Piazo VTT

[ddavison]

Case in point.

It's not trivial to do it even for a large company. Besides, they already devote a lot of time to supporting MTGO. I really don't know why Paizo expects their effort to turn out differently. It's simply not a good ROI for them just so they can maintain complete control and it's definitely not worth the risk of it failing to succeed after investing a lot of time, money and goodwill.

[damned]

possibly they dont want to support FG2 because it is so good at supporting OTHER rulesets as well as theirs?

[ddavison]

Maybe, but why should they care? They are in the business of selling the best content they can produce. They don't decide not to sell through Amazon or Borders simply because those outlets also have products from their competitors.

No matter which games system you support, there is fantastic content being created at both of the big two companies. I personally own plenty of both of their stuff, along with content from several other publishers I like.

[damned]

so maybe its a good time to approach WOTC again?
if they would provide you licensing and push FG2 as an officially licensed VTT... it would benefit all FG2 users...

[ddavison]

Already started. Our contacts have changed a few times on us though, so it may take a bit for the message to reach the right audience.

[unerwünscht]

My only fear as a user is that if you get an official license for WotC products, they strike me as the kind of company that would require you to drop all other companies from official product support, and in my opinion that would be no good.

[Illrigger]

My only fear as a user is that if you get an official license for WotC products, they strike me as the kind of company that would require you to drop all other companies from official product support, and in my opinion that would be no good.

They haven't done so in the past (in the 3E days, when they had realistic goals for their licensees). It's in their best interest to work with the well established VTT app devs to get the users onboard to buy their books - the more people that are playing, the more books they sell.

With them giving up on the disaster that was the VGT and 5E development in full swing (and with 5E being particularly VTT friendly in its current state), this is an ideal time to start licensing it to the companies that already know what they are doing from a content selling standpoint (that is, the VTTs with built in secure markets they can leverage).

I am betting if FG can demonstrate a locked-content model to them (that is, downloaded content that is encrypted so it can't be pirated after it is purchased), they will have a major leg up in negotiations....

[SLB]

I never understood why Wizards didn't go the open source route with the VTT - get the community to do the work - in exchange, provide a hosting location and then use a subscription service (like their Insider) to provide all the books etc.

And I agree with the prevailing opinions here - Paizo is doing themselves a disservice by spending time, resources and money re-inventing the wheel. Imagine what that same amount of money would do if it was invested in supporting FG? Especially since the vast majority of the functionality already exists.

Disappointing really.

[joeru]

I haven't really played a game with FG in ages, but there's one potential issue in the possible WotC licensing that worries me. Namely that virtually all of the developing resources of Smiteworks would go to features of no practical use to other gaming systems.

[damned]

that *could* happen for a period of time while they concentrated on getting the WOTC product to a certain spec - but that would increase userbase and revenue and ultimately that woudl flow back into a bigger and better supported community....