4th edition stumbling

originally posted at: http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/253508.html
With the 4th edition, Wizards is, as always, making some boneheaded PR mistakes. Compared to the old OGL and SIL licenses (yes, I know unneeded word, but not everyone would have known that those are licenses, and their actual identities are unimportant) the stuff leaked about the GSL is looking Draconian at best, and at least partially non-enforceable. Quick hint: when you say that you want everyone supporting the new edition of the game instead of the old one? You don't get way with then saying that your goal isn't to crush people who are supporting the old game when the license is openly discriminatory against them. The GSL currently has some very predatory terms that I doubt would stand up in court, but they are relying on the fact that even the biggest companies that work with their system won't be able to afford to bring it to court.

But license stupidity isn't the thing currently bugging me. Currently on their website, there are many different article types that are available to read for free. Since they canceled their contract with Paizo for the publishing of Dungeon and Dragon Magazine, they have been hosting much decreased versions of the sort of content that those magazines used to carry. They have a Dungeon section, a Dragon section, and a general section. They moved a lot of content from General to Dungeon or Dragon. At about the same time they release 4th edition? All of that goes behind a pay wall. One that, assuming the volume and quality of the content doesn't change significantly, I am not going to be buying. The loss of traditional website features sucks, but I can mostly take or leave their website. But. And this is a big one for me. But there is a section called Design and Development that takes a deep look at one of their products and the design process that went into it. This is pretty much purely an advertising article for me, and it works where the synopsis articles don't. Design and Development have convinced me to want a number of items that I otherwise wouldn't have looked twice at, including oddities like Three Dragon Ante. Putting it behind a pay wall means that have just said to anyone like me that they want us to pay them a monthly fee for the privilege of being advertised to. I can get that crap from the local movie theater.