most on what I create/think and so it is important to me to be able to bring my dreams to life (or to not do so) on my own terms.

In summary; the reasons you will not see my work in game at launch at two-fold. 1) I wish to reserve the right to use the concepts and ideas within my content in another medium. 2) I do not want my vision derailed by someone tampering with my content and the only way I can ensure that is to remain the owner of my work.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. As I alluded to above there are things on Rhialto’s end that are not for me to reveal. However, if your question is related to my feelings about my content, then it shouldn’t be a problem. Ask anyway though and I’ll either give a comment or tell you no comment.
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  #3  
Old 08-08-2016, 03:35 PM
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Nodlove Nodlove is offline
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I have nothing but respect for this decision. The fact that we got to enjoy your content at all is wonderful, and I hope one day Rhialto changes his mind about content rights requirements for Wizard generated content. Thank you for all of the fun you have provided me with in the past.
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